Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver
GARMIN eTrex Venture HC Hand Held Receiver w/ Built in GPS Patch Antenna. New high sensitivity GPS receiver. 24 Mbyte of internal memory for storing detailed maps. WAAS enabled, 12 parallel channel GPS receiver. Built in GPS patch antenna. Display: 1.3 in W x 1.7 in H, 256 color, high resolution, transflective TFT /176 x 220 pixels. LED backlit display and keypad. Battery life: up to 32 hours typical use using two AA alkaline batteries.Includes a built in Americas autoroute basemap with automatic routing capabilities including highways, exits and tide data /USA only. 500 user waypoints with name and graphic symbol; 20 reversible routes, 50 points per route. Position formats include Lat/Lon, UTM, Loran TDs, Maidenhead, MGRS, user grid, and more. Audible alarms for anchor drag, arrival, off course and clock. Large numbers option for easy viewing, dual position display mode. Trip computer provides odometer, stopped time, moving average, overall average, total time, max speed and more. 10,000 point automatic track log; 20 saved tracks /500 points each/ let you retrace your path in both directions. Elevation computer /Summit HC/ provides current elevation, ascent/descent rate, minimum/maximum elevation, total ascent and descent, average and maximum ascent and descent rate. Built in celestial tables for best time to fish and hunt, plus sun and moon calculations. Fully compatible with MapSource products including BlueChart, City Navigator, U.S. TOPO 24K, U.S. TOPO and US Inland lakes. Waterproof, IEC 60529 IPX7, /Submersible 1 meter at 30 minutes
Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver Features
- Usb Compatible For High-Speed Map Downloads
- Features A 1.7-InchH X 1.3-InchW Screen With 256-Level Color Tft
- Built-In Basemap Includes Lakes, Rivers, Cities, Interstates, National & State Highways, Railroads & Coastlines
- High-Sensitivity, WAAS-Enabled GPS Receiver Provides Peak Performance In Any Environment
$127.51
If you are looking for a GPS for geocaching or not getting lost while hiking, this is the one you want. It's rugged, easy to use, and fun. It is so friendly to use I give it to the kids to carry while geocaching and they just run the show. All you need to start geocaching is this GPS, a home computer and an account on [...] (its free). -- Super Simple GPS
This is our first GPS for geocaching and we love it. It is super easy for downloading geocache sites and finding them. There is a lot more to this machine than we have bothered to learn.
It would be nice to upgrade to the GPS that has the altimeter. The only other feature missing is the ability to download the clues or hints.
On the plus side, it is simple enough for my 9 year old to operate this without getting confused or lost which I think says alot. For the price, it is a bargin. -- Great First Family GPS
soso experience expecially trying to get maps on line. even after set up account doesnt recognize anything, cant complete the order of map infro and 35 minute wait to talk to anyone. poor online service,better map base should be included, dont even know what to do with the 10 %discount number they emailed me. -- soso
This is my second etrex. For the cost it has good value. I use it mostly for boating and biking. Boating to log waypoints to find in the fog and biking to log miles and speed. As everyone says the maps are expensive and the basic map provides very basic information. It will get you back to where you started and its a great bike speedo. One new bonus is that it has local tide tables that have proved to be very accurate. Battery life seems better too. -- It works as advertised
I bought the eTrex Venture HC to carry on my personal watercraft. The lake that I boat on most often is 38,000 square acres with almost 700 miles of shoreline, and each and every mile looks pretty much the same. I also purchased the Inland Lakes maps CD as the basic map data is very insufficient as far as the lake goes (i.e. islands are sometimes missing, the shoreline representation isn't very accurate - the unit showed me being inland when I was a quarter mile out in the lake - etc.) So having this unit in the glove box of my WaveRunner allows me to find marinas if needed, and most importantly allows me to navigate back to the boat ramp when I've been wandering around to different parts of the lake with friends or just on a 'walk about' (I guess that would be 'ride about') on my own. And with the WAAS feature enabled, this unit often obtains accuracy of +/- 7 ft when I'm on the lake, and even with WAAS disabled averages about 20 ft accuracy - all from beneath the plastic glovebox cover on the boat.
As some reviewers said, it's little slow to redraw when moving the map around with the joystick, but I improved that by loading the map at a 'medium' level of detail. And speaking of the joystick, it's a little tough to use sometimes as the push-in-for-enter doesn't always 'take' (for example I may try to push in on the joystick but it registers a move down or to the right). It's not really a big deal, and may just be my clumsy thumb, but a nice directional arrow pad with a center 'enter button' (think iPod) would probably make things a bit easier.
Overall I think the Venture HC is an easy to use, handy device that does exactly what I bought it for. One word of advice though - while 24mb internal memory may seem like a lot, be aware that the 'map sections' of the accessory maps data are rather large. The lake near me is actually split down the middle by two different map sections, and that, along with about 50 waypoints that I configured, are all that will fit on the Venture. If I had been unlucky enough for the lake to be split across more map segments this device would not have worked for me. If I had known that up front I would have sprung the extra 80 bucks or so and gone with the Legend HCx, which has an SD card slot for allowing more (much more) map data to be stored. Just a warning. -- Handy - meets my needs
