Garmin eTrex Venture HC High Intensity Color Mapping Handheld GPS

By truck gps guide | October 4, 2008

Garmin eTrex Venture HC High Intensity Color Mapping Handheld GPS

eTrex Venture HC is an essential for any outdoor excursion. It features a high-sensitivity GPS receiver for peak performance in any environment and includes 24 megabytes (MB) of internal memory, a detailed basemap and crisp color screen.With its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, eTrex Venture HC locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons. The advantage is clear - whether you’re in deep woods or just near tall buildings and trees, you can count on Venture HC to help you find your way when you need it the most.eTrex Venture HC’s basemap contains lakes, rivers, cities, interstates, national and state highways, railroads and coastlines. Venture HC also includes 24 MB of internal memory, so you can load waypoints and routes from the included MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager software and add map detail from Garmin’s entire line of optional MapSource mapping products. Its 256-color, sunlight-readable display makes it easy to distinguish map details - even in bright sunlight.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Garmin etrex
Hello

I purchased this to use while riding my bike & I am very please with it. I was only able to load 1 state map (SC)into the etrex but no problem.

I recommend this etrex. Good buy.

Kevin

5 Stars Great for geocaching
I did the research for a first-time geocacher gps and decided on this model. I haven’t been disappointed, although my 13 year-old son is the expert on using the gps. It locates satellites quickly and is very accurate. On one trip, my son was frustrated because the unit said we were right on top of the cache. Turns out we were, in fact right on top of the cache. Can’t go wrong with Garmin. We use the car nuvi 660 to get us in the area and the etrex to take us to the cache.

4 Stars Good GPS
This GPS makes it easy to download maps. The screen is a bit small. If I buy another GPS unit I will purchase one with a S.D. card.

4 Stars Huge improvement–with reservations.
I recently bought the eTrex Venture HC to replace my old b&w eTrex Vista. Huge improvement!

The Venture HC has a bright, contrasty screen that is MUCH easier to read. And it is light years more sensitive than the old Vista, locking onto 10-11 satellites in a matter of seconds, even indoors!

A few gripes: the new Venture seems to use the same processor as the old Vista, making scrolling or redrawing across the map s-l-o-o-o-w. And the base map in the new Venture is even WORSE than the base map on the old Vista. Compared side-by-side, Garmin has removed even major secondary roads, labels, etc. The Venture HC base map is essentially useless, thanks to Garmin’s greed.

The Garmin Topo maps are pretty detailed, but expensive and clunky, based on Windows 95/98 technology. Houston, for instance, requires that you switch out two CD’s to load the city. Ever heard of DVD’s, guys? Both the Topo United States and the Topo Canada load fine on the eTrex Venture HC, even though the Canadian Topo is not listed as compatible on the Garmin web site.

4 Stars Very Good Basic Unit - high sensitivity receiver is great
I used this to replace an older basic eTrex model before a camping trip. I work with GPS in airplanes (that cost more than my car) but was not famiar with outdoor models. It should be noted that the “H” part of the Garmin model names refers to a new-generation receiver that is much more sensitive and I found it to be fantastic- it will locate my position indoors and under a thick rainforest canopy it always found its location within 20 seconds. When in a new location I would say it always located itself within 3 minutes. The only trouble it had in locating itself was when it was under the canopy and against a steep mountainside (and also inside the airliner when I didn’t keep it against the window).

This is an older model with an upgraded receiver so the battery life is not as good as other Garmins but at around 7 hours with the screen set to dim it never bothered me. It also has less internal memory than more expensive models so you might have to load base maps more frequently (you might have to pay dearly for some good maps). You can easily up/download tracks and waypoints, which I found to be pretty fun. This comes with WAAS capability turned off by default, probably to save power (it can be turned on easily from the settings page); I’m not sure why someone would want it when hiking. My unit got soaked in the rain several times and had no problems. More expesive Garmin handhelds can figure out driving directions but refurbished car models are going for $100.

General advice: I’m very happy with this model but make sure you get a Garmin model with the letter “H,” or another brand with a Sirfstar III receiver for higher sensitivity. The free software from topografix doesn’t work as well as the Garmin software that comes with this GPS but I suspect the non-free topografix software may be a bargain (don’t waste money on the amazingly detail-free Garmin world map software). I found the array of 3rd party software options overwhelming. Google Earth does not require a $20 subscription to display tracks & waypoints from this GPS, just save your stuff in the open *.gpx format from the Garmin software and open it in the free Google Earth - it’s fun.

Buy/More Info

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