Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Garmin eTrex Vista H...good product?

I'm looking for a good handheld GPS unit for biking/hiking under $200....i've been researching this unit for awhile and it looks like it has what i need.....any users with problems/switched to a better unit from another brand? I need the compass/altimeter/downloadable map features...it seems the etrex's are responsive and durable...could there be more bang-for-the-buck for less than the Vista H (non-color) , perhaps?

I have an Etrex Vista Hcx (I refuse to use their capitalization!) and have one issue which is with the aneroid altimeter. I had an episode where it was reading ~3,600 feet too high. My village ranges from ~6,000 ft. to something >7,000 so it was easy to recognize an error when it said ~10,000 feet. If the error was e.g. 1,000 ft. and I was on unfamiliar turf I might not recognize the error. I wrote Garmin and they said to periodically recalibrate it and certainly recalibrate it with a change of batteries. They did point out that the manual said this.

I wish that I could merely turn the aneroid sensor off and use the GPS altitude computation. Depending on the satellite configuration at any given time the GPS altitude error can be high and I presume that this is the primary reason to include the aneroid sensor. Since I've lost confidence I'd rather give it up but can not. If I had confidence in it I would like to be able to use it to help forecast the weather when staying at a specific altitude.

One question that I didn't think to ask Garmin was what to do when switching between car power and internal battery power since they specifically said to recalibrate when the voltage changed (from a change of batteries). BTW, recalibration is easy.

One item that was much nicer that I expected was that the turn-by-turn navigation in the absence of a voice was effective.

This is a good model for the price point you are looking at.. I also have a etrex hcx and it will give you all that data, except for splits, heart rate and cadence..

You can set it up so it very similar to a bike computer with multiple screens, using the trip data.. You just reset before your ride and it will give you time moving, moving average, distance and much more..

You can then just plug into your usb port and download that ride into mapsource and it will give you all pertinent data, very similar to the 305.. There is a lot of bike specific data that the 305 and 705 will have over the etrek but it does the job and well.. I use aa nimh batteries in mine and it will run for 2 days without having to replace the batteries, unlike my 305 which is only good for about 8-10 hours..

If you go this route, walmart seems to have one the best prices and just buy the optional topo maps and a 1gb or 2gb micro sd card and you are set..

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=6015174
The topo maps have all trails and streets in the USA...

If you are looking for a competing product, but priced a little higher, there is a lot of good buzz about the Delorme PN-40 GPS..

http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtdItemDetail.jsp?item=29385&section=10461

Thanks for the info guys...I'm looking for something more in the price range of the DeLorme PN-20 I dont see much difference in the features between it and the PN-40, except for the processor/chipset...Does the higher power silicon make the pn-40 worth the extra $$$ over the pn-20? Anybody have a direct comparison of the two? The altimeter readings that head_wind is dealing with does throw me off the Garmin track a little bit...i wish there was a place where i could "borrow" these items for the weekend and try them out before i buy :notamused: