GPS recomendation - Garmin etrex Legend HCx

Can anyone tell me if this is a good model?
Garmin® etrex Legend HCx Handheld GPS Unit if the link doesn't work. I'm getting Cabelas gift certificats for Christmas and will add some of my own $ to get it rathethan get a cheaper model that I'll be disapointed with (thats why the gift certificates, it was too much to ask anyone for).
This uses standard batteries and has a microSD slot for exansion so I should be able to easily carry maps on one or more micro SD cards (same as my phone uses) or log my path.

I have the Vista HCX and I can vouch for that one, the legend isn't that much different. See below thread on the Vista, it's basically the same. They are awesome GPS's, use enloop batteries and you can go a long time on them. A 20 watt or greater solar cell will power it with no batteries and with a Fob key chain I put my micro sd cards from new egg in them. Maps on the unit currently are US,EU,Canada 100% street and topos.


http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post100694

is the only difference between the vista and legen the compass and barameter, thats all i can tell?

I have plenty of eneloop cells and have a USB microSd reader already as well as a micro to mini and mico to rehular sd adapter.

Great, I only needed one 2 gig for the entire US and 1 for EU, but the topos I used the 1 gig cards because Garmin limits your maps to somewhere around 2005 per card. The NT maps will do this but the topos for Canada took me 4 of them, 2 for US and 1 for EU. Alot of cards, that's why the pill box to put them in. But they come in handy when traveling. If you decide to get one PM me after you get one. Good luck.

Hi Eugene,

The Garmin® etrex Legend HCx model is excellent. I personally don't use a mapping GPS such as the Lengend HCx but use a Map and Compass instead. I have a Garmin Etrex Camo, one of the cheapest in the Etrex line up and use it just for occasional use in difficult conditions. (I still regard it as navigational cheating though )
I've been thinking about getting a mapping GPS as they are a great way of providing wide area mapping coverage in an electronic form, but they don't really give anything like the detail or ease of using the Ordanance Survey 1:25000 scale maps we have in the UK. So for the moment the paper map still has the advantage over the electronic map.
Also as mobile phone GPS technology improves together with interactive mapping such an Google maps there appears to be no restrictions in use rather than using the proprietary Garmin Maps, which tend to be very expensive.

Hi Eugene,

Any of the etrex HCx series are top notch. The H indicates the new sensitive chip-set so it retains a satellite lock even in heavy tree cover. The Cx part indicates the expandable memory with a microSD card. I have an older Venture Cx and absolutely love it. It does great double duty as car GPSr and trail GPSr. I really wish I had waited a year for the H series chipset, though, as I understand it to be much much better.

The one caveat is the additional cost of the mapping software. The Topographic software is usually between $75-$100 and the road map software is between $100 and $150 - and is locked to a single unit. If you upgrade, you must purchase the mapping software again, too.

For detailed user reviews of many GPSr units (with a slight bias toward Garmin due to their great customer service), check out the forums over at www.geocaching.com

If you're looking for a GPS that calculates routes (road) on the fly, pay particular attention to the units recalculation speed. I have an older Garmin V model, and if you miss a turn in a tight area (like a downtown), by the time it's recalculated a new route, you've already missed that next turn, so it recalculates again, you miss the NEXT, turn, etc. Pretty worthless. It's fine if you don't miss any turns or you have a long distance between turns.

My wifes GPS cellphone does a much better job at tight city navigation. One, it speaks to you. Two, the recalculation of routes is much faster than the Garmin V. Three, you don't need to update its maps. Four, it's a lot cheaper than a dynamically recalculating stand-alone GPS, and does more stuff.

For trail navigation, I prefer map and compass. But I usually take a GPS along to verify my coordinates. I rarely need to navigate anything, mostly it's just practice with the map and compass that I do while hiking, and I use the GPS to "grade" how well I did with map/compass.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm not too interested in road navigation, mainly I want to be able to find the trails. I also want to be able to geoencode digital pictures, I've ran some of the scripts already just plugging in some published coordinates but want to be able to turn on the gps and just let it log while we explore. Thats why I wanted to be sure I had the expandable memory, I wanted to make sure I don't run out of logging space.
My father wants to pull out the old papers on the farm land and have me walk the property lines with him so he can show me the landmarks and I plan to then mark them with the gps so I have some sort of reference of my own as the landmarks fade away ( some are listed as big stump ). I was able to download a pretty good satellite image and found that I can overlay it in a program like google earth so I want to find the coordinates of some clear landmarks on the image to be able to accurately place the image on a map then my walk of the property lines will be accurate.

