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"Ted" wrote...
wrote in message

I'd like to hear some recommendations for either a cockpit chart
plotter, or a combo using my laptop below and some sort of handheld
above. Keeping in mind our cruising areas, and our limited fixed
income: If a chart plotter/GPS, which one? Or does a GPS attachment
to the laptop, some navigation software, and some sort of handheld
seems to make more sense? If so, what equipment, what software?

For you snowbirds with sailboats out there, what is your set up?

If you are not in a hurry, I would recommend waiting and watching the
current developments of two valuable technologies for pleasure boaters,
superimposing weather info and displaying the locations of other boats on
your GPS map. AIS and DSC are the new technologies for receiving position
reports of other boats in your vicinity on two VHF marine channels 87 & 88
(162.025 and 161.975 mHz) . XM satellite radio is one company that is
currently broadcasting weather info that some GPS receivers are able to
receive and display.

Here is one example of two Garmin units that receive and display XM
satellite weather data:
http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap376c/
http://www.garmin.com/products/sp2730/

www.tvnav.com has the Garmin 376c for $805

Here is more info on signing up for XM satellite weather.
http://www.xmradio.com/weather/av_subscription_pkg.pdf

The Garmin 376c doesn't have AIS vessel traffic reporting and display yet
but if you just can't wait you could try to get a third party AIS receiver
decoder that will put the waypoints into the Garmin 376c.

One such third party AIS receiver is he

http://www.nasamarine.com/AIS/AISENGINE.html

Here are some web pages that further describe AIS and DSC

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/gmdss/dsc.htm
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/enav/ais/default.htm
http://www.sailmag.com/05feellison.qrk.pdf
http://www.amcom.nl/marine/icom_ic_m421.htm

If you want to use the sound card to decode and display AIS data on your
laptop see this web page:

http://www.coaa.co.uk/shipplotter.htm

Here are a few more interesting links:

http://www.xmradio.com/weather/

http://www.nasamarine.com/press/pdfs/sx35.PDF
http://www.nasamarine.com/press/pdfs/sx35pract.PDF
http://www.nasamarine.com/press/press.html