Gps For Starting out Cx HCX ?

[nyfish]

HELLO ALL:

 

I have been Geocaching for about 3 weeks and have a few finds under my belt. Mr big shot here,, hahaha. I bought the Garmin e trex basic model. I loved it but I have returned it already because I want a color screen and the ability to download the locations from the computer via USB. I was also hoping to upgrade to the better chipset. (SirfStar ).???

My choices in my price range are the

E TREX VENTURE HC or the

 

cx VENTURE

 

or should I spend a lil more and get the Legend Hcx.

 

I am leaning towards the Cx Venture,,,it also comes with the topo maps but I am unsure if it will have the usb cord.

 

I only want to use this GPS for hiking and geocaching,,,I have another Gps brand for the car that is fine,,,I will not mention the name.

 

I cannot find any relevant info on the cx,,,but it seems to have the features I want.

 

Any advice or opinions on these particular devices or any other GPS not mentioned is sincerely appreciated.

 

Thanks for this great um,, er,,,Game Game.???

[+Chuy!]

I have a Venture Cx; it does have a USB connection. See here for more details. Go here to download latest firmware.

 

The Venture Cx is a very capable little GPS, but it lacks the sensitive chipset. I still have the Cx as a backup, but my primary GPS is now a Vista HCx. The extra sensitivity makes a significant difference. The difference with the "x" units is the external memory card. You can throw in a 2gb card. But since you have a dash unit, you don't need a lot of memory on the handheld. I say get the Venture HC. It holds 28mb, but considering 3mb can hold about 15000 waypoints as customized POIs', you have more then enough room.

[+sbell111]

I have a Venture Cx; it does have a USB connection. See here for more details. Go here to download latest firmware.

 

The Venture Cx is a very capable little GPS, but it lacks the sensitive chipset. I still have the Cx as a backup, but my primary GPS is now a Vista HCx. The extra sensitivity makes a significant difference. The difference with the "x" units is the external memory card. You can throw in a 2gb card. But since you have a dash unit, you don't need a lot of memory on the handheld. I say get the Venture HC. It holds 28mb, but considering 3mb can hold about 15000 waypoints as customized POIs', you have more then enough room.

I feel just the opposite.

 

I like having tons of maps and thousands of caches in my GPSr as POI and I don't find the high sensitivity chipset to be THAT important, so I prefer my Venture Cx over the Venture HC. If I were to upgrade, it would likely be to a Legend HCx.

[+Chuy!]

I have a Venture Cx; it does have a USB connection. See here for more details. Go here to download latest firmware.

 

The Venture Cx is a very capable little GPS, but it lacks the sensitive chipset. I still have the Cx as a backup, but my primary GPS is now a Vista HCx. The extra sensitivity makes a significant difference. The difference with the "x" units is the external memory card. You can throw in a 2gb card. But since you have a dash unit, you don't need a lot of memory on the handheld. I say get the Venture HC. It holds 28mb, but considering 3mb can hold about 15000 waypoints as customized POIs', you have more then enough room.

I feel just the opposite.

 

I like having tons of maps and thousands of caches in my GPSr as POI and I don't find the high sensitivity chipset to be THAT important, so I prefer my Venture Cx over the Venture HC. If I were to upgrade, it would likely be to a Legend HCx.

Yeah, but this thread is about nyfish's needs, not yours.

 

He doesn't identify his vehicle's GPS; I'm inclined to believe it's not a Garmin. So, putting maps on a handheld would mean spending more to get City Nav/MetroGuide, etc...

 

He makes it clear the handheld will be used only for hiking/caching. The Legend HCx only offers the external memory slot and 1000 internal waypoints (vs 500) over the Venture HC. That's $196 vs $134. He'll decide if the $62 difference is worth it.

[+briansnat]

Since you live in NY and have to deal with heavy tree cover I'd go with one of the high sensitivity models over the Venture CX.

 

Since you don't need autorouting, and you just want it for hiking the Venture HC would be sufficient. You can spend the rest of the bucks on Mapsource Topo 2008.

