The latest version of Garmin Mapsource v5.0 has an incompatibility with
Bluecharts v5.0 (and possibly others). Here is the problem:

Use the "Find Nearest" feature in Mapsource. If you select Marine, with the
subcategory of All, you get mostly spot soundings in the "found" list. This
is of no use to mariners, for nobody cares how close a spot sounding is.
Spot soundings are not considered precise locations to which a fix can be
referenced. Spot soundings are useful as a way to crossreference ones
current position with ones depth, and vice versa. But they are not accurate
enough to be fix points. Furthermore, they are completely nondescript in
their naming. What I mean is that seeing a whole list of 7, 9, 25, 25, 25,
37, 42, 44, 44, 44, 44, 42, 44, 25, 26.... etc., does me no good.

The latest Mapsource should either completely ignore spot soundings, and
perhaps even cartographic markings when searching, or should allow for
"multiple selection" of search criteria, rather than the drop-down menu that
only gives the option of all or one.

--
DJO

I agree that the find function is not that good when using Mapsource 5 and
Bluechart 5.I think it was designed with the land charts in mind. At least
it doesn't seem to crash all the time like it used to. The find function
works great with my chartplotter,a Garmin 182C. I go into a harbor and click
find and then marine sevices and I get all the marinas with phone numbers in
the area.

"David Oswald" wrote in message
...
The latest version of Garmin Mapsource v5.0 has an incompatibility with
Bluecharts v5.0 (and possibly others). Here is the problem:

Use the "Find Nearest" feature in Mapsource. If you select Marine, with
the
subcategory of All, you get mostly spot soundings in the "found" list.
This
is of no use to mariners, for nobody cares how close a spot sounding is.
Spot soundings are not considered precise locations to which a fix can be
referenced. Spot soundings are useful as a way to crossreference ones
current position with ones depth, and vice versa. But they are not
accurate
enough to be fix points. Furthermore, they are completely nondescript in
their naming. What I mean is that seeing a whole list of 7, 9, 25, 25,
25,
37, 42, 44, 44, 44, 44, 42, 44, 25, 26.... etc., does me no good.

The latest Mapsource should either completely ignore spot soundings, and
perhaps even cartographic markings when searching, or should allow for
"multiple selection" of search criteria, rather than the drop-down menu
that
only gives the option of all or one.

--
DJO

Place the crosshair in the general vicintiy of a harbour, and set the
maximum search distance large enough to include objects in an around the
harbour - you should see more than just soundings.

I do agree, it would be nice to be able to turn off spot soundings. I also
found that all points of interest returns the same as Marine with all sub
catagories

The use of spot soundings was a common method validating a position 'in the
old days' (pre gps) with a reasonability check - "does the depth at this
point match where I think I'm at", and especially when they are distinct
enough such as showing a hole, a ledge, or a major drop off. Obviously you
need a method to measure the depth (eg depth sounder), know what the current
datum is difference is. Today with all our power consuming technology,
there is loads of information available to cross validate the instuments and
keep in practice in case a key device (ie gps) bytes it.
When I sail across the lake I frequently mark my chart with my postion and
time in the unlikely event that my gps bytes it.


"David Oswald" wrote in message
...
The latest version of Garmin Mapsource v5.0 has an incompatibility with
Bluecharts v5.0 (and possibly others). Here is the problem:

Use the "Find Nearest" feature in Mapsource. If you select Marine, with
the
subcategory of All, you get mostly spot soundings in the "found" list.
This
is of no use to mariners, for nobody cares how close a spot sounding is.
Spot soundings are not considered precise locations to which a fix can be
referenced. Spot soundings are useful as a way to crossreference ones
current position with ones depth, and vice versa. But they are not
accurate
enough to be fix points. Furthermore, they are completely nondescript in
their naming. What I mean is that seeing a whole list of 7, 9, 25, 25,
25,
37, 42, 44, 44, 44, 44, 42, 44, 25, 26.... etc., does me no good.

The latest Mapsource should either completely ignore spot soundings, and
perhaps even cartographic markings when searching, or should allow for
"multiple selection" of search criteria, rather than the drop-down menu
that
only gives the option of all or one.

--
DJO