Garmin Etrex Vista C

[+NavySparksandtheMrs]

Hi Everyone

 

I purchased a Garmin etrex Vista C a couple of days ago and follow just about everything I have tried to do using the unit and instruction book.

 

There is one question I hope someone can help me out with however.

 

In the .pdf manaul I downloaded (just to have as a back up if something should happen to the original) I noticed they show the satellite bars in multiple colors. My unit displays just one color for all the satelites being received.

 

I can find no mention of adding multiple colors either in the instruction book, original or .pdf version, and see no option for doing so in the 'System Setup" on screen options.

 

Since Garmin shows the multiple colors I would think there is a way I can come up with this type of display.

 

TIA:)

Edited August 16, 2004 by NavySparks

[+GOT GPS?]

From the Satellight Page, select Menu, so that you see the options for the Satellight page. In that list should be an item that says "MULTICOLOR" or "Single Color" , select this to switch back n forth.

Edited August 16, 2004 by GOT GPS?

[+NavySparksandtheMrs]

Fantastic!! Many thanks Got GPS....I should have thought of that.

I am a month old newbie and you folks on this forum site are great.

Again, thanks for the help.

Herb (NavySparks)

[+Searching_ut]

Congratulations on your new vista C. I've had mine a little over a week now and am really impressed. You'll have to play with the different menus on many of the screens to learn everything it does. They seem to have left quite a bit out of the manual.

 

As for the unit overall, I just gave mine it's first tough workout, and boy am I impressed. Took a couple kids (Early 20's) up into the Uintah mountains of Utah to teach them geocaching, and how to use their sportrak maps for backcountry navigation. We hit 5 caches, and did a loop of a little over 8 miles, altitude variation of a little over 1,600 feet with over half the journey being bushwhacking in a wide variety of different terrain types. (Fairly flat forested terrain to hand and foot climbing of a barren steep talus field). Having compared my own sportrak and B/W Legend in this sort of area for literally hundreds of miles, I would have expected the sportraks to perform a little better for over half the journey because of the heavy treecover. Be it the steep canyons, or the flatter heavy forested areas, the Vista C seemed to have the performance edge in most areas, and in the other areas while not having an advantage, it never appeared to have a disadvantage, which really surprised me. Through a lot of the trip, the sportaks were doing the position lag/ not giving accurate heading thing. With my Legend, most of the time I would expect to have some reception dropouts in conditions that cause the lag with the sportaks, but with the C the times I lost reception both of the sportraks did as well. The reception was as good as that of the sportraks in the forest, but it kept the accuracy edge the etrex line has in the steep terrain. Coupled with all the great features this little unit has, I’m really impressed. Now I need to find some even tougher terrain to really give this thing a workout.

[+NavySparksandtheMrs]

Hi Searching_ut...

 

Thanks for your comments and I found them very interesting. I too have been comparing my new "C" to my previous GPS receiver, a yellow etrex and the "C" does seem to do just a bit better in the signal department. It really bugs me on some of the incomplete manuals that companies seem to put out these days...but guess that is just to be expected in recent times. Other than that gripe I have been very happy with my two Garmin products.

 

Thanks for the comments too on the menus....yes, will give them closer attention. I was out placing two new caches and it seemed that the "C" came up with repeatable position data a bit better than my yellow etrex. Not a big improvement, but it did seem to do just a bit better.

 

Needless to say I love the color high resolution screen compared to the yellow guy. Speaking of the 'yellow guy' its new owner is my wife who has become turned on with geocaching too. And, I still like the 'yellow guy' as it has done a fine job for me in the past.

 

So my wife and I are two newbies learning the ropes.

 

Herb (NavySparks)

Edited August 17, 2004 by NavySparks