Etrex Vista - The Hand Held Wonder

I have had my Vista for almost a year and I have been extremely happy with it. I bought it primarily to do geocaching, so I would consider myself a casual user. It is loaded with features, too many to talk about here in detail, but I will comment on some of the basics.

The Vista has six main screens - Satellite, Map, Navigation, Altimeter, Trip Computer, and Main Menu. You can jump to any screen using the thumb joystick and selecting from a drop down menu. Or you can use the Toggle button on the side to move from one screen to the next. Once you get to the screen you want, you can then use the thumb joystick like a mouse to browse other functions and then “click” your selection by pressing down. The thumb joystick is left handed, but even for righties like me, it works pretty good. There are four other side buttons for On/Off/Screen Backlight, Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Find (a waypoint or destination). All buttons have a rubbery no-slip texture to make them easy to work if the Vista gets wet or damp.

The Satellite screen graphically represents the sky overhead and shows you all the GPS satellites currently above your 45 degree horizon. It indicates which satellites you are receiving and the signal strength of each. You can receive up to 12 satellites at a time with the Vista. The top of the satellite screen shows your position accuracy and the bottom shows your current longitude and latitude. You can watch your position accuracy change depending on how many satellites you're receiving. The Vista is also WAAS capable which means it can receive additional geostationary satellites that can improve your position accuracy sometimes. I have had accuracy readings down to 6 feet which is incredible precision for a consumer-type device like this. WAAS satellite reception is not available in all areas, so think about where you will use your GPS receiver before making this a requirement. (Do a web search for WAAS satellites for more information.) I like the satellite screen and the way it works. Simple and easy to understand.

The Map screen shows, of course, a map. The Vista comes with a very good base map - it doesn't show every road or street, but it has most of the main ones. Even rivers and lakes are displayed with pretty good accuracy. Any waypoints (markers) that you have set will also be displayed on your map by the title and icon you assigned. The Vista's 24MB memory is plenty to load additional maps if you want to. A small triangle in the center of the map indicates your position and it points in the direction the Vista is facing so you know which way you are going. You can zoom in and out on maps. There are 26 zoom increments from 500 mile radius down to 20 feet radius. Fifteen of the zoom increments are below 3 mile radius, which is good because that's where the maps are most usable. Above 3 mile radius, the screen size limits the amount of detail you can see on your map - so you won't be using that much. Being able to zoom down to 20 feet radius is great for close proximity navigation - such as geocaching. You can also turn on (or off) a 'track' to leave a trail on the map to show where you've been. You can save tracks and upload them to your PC mapping software. The bottom of the map screen has 2 data fields that you can choose to display any two of the 35 data choices, such as heading, speed, altitude, time, distance, etc, etc - or you can just turn them off to show more of the map. I probably use the map screen more than any other screen for general navigation. It tells you everything you need to know about where you are and where you're going.

The Navigation screen is a digital compass. Now, hard core hikers and back-woodsmen will discount the reliability of a digital compass, but to me, it was a must have. I have been around aviation a lot and using the compass face with bearing and course indicators just seems familiar to me. It works great and I love it. Like the map screen, the bottom of the navigation screen also has 2 user selectable data fields if you want them. The compass uses a lot of juice but you can turn it off if you want to save battery life.

The Altimeter screen displays the data collected from the Vista's barometric altimeter. At the top is the current elevation. The main part of the screen shows a graph of your altitude over time or distance, or a plot of barometric pressure over time. Time and distance scales are adjustable on the X axis. The bottom of the screen also has 2 user defined data fields. I only look at the altimeter once in awhile - I'm always more concerned about direction than elevation. It seems to work pretty good and is fairly accurate. For hikers and climbers I'm sure this would be a great function.

The Trip Computer screen has eight data fields, all of which are selectable from the total list of 35 available data types on the Vista. So you can set up this screen to display just about whatever you want. If you want bigger fonts, you can choose to display only four data fields which makes all the characters twice as big and easier to see. The default fields are trip odometer, moving time, stopped time, total odometer, speed, maximum speed, moving average, and overall average. I like to substitute ETA for total odometer so I just click it in. For each new trip, you can reset all the fields with one click. I don't look at the trip computer much except to check in on my trip stats once in awhile - but it's nice to have that data at your fingertips.

The Main Menu screen will take you to additional menu selections to do many other things. Here you can set waypoints, choose destinations to navigate to, set and manage 'tracks', plan routes, set all of the Vista's display/time/units/operation options and use the accessory functions such as sun and moon charts, fishing and hunting predictor, area calculator, calendar, and numeric calculator. Whew! Is that enough stuff?? The area calculator is worth a mention, it will calculate the area within a traveled path. You could walk around the boundary of your property and the Vista will calculate the acreage. Neat.

The Vista has one weakness that everyone talks about:

Reception can be lost easily if the unit is not facing skyward. You can't put it in your pocket and maintain satellite reception. However, I haven't had any difficulties in the woods with tree cover as long as I keep the Vista facing up. In the car, I have no problem with reception when I wedge the Vista between the dashboard and the windshield, tilting it upward just slightly. Works good. I think Garmin probably did the best they could with the antenna design to maintain compactness and ruggedness in their Etrex units. For those who think there should be an external antenna, think about trekking through dense woods or brush with antennas and wires sticking out... I'll take my Vista just the way it is, thank you very much. And if you still think you need it, re-radiating antenna kits are available to boost your signal.

Ending with a more positive note, the software support from Garmin is GREAT. It seems that they are constantly improving the firmware for the Vista and you can download and upgrade very easily from your PC through a serial port cord (included). The functionality of the Vista just keeps getting better and better. After a year of ownership, I still feel like I have one of the most up-to-date GPS receivers on the market.