Mine finally died last year (2021). The rubber bumper disintegrated the year before. I think I bought it in 2000. I used it a lot for cycling, hiking, skiing etc but also for APRS. Very solid. I used a Legend later and now a Dakota. I also have a RINO with the integrated radio.
A Garmin GPS 38 was my first personal receiver. I took an eTrex Vista,silver color to war in 2004, a Rino 120 in 2007 and Rino 530 in 2008. They worked better than the PSN-11 PLGR and newer DAGR I was issued. I should have bought stock in Garmin as I now own over a dozen units. The only series that has even given me trouble is the Nuvi series, USB failure, software glitches and a tendency to fail to acquire satellites at times. A reboot usually fixes that. My eTrex Vista still goes hiking with me, it have the best backlight for night use.
I have the Garmin eTrex Legend, which is identical in shape to this one but is in a translucent blue case. I've used it for everything from road trips and backwoods hiking to flying airplanes. The only thing that's gone wrong with it is the upper right button quit working, so one of these days I'll have to take it apart and replace the microswitch. It could stand to have more internal memory and/or a slot for a removable micro SD card, but none the less I've found it to be incredibly useful over the years. And the accuracy can get down as low as 6 feet of accuracy, which is really not bad for a handheld hiking GPS.
(old video but im watching all of them from oldest to newest)
That model was also my first GPS model. Love it. I went into 2 versions of Garmin GPS : this basic model and a more modern color version with altimeter and barometer. Those do not like vibrations. I used them on bi-cylinder bikes (more vibration than 4 cylinder ones) and I killed both of them, probably by damaging internal soldering. And you do not want to try to open those. They use a very fat glue all around the black rubber to close it and make it water resistant.
They are very good GPS, no doubt about it. Just do not put those on vibrations for monthes or years. It will break them.
Ha! My Etrex H has the most annoying bug! Enter a user defined magnetic variation in mils, and it won't allow you to set it to a West deviation – only an East one. That is excruciatingly annoying as well as lame.
Got the Etrex H – high sensitivity version of this model. If you can get one with a map display for a similar price then that's fine, but really, a map display this size is fairly useless for outdoors or walking. It's best to take a laminated map, which you will have anyway, as you shouldn't rely totally on electronics out in the wilds, so you will already have your map and magnetic compass.
one box to check with these is loading tracks with more than 500 points, there is a way with renaming and stuff but it doesent support that out of the box, anyway besides that it is THE outdoor gps to go
interesting, i just bought me a GPS, and it seems they finally did upgrade this model.
the old-new version seems to be listed on the website as the Etrex H and is discontinued
and replaced by the new-new Etrex 10.
this one has a joystick 😀
it also has support for lithium primaries now, and some geocaching features.
they sell a handlebar mount for the current version (etrex 10)
ive just attached mine and it seems to work well after 1 trip.
only downside is that if you are wearing ill fitting gloves (IE: to large at the finger tips)
the side buttons can be difficult to manipulate.
Hi Dave! My boyfriend's subscribed to you and watches all of your videos so I end up watching a lot of them too. I'm looking to buy a GPS for hiking, backpacking, canoeing…. I realize that this video is almost 3 years old now. Do you still use this one for geocaching? Would you suggest the same one (Etrex 10, 20 or 30) or something different? – Christine
Got mine in 1999, they cost $120 then. In '03 I removed the batteries and stored it away in my closet. Not sure why I stopped using it. I dug it out last night and installed fresh batteries in it and powered it up. Hasn't been turned on for almost 8 years and it took about 1.5 hrs initialize itself and receive all satellite signals. It's design was well ahead of it's time – compact, light weight, rugged, great battery life, simple to use, and priced right. Not bad for a 13 yr old GPS device.
dont strangle yourself with this cord
Mine still rockin. But, where are all the Etrex H teardown videos? Wondering about using the board of mine to embed it in another thing.
Mine finally died last year (2021). The rubber bumper disintegrated the year before. I think I bought it in 2000. I used it a lot for cycling, hiking, skiing etc but also for APRS. Very solid. I used a Legend later and now a Dakota. I also have a RINO with the integrated radio.
Speak french pleaise
Just got one on the cheap, still works, and now it's my backup gps… Perfect for a Shtf situation 🙂
A Garmin GPS 38 was my first personal receiver. I took an eTrex Vista,silver color to war in 2004, a Rino 120 in 2007 and Rino 530 in 2008. They worked better than the PSN-11 PLGR and newer DAGR I was issued. I should have bought stock in Garmin as I now own over a dozen units. The only series that has even given me trouble is the Nuvi series, USB failure, software glitches and a tendency to fail to acquire satellites at times. A reboot usually fixes that. My eTrex Vista still goes hiking with me, it have the best backlight for night use.
Watching all of them 🙂
Thanks
I have the Garmin eTrex Legend, which is identical in shape to this one but is in a translucent blue case. I've used it for everything from road trips and backwoods hiking to flying airplanes. The only thing that's gone wrong with it is the upper right button quit working, so one of these days I'll have to take it apart and replace the microswitch. It could stand to have more internal memory and/or a slot for a removable micro SD card, but none the less I've found it to be incredibly useful over the years. And the accuracy can get down as low as 6 feet of accuracy, which is really not bad for a handheld hiking GPS.
(old video but im watching all of them from oldest to newest)
That model was also my first GPS model. Love it. I went into 2 versions of Garmin GPS : this basic model and a more modern color version with altimeter and barometer. Those do not like vibrations. I used them on bi-cylinder bikes (more vibration than 4 cylinder ones) and I killed both of them, probably by damaging internal soldering. And you do not want to try to open those. They use a very fat glue all around the black rubber to close it and make it water resistant.
They are very good GPS, no doubt about it. Just do not put those on vibrations for monthes or years. It will break them.
You can do MGRS as well. This was so useful that I took it to war with me in 2007.
Ha! My Etrex H has the most annoying bug! Enter a user defined magnetic variation in mils, and it won't allow you to set it to a West deviation – only an East one. That is excruciatingly annoying as well as lame.
Got the Etrex H – high sensitivity version of this model. If you can get one with a map display for a similar price then that's fine, but really, a map display this size is fairly useless for outdoors or walking. It's best to take a laminated map, which you will have anyway, as you shouldn't rely totally on electronics out in the wilds, so you will already have your map and magnetic compass.
We've got them in the State Emergency Service and have used the Garmin Etrex GPS for years, some are nearly old as I am
Lol dudes annoying
For u U K folks its gear not geaaa
Ay.
Just a note from an American. We don't say 'yelluh'. We say it pretty much like you do.
one box to check with these is loading tracks with more than 500 points, there is a way with renaming and stuff but it doesent support that out of the box, anyway besides that it is THE outdoor gps to go
interesting, i just bought me a GPS, and it seems they finally did upgrade this model.
the old-new version seems to be listed on the website as the Etrex H and is discontinued
and replaced by the new-new Etrex 10.
this one has a joystick 😀
it also has support for lithium primaries now, and some geocaching features.
they sell a handlebar mount for the current version (etrex 10)
ive just attached mine and it seems to work well after 1 trip.
only downside is that if you are wearing ill fitting gloves (IE: to large at the finger tips)
the side buttons can be difficult to manipulate.
Hi Dave! My boyfriend's subscribed to you and watches all of your videos so I end up watching a lot of them too. I'm looking to buy a GPS for hiking, backpacking, canoeing…. I realize that this video is almost 3 years old now. Do you still use this one for geocaching? Would you suggest the same one (Etrex 10, 20 or 30) or something different? – Christine
Can anyone tell me how to use this for bicycling? Is it practical?
@jayhannah2011 Yes, of course.
can u take a grid reading from it
@homeismn It's not a mapping GPS. You have to pre-program waypoint or log a trail map.
Got mine in 1999, they cost $120 then. In '03 I removed the batteries and stored it away in my closet. Not sure why I stopped using it. I dug it out last night and installed fresh batteries in it and powered it up. Hasn't been turned on for almost 8 years and it took about 1.5 hrs initialize itself and receive all satellite signals. It's design was well ahead of it's time – compact, light weight, rugged, great battery life, simple to use, and priced right. Not bad for a 13 yr old GPS device.