GPS V vs. Vista - personal experience

[+TeamJiffy]

I had the chance to 'borrow' a GPS V for a weekend of caching - I already own a Vista. Here are my (quick) conclusions - comment welcome, of course.

 

1) The GPS V is a lot nicer in the car - primarily because, in my car, the V will sit nicely on the dash, and stay there, with no extra support needed, for pretty much any driving that I do.

 

2) The total cost of the GPS V deluxe vs. Vista is such that if I purchased for the Vista everything that came with the GPS V Deluxe, I have paid more for my Vista than the GPS V. (grumble - that is _exactly_ my case).

 

3) The fact that I can track roads to the cache on the GPS V is not used by me - part of the fun we have finding caches is using the GPSr to 'hunt' the right street vs. using a map. So, tied here.

 

4) When there aren't trees (lots of caches in my area), the Vista is a LOT nicer... the light weight is wonderful, and a lot less obvious - especially in caches in urban areas (such as San Francisco). I can hold it by my head and do the cell-phone trick others do. Can't with the GPS V.

 

5) GPS V wins hands down in areas with tree cover. The Vista is nearly useless (for me at least)

 

In summary: In my ideal world, I would use the GPS V in the car, and when I start walking, use the Vista, unless I am going under trees, when I would use the GPS V.

 

-Joel

[+Alan2]

Thanks for the analysis. I just have the Vista which I use in a car. I mount it on a RAM suction holder for the windshield that's pretty handy. I have had problems with tree cover but find that if I stop and lay the unit down, the Vista usually picks up the sats. The V sond really great for just getting around town; wich I had it for that purpose but I do agree it's fun to map your own way to a cahce; let's you play with the various mapping programs.

 

Alan

[+Nogami]

I've also had medium to poor reception under tree cover, however two things that I've learned that seem to help:

 

1. Make sure you're not in "battery saver mode" under tree cover. While it may save batteries, it seriously degrades the time it takes for the unit to get a good lock in difficult conditions.

 

2. I'm not sure if it's just the constellations changing, but there have been times where my vista starts reading much better under tree cover after 10 minutes or so than it did initially. Perhaps it re-calibrates itself somehow when the signal is exceptionally low?

 

I went on a cache last week under really heavy tree cover and was getting perhaps 1 sat at 25%. After bushwacking through to a position relatively close to the location, I waited for another 10-15min, and started pulling in 4 or 5 sats in the 30-40% range. Not perfect by any means, but certainly enough to get a lock.

[+apersson850]

Since the satellites are moving all the time, the situation may improve (or deteoriate, for that matter) if you wait a little.

 

Anders