 

On the other hand if you don't want to worry about loading maps every time you travel outside your home area, and would like the capability to hold thousands of cache waypoints on your unit, you might consider upgrading to the Legend HCX.

 

Many novices wonder why anyone would want to have thousands of cache waypoints on their unit. Just let me assure you that if you get even moderately into the sport you will want to.

 

The Legend HCx only offers the external memory slot and 1000 internal waypoints (vs 500) over the Venture HC. That's $196 vs $134. He'll decide if the $62 difference is worth it.

 

True to a point, but you can add many thousands of cache waypoints as POIs, only limited by the size of your SD card. I have 5,000 on mine. Big difference between that and 500. Same for map memory. With US Topo I can get topo map coverage for a good deal of the US on my 2 gig card. The 24 megs in the Venture HC will give you (very roughly, as it depends on the area) about 1 state.

[+drshmuz]

NY, I'm brand new and have the Legend HCx (upon recommendation from several people in this forum). Easy to read, easy to use (even for me) and the downloads are wonderful. Found it on sale online for $187 last Tuesday.

[+sbell111]

I have a Venture Cx; it does have a USB connection. See here for more details. Go here to download latest firmware.

 

The Venture Cx is a very capable little GPS, but it lacks the sensitive chipset. I still have the Cx as a backup, but my primary GPS is now a Vista HCx. The extra sensitivity makes a significant difference. The difference with the "x" units is the external memory card. You can throw in a 2gb card. But since you have a dash unit, you don't need a lot of memory on the handheld. I say get the Venture HC. It holds 28mb, but considering 3mb can hold about 15000 waypoints as customized POIs', you have more then enough room.

I feel just the opposite.

 

I like having tons of maps and thousands of caches in my GPSr as POI and I don't find the high sensitivity chipset to be THAT important, so I prefer my Venture Cx over the Venture HC. If I were to upgrade, it would likely be to a Legend HCx.

Yeah, but this thread is about nyfish's needs, not yours.

I was considering nyfish's needs because he and I are in a similar position.

 

I also use a dedicated nav GPSr while driving, so I don't absolutely need another autorouting GPSr. That being said, upgrading the maps in my Venture Cx helped out in a few ways. First, upgraded maps allow me to better visualize the cache layout when deciding what area to target. Also, there have been times while on vacation when my car's nav system has let us down and the Venture CX has had to take over autorouting duties.

He doesn't identify his vehicle's GPS; I'm inclined to believe it's not a Garmin. So, putting maps on a handheld would mean spending more to get City Nav/MetroGuide, etc...

True, maps cost extra, but they need not be purchased at the same time as the unit. You can upgrade to them at any time.

He makes it clear the handheld will be used only for hiking/caching. The Legend HCx only offers the external memory slot and 1000 internal waypoints (vs 500) over the Venture HC. That's $196 vs $134. He'll decide if the $62 difference is worth it.

The Venture Cx or the Legend HCx allow you to save a near unlimited number of caches as POI. The Venture HC allows you to save only 1000. In many caching areas, 1000 caches is simply not enough.

 

The way I see it, the choices break down to this:

 

Venture HC - $135ish

• High sensitivity chipset
  
• 1000 caches waypoint limit
  
• No autorouting capability
  

Venture Cx - $140ish

• No High sensitivity chipset
  
• Nearly unlimited caches as POI
  
• Autorouting capable with map upgrade
  

Legend HCx - $200ish

• High sensitivity chipset
  
• Nearly unlimited caches as POI
  
• Autorouting capable with map upgrade
  

Edited April 22, 2008 by sbell111

[Neos2]

I would only add that for a few extra dollars, you will be far less likely to outgrow the Legend HCx any time soon.

 

If you get both topo and city maps for it, you will be set to use the gps for almost any kind of geocaching or traveling you might do in the near future. You can get one map set now and add the other later. You will really appreciate the ability to load a lot of maps into that unit, as well as the goecaches/points of interest.