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If it lasts as long as my (still kicking) Garmin Legend, I won't be needing a new GPS receiver any time soon. No complaints here. I love this little GPS. It gets signal while hanging out in my backpack, ad even locks on when I'm inside.
It did have trouble on startup with orienting itself. The screen is small, larger would be nice, but it is OK. The GPSMAP screen went blank after about 2 years of pretty heavy use.
I am very impressed with the reception, it has no problem locking on satellites under heavy tree canopies, in the car, even indoors. I like the mini SD card. The battery lasts much longer than my old GPSMAP 76.
I bought this to replace a Garmin GPSMAP 76. I'm not sure if it fixed itself, or if I did something to get it going, but it has been working well ever since. A 2G card holds a detailed road map of most of North America (MetroGuide North America).
I am very happy with the Vista HCx. For the first few hours it had the location several miles off.
Poor documentation from Garmin - the owners manual is weak. Great GPS - good undercover of trees.
I own a auto GPS by Garmin and I have been very happy with it so I thought this would be a good purchase as well. This GPS can be used for geocatching right out of the box as it does give your the coordinates but not much else. This GPS device is not the same thing. Plan on spending at least another $80-$200 for one or both which you can get at Amazon.
Nowhere is this mentioned in the provided literature, manual, or the web site. You will need AA batteries as this thing does not include a rechargeable batters. I purchased an 8GB card. I haven't tested this but this is what the tech support woman told me with her bad attitude. When I called tech support (who were rude)they told me that an 8GB card was not compatable and I could only use a 2GB card with this unit. With the auto GPS you turn it on and off you go.
Also, you need to get a MicroHD card to store the maps that you purchase on. By this point I had had enough of this little gizmo and I packed up my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and back it went to Amazon who was most cooperative with the return. Firstly, you will need to purchase TOPO maps for hiking or city maps for use in roads and residential areas. Nothing mentions this in the on-line literature or anywhere.
It was supposed to work better under the trees but seems to work worse. I am very disappointed with this purchase. It was supposed to work better than my older model but the only thing that works better is it locks onto the satillites quicker.
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