Garmin etrex Venture HC

Garmin etrex venture HC

Its been around for years, but the Garmin etrex venture HC, and the entire garmin etrex line still represent great value in the handheld GPS market. The etrex line has seen such great success because they are proven, reliable and rugged units.

Garmin eTrex Venture HC Key Features:

High Sensitivity WAAS enabled GPS Receiver
500 Waypoints and 50 Routes
High Resolution color display
Rugged Waterproof case
Affordable pricing
Smooth one handed operation with rocker key

Venture HC Operation:

Initialization: After powering on the unit the first thing you will need to do is adjust the backlighting, by default, the backlight is turned off. The backlight has an adjustable timeout that can be set from 15 seconds up to 2 minutes, necessary to conserve battery life (2xAA batteries). Like most garmin gps units, the first thing the venture does when powered on is start looking for satellites. You should be outdoors and have a clear view of the sky. The display shows overhead satellites, with an outer circle representing the horizon, and an inner circle representing a location 45 degrees from the horizon. Blue bars on the bottom of the screen represent signal strength of acquired satellites. It takes a minimum of 3 acquired satellites for the Global positioning system to get a fix on your location.

The Venture HC has a status bar that can be displayed at any time by pressing the power button briefly. It displays power source, 2D and 3D satellite acquisition satatus, and date / time.

Creating Waypoints:

Setting waypoints on the garmin etrex venture HC is a breeze. Waypoints are simply landmarks or positions you want to store in your GPS.

Waypoints can be created in 3 different ways on the Venture HC.

1. Mark your current location. Press in and HOLD the rocker button, this will bring up the "Mark Waypoint" screen with your current location (as long as you have a good position fix.)

2. Mark a waypoint on the map. On the map screen, use the rocker button to point to the location that you would like to create a waypoint. Press and quickly release the rocker button and the "Mark Waypoint" screen will appear.

3. You can Project a waypoint by entering the bearing and distance to that location. (Not something I have ever used, but I could see where this might be useful.)

No matter which method you choose to create a waypoint, you will be brought to the waypoint screen. If you do not name the waypoint something relevant, the gps will name it for you, using a 3 digit number. I recommend ALWAYS naming your waypoints so that they make sense to you when you see them on your map.

Editing and deleting your stored waypoints is done from the main menu. Click FIND, then WAYPOINTS. When the list of waypoints is displayed, select the one you want to change or delete. Thats all there is to it. You can also move waypoints on the map if you need to.

The Garmin etrex Venture HC also features proximity waypoint alarms, so if you come within a distance you define from a waypoint you define, an alarm will sound. Another nice feature is the "Recent Finds" list, which brings up the last 50 locations you searched for or navigated to.

Tracks:

The Tracks feature on the Garmin etrex series, like most handheld gps units, is a way to create an electronic bread crumb trail, or track log. Because you never ingress into a location in a straight line, this feature lets you egress out the same way you came in. If you learn nothing else on your gps unit, learn this.

Routes:

The Venture HC lets you create routes, which are a series of waypoints that lead you to your final destination. The eTrex lets you store 250 waypoints in any given route you create, and you can create and store up to 50 routes.

Garmin etrex Venture HC Main Menu:

The Venture HC has 3 main screens, The Menu screen, Map screen, and Compass screen. The notable missing screen with this particular etrex model is the Altimeter screen, which is available on the summit and Vista HCx models.

To see images of each of the features available on the main menu select the feature below, or just scroll to the bottom of this page.

Satellite	Trip Comp	Mark
Find	Tracks	Routes
Highway	Setup	Proximity
Calendar	Calculator	Stopwatch
Sun & Moon	Hunt & Fish	Games

Venture HC Main Menu

Venture HC Map Screen

Garmin etrex Venture HC compass
Venture HC Compass screen

Geocaching:

The garmin gps software on the Venture HC has a built in geocaching app. Geocaching is a great leisure pastime that allows you to hunt for hidden items all over the world, with the assistance of a handheld gps unit like this one. Although newer GPS units make the geocaching experience even easier, this unit is pretty simple to use once you get the hang of it. To learn more and to download the coordinates of geocaches go to www.geocaching.com then basically use your handheld gps to navigate to them. Its a lot of fun for the entire family.

In addition, the eTrex Venture HC also has a calculator, stopwatch, hunting & fishing calendar, sunrise and sunset times, moon phases, and some gps enabled games to keep you busy. All things considered for the 2011 price of just about $100 bucks, this is a real bargain. If you absolutely have to have an altimeter, then this is not the best handheld gps for you, but otherwise if you are looking for a beginner to mid-level color screen, high sensitivity gps, the Garmin eTrex Venture HC and eTrex series are worth a look.

SATELLITE SCREEN:

etrex satellite

screen