This group has helped me before and I can't understand what the deal
is with digital charts, whether raster or enc. I can go into any
local map shop, chandlery, marine supply place and buy any nautical
paper chart that was produced by the Australian Hydrographic Office
for $29 bucks. The US has totally free downloadable digital charts
(both raster and ENC) for all US coasts and territories because the US
taxpayer has already paid for the production of these charts.

I would be quite happy to pay $29 for the digital equivalent of a
paper chart. I have navigation software that reads digital charts.
But if I want, say AUS 154 (Williamstown) in digital format I would
have to pay for a (redundant) viewer and then the chart(s); somewhat
more tha $29.

Don't figure

Cheers, Jim

Check with your local print shop that specializes in large format prints
(blueprints). Some have large format scanners that will create a raster
image that you should be able to import into your software.
No idea the cost but would expect it to be less than $39.
BF


wrote in message
ups.com...
This group has helped me before and I can't understand what the deal
is with digital charts, whether raster or enc. I can go into any
local map shop, chandlery, marine supply place and buy any nautical
paper chart that was produced by the Australian Hydrographic Office
for $29 bucks. The US has totally free downloadable digital charts
(both raster and ENC) for all US coasts and territories because the US
taxpayer has already paid for the production of these charts.

I would be quite happy to pay $29 for the digital equivalent of a
paper chart. I have navigation software that reads digital charts.
But if I want, say AUS 154 (Williamstown) in digital format I would
have to pay for a (redundant) viewer and then the chart(s); somewhat
more tha $29.

Don't figure

Cheers, Jim

On Feb 22, 2:22 pm, wrote:
The US has totally free downloadable digital charts
(both raster and ENC) for all US coasts and territories because the US
taxpayer has already paid for the production of these charts.

I would be quite happy to pay $29 for the digital equivalent of a
paper chart. I have navigation software that reads digital charts.
But if I want, say AUS 154 (Williamstown) in digital format I would
have to pay for a (redundant) viewer and then the chart(s); somewhat
more tha $29.

Seems to make sense. On the one hand you have a vibrant, open economy
with a government (regardless of the administration of the day) that
has invested in infrastructure to support competition in the
production of goods and services.

On the other hand you have a tiny economy that has only toyed with
openness for a few decades. And the political economy is still riddled
with a colonial and exploitative mentality interested in protecting
the privileges of the big end of town. Until two or so decades ago,
import substitution and tariff protection were the name of the game.
And no one (not the government nor individuals) has been interested in
educating the electorate and making sophisticated demands on
government.

And the net result is you pay twice for your charts, once in taxes to
have your navy fiddle with a few details on the 18th century baseline
(I've sailed in northern Australian waters and used the jokes that
pass as charts) and then again at retail (where you get to pay a
further value added tax).

So why put up with the situation? Emigrate!

wrote in news:1172125377.914203.44450
@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

This group has helped me before and I can't understand what the deal
is with digital charts, whether raster or enc. I can go into any
local map shop, chandlery, marine supply place and buy any nautical
paper chart that was produced by the Australian Hydrographic Office
for $29 bucks. The US has totally free downloadable digital charts
(both raster and ENC) for all US coasts and territories because the US
taxpayer has already paid for the production of these charts.

I would be quite happy to pay $29 for the digital equivalent of a
paper chart. I have navigation software that reads digital charts.
But if I want, say AUS 154 (Williamstown) in digital format I would
have to pay for a (redundant) viewer and then the chart(s); somewhat
more tha $29.

Don't figure

Cheers, Jim

Ha, I was just on NDI digital ocean website to see what canadian stuff
goes for - $899.00 !!!!!
All they did was take over all the canadian govt work, somehow they got
the rights, and have held it for ransom. I see the Can govt is buying it
back, another financial fiasco !
I'm mad a govt for pawning it off in the first place and disgusted at
the price the private company is charging, monopoly or not.
Ron in BC waters

In article ,
says...
wrote in news:1172125377.914203.44450
@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

This group has helped me before and I can't understand what the deal
is with digital charts, whether raster or enc. I can go into any
local map shop, chandlery, marine supply place and buy any nautical
paper chart that was produced by the Australian Hydrographic Office
for $29 bucks. The US has totally free downloadable digital charts
(both raster and ENC) for all US coasts and territories because the US
taxpayer has already paid for the production of these charts.

I would be quite happy to pay $29 for the digital equivalent of a
paper chart. I have navigation software that reads digital charts.
But if I want, say AUS 154 (Williamstown) in digital format I would
have to pay for a (redundant) viewer and then the chart(s); somewhat
more tha $29.

Don't figure

Cheers, Jim

Ha, I was just on NDI digital ocean website to see what canadian stuff
goes for - $899.00 !!!!!
All they did was take over all the canadian govt work, somehow they got
the rights, and have held it for ransom. I see the Can govt is buying it
back, another financial fiasco !
I'm mad a govt for pawning it off in the first place and disgusted at
the price the private company is charging, monopoly or not.
Ron in BC waters

Instead of updating my 6-year-old NDI charts, I went with the
Garmin BlueCharts. IIRC, I got the region that included all
of the inside part of Vancouver Island for about $150US. It had
the added advantage of being downloadable to my GPS76C. I kept
the GPS in the cockpit, and downloaded the tracks to the PC
each night.

In defense of the Canadian Hydrographic Service, they have about
the same coastline as the US, but only 10% as large an economy
to tax to support their efforts. Still, a more reasonable
pricing scheme would garner more unit sales with reasonably
low web-based distribution costs.

Mark Borgerson

Mark Borgerson wrote in
.net:

In defense of the Canadian Hydrographic Service, they have about
the same coastline as the US, but only 10% as large an economy
to tax to support their efforts. Still, a more reasonable
pricing scheme would garner more unit sales with reasonably
low web-based distribution costs.

Mark Borgerson

Hi Mark, I was not critting Can Hydro, they do a lot with little, a friends
Dad worked at Ocean Sciences in Sidney BC, what I was critting was a
stupid gov't move to sell the rights to the charts in the first place.
I have no idea what charts sold for before NDI, or even if there was
digital by Canada before they bought rights.

I too use Bluecharts, on a Garmin Legend, not sure if they are as detailed
as Canadian paper charts.. have a bit more comparing to do....
Ron

In article ,
says...
Mark Borgerson wrote in
.net:

In defense of the Canadian Hydrographic Service, they have about
the same coastline as the US, but only 10% as large an economy
to tax to support their efforts. Still, a more reasonable
pricing scheme would garner more unit sales with reasonably
low web-based distribution costs.

Mark Borgerson

Hi Mark, I was not critting Can Hydro, they do a lot with little, a friends
Dad worked at Ocean Sciences in Sidney BC, what I was critting was a
stupid gov't move to sell the rights to the charts in the first place.
I have no idea what charts sold for before NDI, or even if there was
digital by Canada before they bought rights.

I agree that CHS is doing the best they can within their budget. In my
experience in Desolation Sound and the Gulf Islands, the electronic
produce is good enough for the prudent mariner.

I do think that the Canadian government made a mistake in the deal with
NDI. They basically gave the data to NDI on terms that let NDI apply
thethumbscrews to the yachtsmen and cruising sailors. I'm not an expert
on the marketing of charts and data, and I'm probably predjudiced by
some fringe benefits of my naval service. Just before I left the USN,
I was on temprorary duty aboard an destroyer escort that was updating
its chart library. The chief quartermaster was about to discard a few
dozen BC and sourthern Alaska charts that had been superseded. I
offered to 'dispose' of them, no questions asked,and was given all the
old charts. The DE never got closer to BC than Pearl Harbor and was sold
to Indonesia a few years later. I did my cruise planning from 1974 to
1989 with those charts!

I too use Bluecharts, on a Garmin Legend, not sure if they are as detailed
as Canadian paper charts.. have a bit more comparing to do....

The trawler I chartered last August from Cooper had a full set of paper
charts and cruising guides. There is a bit more detail on the the
paper charts. I always had both the paper charts and the GPS with
BlueCHarts in the cockpit. You could probably get by with one or the
other, but they won't let you take the paper charts with penciled
tracks when you go home. For quite a few years, I took my own paper
charts so I could bring home the pencil marks.

I suspect that I'm not alone in finding that some of the best
moments on a cruise are those spent alone in the cockpit comparing
paper charts with GPS data and electronic charts then reading the
cruising guide to decide where to go next. Add a camera and a
cup of cocoa, and you've got the formula for a perfect morning!

http://www.oes.to/DSound2006/DS06.html

(A blatant attempt go get a few more visitors to my picture
site before it disappears)

Mark Borgeron

On 21 Feb 2007 22:22:58 -0800, wrote:

This group has helped me before and I can't understand what the deal
is with digital charts, whether raster or enc. I can go into any
local map shop, chandlery, marine supply place and buy any nautical


Why not just use a laptop and CMap? I do and have sailed from Sydney
to Darwin and far beyond

Peter

Peter,

Where did you get your copy of C-Map? Is it CMAPECS?



On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:10:42 +1100, Peter Hendra
wrote:

On 21 Feb 2007 22:22:58 -0800, wrote:

This group has helped me before and I can't understand what the deal
is with digital charts, whether raster or enc. I can go into any
local map shop, chandlery, marine supply place and buy any nautical


Why not just use a laptop and CMap? I do and have sailed from Sydney
to Darwin and far beyond

Peter

Ibid
(k4556ATinetDOTcoDOTth)

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Feb 22, 2:47 pm, Mark Borgerson wrote:
In article ,
says...



wrote in news:1172125377.914203.44450
@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

This group has helped me before and I can't understand what the deal
is with digital charts, whether raster or enc. I can go into any
local map shop, chandlery, marine supply place and buy any nautical
paperchartthat was produced by the Australian Hydrographic Office
for $29 bucks. The US has totally free downloadable digital charts
(both raster and ENC) for all US coasts and territories because the US
taxpayer has already paid for the production of these charts.

I would be quite happy to pay $29 for the digital equivalent of a
paperchart. I have navigation software that reads digital charts.
But if I want, say AUS 154 (Williamstown) in digital format I would
have to pay for a (redundant) viewer and then thechart(s); somewhat
more tha $29.

Don't figure

Cheers, Jim

Ha, I was just on NDI digital ocean website to see what canadian stuff
goes for - $899.00 !!!!!
All they did was take over all the canadian govt work, somehow they got
the rights, and have held it for ransom. I see the Can govt is buying it
back, another financial fiasco !
I'm mad a govt for pawning it off in the first place and disgusted at
the price the private company is charging, monopoly or not.
Ron in BC waters

Instead of updating my 6-year-old NDI charts, I went with theGarminBlueCharts. IIRC, I got the region that included all
of the inside part of Vancouver Island for about $150US. It had
the added advantage of being downloadable to my GPS76C. I kept
the GPS in the cockpit, and downloaded the tracks to the PC
each night.

In defense of the Canadian Hydrographic Service, they have about
the same coastline as the US, but only 10% as large an economy
to tax to support their efforts. Still, a more reasonable
pricing scheme would garner more unit sales with reasonably
low web-based distribution costs.

Mark Borgerson- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Actually I think we have quite a bit more coastline if you consider
the north, not exactly a prime cruising ground, but as the globe warms
and the ice melts, commercially more important. Northwest Passage.

I seem to rember someone (Roger Long perhaps?) asking when Garmin will
produce an update of its charts for North America. I've just noticed
a new version is out now:

MapSource Product: BlueChart AMR v9 CD ROM
Update Version: 9.00
Date Available: Jan 1, 2007
Ship Date: Feb 19, 2007
Update Details: Now with new coverage of Newfoundland, Labrador and
Hudson Bay.
Updated Notice to Mariners.

http://shop.garmin.com/cartography/m...D=010-10393-09