Anyone using the Garmin etrex Venture Cx?

[jackhartjr]

Hi folks, anyone out here using the Garmin etrex Venture Cx?If so, how do you like it? Also, if you have it have you downloaded any of the Bluecharts? And how do you like that part of it?Also have you downloaded the ones for land?Thanks in advance!JAck

 

[caguy]

Love my Venture, Lost without it!

I use the etrex venture regularly for hiking and when I get lost in the car. It came in handy coming back from Catalina into Long Beach Harbor once. Took a visual picture of the harbor entrance when I left but after 4 days like an old piece of film the memory faded. I thought I could find the landing easily because it is located next to the Queen Mary, but when I got back the cargo containers were stacked so high in front of her that she could not be seen from the ocean side. I was able to look up the Queen Mary's waypoint under "interesting points" of interest on the Venture and sure enough I was about a 1/2 mile north. I also like it because it is so handy, mine has a nice long lanyard that can be worn around the neck. I have a Garin 185 on the boat now but I still use the Venture for fishing holes because I can plug in the coordinates at home using Mapquest. If you find a way to load nautical charts into the venture please let me know. By the way my grand kids and I have had a blast using the Venture for Geocaching.

 

[jackhartjr]

I bought a 1/2 gigibyte...

...micro SD card from Wallmart for $28.00 that fits into the little slot to the left of the batteries, as I understand it I can order CD's with the maps on them, then download to the SD card. Some of them as I understand can be downloaded from Garmin's web-site. The SD card I got is actually a two-in-one card. The little micro card fits into a regular sized SD card, which means I can also us in in my digital camera if I want to.Hope that helped.Thanks for the reply!Mine was a Christmas gift from my boss and his wife. She said when the gave it to me, "Now that you are getting ready to sail your boat this summer, you are too important to us to get lost, here is something to help you find your way back!" I thought that was nice!Jack

 

[caguy]

Wow I got an unsigned Happy Holiday card

from the "Poly Administration". I keep it on my desk to remind me of the school districts generousity (we have a strike looming). The older venture I have has ony 8 meg of memory, barely covers Los Angeles but does great with rural areas. The garmin 180 gps/sounder with the memory cards is really detailed and accurate zoomed in with it a couple of weeks ago when in the harbor to see how accurate in case of fog and it was right on. Even featured individual slips. they just added new slips to the marina that would not be on the card but since I don't go there anyway this works fine. By the way came across this warning at Garmin site.GPS City Tips: PRE-LOADED GARMIN MARINE NAVIGATIONAL AIDS:Included with the Garmin eTrex Legend is a the pre-loaded Marine navigational aids (Americas Marine Points of Interest). The data is loaded into the units 8MB of internal memory, and is not part of the basemap. If Garmin MapSource Mapping Software is loaded into the Garmin eTrex Legend, the preloaded Marine POI database will be erased.To recover this pre-loaded Marine POI data, the Map Database file can be downloaded from GARMIN's web site at www.garmin.com.Note: Garmin MapSource Mapping Software and the Marine POI database cannot be loaded at the same time.ETREX LEGEND FITNESS PACKAGETurn your eTrex Legend into the ultimate Fitness Tool. With your GPS and the Performance Pass Internet Software you can easily collect and upload accurate speed, time, distance, and elevation data for your workouts.Take a look and even a Demo View of the software:• Performance Pass Software• Garmn eTrex Legend with the Performance Pass Software• Performance Pass Software and Accessory Kit  Garmin eTrex Legend Features: