Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver

Have used this unit since Oct 2003 for hiking and in my genealogy research on my family and for others. The unit will loose satellite reception in dense woods but most of the time it will work. The go to feature is good for finding your car you left on the side of the road or a lost cemetery you entered as a waypoint from a USGS map. The built in base maps are fun to play with, but I find useless in the field for me. I set the zoom feature to AUTO and don't see any map features most of the time. As the Legend is an older model unit, I would recommend you spend a few additional dollars and get one of the newer Garmin handhelds. If you want to use the unit in conjunction with your computer, get a model with a USB port (mac users need the USB interface). And if you want to have some fun shopping on amazon.com, look at amazon's UK website and read the recommendations there. The British reviews are helpful, polite, and witty once you get the hang of their jargon.

This is our second one of the Etrex Legend, after years of use in saltwater swamps, etc. it finally died and we wanted another just like it. It works great and you can save many waypoints as desired. We loved it because it doesn't autosave the waypoints you don't really need saved.

This is a nice compact unit with pretty blue plastic and a lanyard so you can hand it on your neck. That's the end of the positives.

The big, really big, negative is that this thing has such poor sensitivity that unless you live in the desert and no bird or plane ever fles over you, you will have problems getting it to work because it will not find satellite signals.

OK, mild exageration. I live in mid-Michigan and it actually has found enough satelites to work if there was nothing above it. However, the moment you go under a tree, any tree, you will lose your signal and you will not get it back until you move out from under the tree. I think that if you put your hand over the Etrex Legend you will lose your signal.

This thing is well named because a legend is often a myth and not based on fact. It is certainly a myth that the Etrex Legend is a useable GPS.

Garmin should be deeply ashamed for selling such junk.

I bought this unit for Geocaching. I have grown tired and frustrated of losing satellite signal under any sort of tree cover. We are finally decided to sell it for a better unit.

It's not about the GPS, or that it only holds 8MB's of memory (not a stick upgradable option but built in#, or it only locks onto a satellite if U R standing still in the middle of a foot-ball field, BUT most computers today come with ONE #9 female pin# serial-port plug/outlet for PC to a major/vital peripheral hook-up or 4 get your printer/scanner or fax and use it for your GPS hook up and buy their map disks at $100+ ea. But don't buy them ALL or your memory would have to be in the GB's range! If U have a PC with any peripherals like a printer that ONLY port is USED so no luck d/l-ing Garmin © software. Most newer PC's come with several USB 2.0 ports, or a cheap hub turns 1 USB outlet into many outlets/inputs, so why is Garmin selling a GPS kit for around $130 with the ONLY way to get Jack from your PC is thru a SP connector? If U want a USB that works to d/l maps think around paying $60 more for this: 'USB to RS232 converter cable' which it should have come with for the price but didn't. So I have a cute hand held GPS that only shows me MAJOR roads has a menu that takes days to figure-out and set-up, then lacks memory, has no way to up that memory with a 1GB card and flogs an ancient SP hook-up with NO CD map disk #teasers# to Joe Public. Clearance time or PP planning? My buddy saw my frustraion and asked me why I had bought a Garbage GPS, he is a pilot!
Spokane, WA.