Have you looked at Magellan's new Triton Series?

It's the next generation (or so Magellan hopes) GPSr. They seem to have everything plus the kitchen sink.

The top of the line maps, has expandable memory, has a touch-screen, records sound, plays mp3s, has a built-in camera and an LED flashlight. Everything is supposedly integrated so I can record a memo and/or take a picture and it is all linked later to a waypoint or on your track. I've never actually held one and it's too new for info on the durability of all the bells and whistles, but it sure looks great.

Well, I got $200 in gift cards for Cabelas and they don't carry the Triton series. I waited and the HCx went on sale for $249, down from $269, so I ordered it today.

You'll like it A LOT! Great GPS

You WILL find yourself using it for vehicle routing - it is so good at it that I know you will. So ... I'd suggest you invest in the MapSource City Navigator NT North America. I actually got the one on the memory card so I have ALL north american maps in one card - very easy.

From a survival standpoint the on-board maps have an important utility. If you find yourself lost or stuck somewhere then the maps will tell you where the nearest features are, such as fuel, hospitals, hotels, cities, etc. Last winter we had a fellow adult Scout leader get sick on a campout. We used my 60CSx to find the nearest hotel for his lodge, the nearest drug store to get medication, and the nearest hospital just in case. It provided phone numbers to each of these so we could call ahead.

Also get a 12V cord to power it in your vehicle. I have a RAM suction cup mount - great mount - that I use for longer trips, but I for shorter trips I just put my 60CSx in the cupholder on shorter trips and pick it up when unsure of an upcoming turn.

Last, you'll want a cord to connect your PGS to a PC. I'll also strongly recommend you look at EasyGPS.com and its bigger brothers ExpertGPS.com and GeoBuddy.com (the latter two provide on-line topo maps and arial photos of the US - GeoBuddy is geared toward geocachers). EasyGPS provides a simple tool for down/up-loading waypoints/routes/tracks to your PC. EasyGPS is free. ExpertGPS cost $60 (I think VERY worthwhile for the online topo maps). Geobuddy is on holiday sale for $45 - same features as ExpertGPS plus some - great deal!

Oh .. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL!!!!!!!

Go to http://www.shieldzone.com NOW and order an InvisibleShield screen protector for your eTrex - $12.95 + shipping. Order it now so you can put it on right away. The one I got saved my GPS's display from a large gash. Over time the gash seems to have self-healed and faded. People on groundspeak.com told me it would. Lifetime guarantee - they'll replace it is ever scratched.

These are fantastic protectors and amazingly easy to place on your GPS display. I've used Palm PDAs for 10+ years and used all sorts of display protectors, and the InvisibleShield is the best I've ever used. Just wash your hands, clean the GPS display (w/ Windex), peel the backing off the protector, spray the protector and GPS display with the provided spray stuff, apply the protector sticky side down, position it, squeegee bubbles out - if any, wipe dry w/ paper towel, and let set for 24 hours.

Just this morning I put one on the Geko 301 GPS that I got my son for Christmas. The protector went on without a single bubble.

You shoudn't use Windex on anything but glass windows. It will spften plastic over time and the chemicles in it are not good to get on your hnads and in your mouth or eyes. Its actually pretty nasty stuff.

Amazon.com has the eTrex Vista HCx for $233 (it's a Legend HCx with an electronic compass and barometric altimeter added). With Amazon Prime shipping, it's a decent deal.

Good catch! We use Windex Multi-Surface spray that doesn't have ammonia, so it is safe for plastics.

How large of a memory card did that map software come on? If I buy a 2G card myself can I drop everything from the road map and some topo maps all on one card?

geobuddy and expertgps look to be windows only

I have the 60 series hcx and have the 2 gig card in it. Don't have any topo's yet but i installed the CONUS road map with all of the points of interest and that used almost 1 gig on the card. So there is plenty of room for more stuff on the card.

Have been impressed with the level of detail in the road maps, yes there will always be some errors but this past weekend i went out to a friends property that is out in the sticks. The "road" to the property was two tire ruts and when the GPS pointed to turn here it was right in front of the pasture gate. Still can't believe that i drove my rice rocket though a cow pasture.

