I've had an eTrex Vista & Garmin's Mapsource Topo USA for five years and
found it worked very well, but the maps are very small. Still, it worked
great for river paddling, hiking, snomachining and guiding. I was once
asked by my employer to guide a group down a river I'd never floated in a
time limit far shorter than a relaxed trip should take. By plotting daily
mileage points at home and then having them on the river on the etrex made
it esy to budget time and distance. Little did the clients know how much I
relied on that little piece of electronics.

The vista downsides include:
- The joystick starts failing after three or four years; it just stops
making connections. After wiggling it vigorously and turning the unit on
and off I can usually get it to work again, but it becomes a real pain.
- The rubber around the case gets looser over time (over 3 years) and starts
to creep, with its glue seeping out and making a bit of a mess. It also
starts to rip; I've lost a button cover and part of the flap that protects
the output contacts. I'm inclined to believe that it is no longer
waterproof. For the first three years I had it I would clip it to my life
vest when I kayaked whitewater; it was fun to download the tracts and see
the elevation chart after a run, including the dips where I flipped and
rolled up, the water pressure making the graph look like I'd fallen into a
hole (usually exactly the case!)
- The serial interface is a PITA, and VERY slow. With the addition of a
Belkan serial/USB converter I had some crash problems, but generally did the
job. But loading 12K of maps took twenty minutes. Also I sometimes had
trouble finding the serial port #, unlike USB devices which are generally
plug-n-play.
- The positive battery spring on the right battery (facing the open battery
door w/ the door at the bottom of the unit) was a bad design; it would
ground itself out on some rechargables and start to melt the unit. The fix
was to ALWAYS put the positive end of the battery in first; a dicipline that
some acquire more quickly than others, and many forgot when hurrying a
battery change.

I liked my Vista well enough to buy a Vista Cx last month to get USB, color,
and a newer unit for backup if my 276C failed. I can upload Bluecharts to
it, but will wait; Bluecharts can only be put onto two GPS units; they must
be repurchased for more installations. This means that if your GPS s**ts
the bed . . . You get the idea.

Brad Snow
s/v Aldonza


"Thomas Wentworth" wrote in message
news:fXxng.2117$TC1.23@trndny08...
Anyone use the ETrex? I was in Hamilton Marine in Portland yesterday ....
where were you Roger?

The salesman said he has been selling a ton of these ETrex hand helds ..
they are small though.

What are your opinions?

Nice weather up thar in Maine ,, that is if you like rain, fog, and ick.