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other then that i have no complaints about this item. this gps is easy for anyone to run. it works great on trails with riding my bike; however its beeps for giving directions in very quiet.
I've used it out in the rain while hiking and it had very clear reception, I have used it a few other times as well and it works great.
The original Legend would lose signal under trees.When it loses signal, it keeps going until it can pick up the trace again, which means I can throw it in a backpack and use it to keep a track log and geotag my photos. I upgraded from the original eTrex Legend to the HCx. It doesn't download the descriptions, so it's not perfect, but it's a big improvement.The MicroSD slot means I can take map data from OpenStreetMap and convert it to Garmin format, then drop it on a card and get street level mapping without having to pay $99 for CitySource.USB means Mac compatibility, using Garmin's free software.The only thing missing is an easy way to take points from Google Maps and import them, as Garmin's software doesn't seem to read KML or KMZ format, and Google's doesn't write GPX.Screen is adequate, clearly visible in sunlight, and the battery life is excellent. The original Legend would throw up a dialog box and refuse to track again until you acknowledged that you had lost signal.There's explicit support for geocaches. It's a major improvement.Time from power on to acquisition of enough satellite signals was several minutes with the original. The HCx is slow the first time you change geographical area, but subsequent startups take just seconds.It can pick up enough satellites to give me a fix inside my house.
So far so good no complaints. Seems to take some time to update when you are on the 20ft screen. This is my first hand held gps so im not sure how much I can help others if I'm not quite sure how to use it myself. Im still figuring the etrex out. I've been using it for geochcheing seems to do the trick. Big price diff. Glad I saved the money and got the legend and not vista. I think I may have to break down and buy more maps but thats ok.
After adding a 4GB memory card, I can now load tons of topo maps into the Legend that provide all the detail that I want. I found it very easy to use. I found Garmin's licensing to be obscure at best and spent hours trying to figure out how to load City Navigator. I had owned a Garmin Street Pilot for some time and foolishly thought that I could use the City Navigator that I already had to load up onto the Legend.
I love this little unit. The free maps do not support routing, but I do not use this little baby unit for that anyway.this is used for hiking and not for drving. It seems that I was going to have to spend more then the cost of the unit to load any decent maps.However, during my Googling I found some wonderful sites that provide FREE topo maps in Garmin format. It locks up the satellites very fast, has great battery life (have yet to run out of juice), and the size is nice.
Note that the base maps in the are very large scale and essentially show major freeways and bodies of water. If you are going to use this as a primary GPS for driving and finding destinations then be prepared for extra cost for the Garmin maps, but for hiking and other applications it is a great little unit. You can just slip it into any pocket. You can see the display nicely in the dark as well as broad daylight.My real complaint is the map software.
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