I'll probably buy the map on CD then as I have a 2G card in my phone thats getting low on space so I'm going to get a 4G for my phone then format and stick the 2G in the GPS.
IzzyJG99, does yours not support the USBStorage mode? Thats how I'm pulling the gpx files off of mine under Linux that way. The Garmin software for windows looks and acts like it was written in the windows 3.1 days, even on my work laptop it hangs the whole thing while detecting the GPS.
Mine is accurate on the maps, the few that came on it.

Eugene, I've had mine for awhile and still love the thing (HCX), my only complaint with Garmin is the size of maps you can put on the micro sd card (which newegg has good deals on them). You can only load something like 2011 maps give or take a few on an sd card, so depending on your situation you may end up buying a bunch of 1 gig sd cards instead of 2 gigs. It would be nice to put a big card in and load a bunch of maps but even with the latest firmware it won't let me do it. You can store other maps on it but you need a laptop to rename the img to use it. The potential of this unit is amazing even with the solar, I'm still tweaking on mine and the things I'm getting it to do is awesome. If you google around a little, you'll find a lot of tricks out there. Anyway here are some map examples below.


For example:

US Street NT 2008 (1- 1 gig card)

Europe 2008 NT (1-1gig card)

US Topo 2008 (4- 1 gig Cards)
4078 Megs 6735 maps

Blue chart America (3- 1 gig Cards)
484 Megs 5587 maps

Blue chart Atlantic (4- 1 gig Cards)
661 Megs 7149 maps

Blue chart Pacific (1-1 gig Card)
115 Megs 1944 maps

I forgot about the limit. I;m confused as to how it sotres the maps on the card, I just see one map file under the garmin folder, does it create more than one file there or just merge them all together into the one? And how does it count 'maps' then. If I wanted to throw everything from the SU Streets on to one cars would that be one huge map or a bunch of small ones?
Do you have the topo cd, is it topo data for the whole US or just select locations?
I might just drive over to the local Micro Center and pick up a bunch of their cheap 1G cards then, they have the 1G for $10.
I've been reading up some some web sites on how to make your own but am finidng the road data isn't very good that way so I may just buy the road cd. I'm also finding that the USGS is limiting the size of downloads which makes getting the topo data difficult. I'm wanting to draw a line between my home and my parents home and then gat everything with a certain disatnce from that line, basically make say a 300 mile raduis of my bug out route.

Garmin creates a img file on your sd card, the size of that image is dependent of how many maps you select. The idea is to cram as many maps on a sd card and not to go over the 2011 limit. Some cases I needed a 2 gig card and most of the time a 1 gig was all I needed. The old topo map fitted on 2 sd cards, one east and some middle us, and the other the west and the rest of the middle. The problem came when you tried to overlay road maps with topos, then the came out with topo 2008 which became the best of both worlds. No longer were you limited to trails and service roads, then you picked up everything else. The cost is more sd cards, but after experimenting with it, it ended up a better way to go. It all depends on your mission parameter of what you want to do with it. Your mind will be your only limitation. PM me if you have any specific questions and I'll do my best to help. I always like to see people get the best they can from a product. Garmin makes good stuff, a little pricey at times but still good products.

I concur with KenW the eTrex Legend HCx with a Mapsource loaded with a 2GB micro SD Card will give you the ability to load in 1999 topo maps (Garmins present limit for maps). For me that is most of Western Canada. Its easy to use, has good battery life and the maps not bad. I find when I am teaching people how to use these GPs's they pick up on it easily and can really use the GPS to its full advantage.

"GPS Receivers are an excellent tool for navigation when properly used along side a topographical map and compass."

I'm trying to understand how garmin counts maps. If its not a count of the files on a card then how does it count them. If I were to take the whole US and say drop it on the the card, how does it count, as one, or as one for each state, or is it by the USGS quads?

Eugene, check your PM, I tried to explain how the maps take up the cards a little better.

... thus the reason I bought the pre-loaded microSD with the maps. It is much easier and I have all the maps with me on one card.

That card is easy enough to move over to another GPS when that time comes.

Supposedly Garmin will soon lock down the CD so that it works with only one GPS unit - if they haven't done it already.

In MapSource Canada it counts each 1:50000 Scale Topo Map as 1 Map, in the US I "assume" its 1 1:24,000 maps, but I don't have the US MapSource. These maps only cover a small area so 2000 maps would not allow for all of the continental US.