[Paddlewise] charts etc.

--- Michael Noyes <mnoyes_at_gsinet.net> wrote:
> I use the Maptech Digital Chart Kit, it has all of
> the NOAA marine chart 
> features (they scanned in the NOAA charts) in the
> water, but where the 
> land begins they switch to the USGS Topo maps.

You don't mean on the same chart do you?  There is
info on the land areas of the nautical charts that is
important to navigation so I wonder how they could do
this.

> You
> get the best of 
> both.  The chart kit also includes tide and current
> data and charting. 
>  I like it.  

I have resisted buying charts from them because they
are pretty expensive and I hate to pay again for
something that we as taxpayers paid for in the first
place.  Perhaps I am just a cheapskate.

My understanding is that anyone can scan the NOAA
charts and basically do anything they want with them,
legally.  It galls me to pay Maptech $200 for scans of
charts that are basically freely distributable,
especially since the charts were created at the
taxpayers expense to begin with.

So as a result I have downloaded the topos that I use
from topozone (free).  I have also pieced together
charts of the upper and middle bay from the Maptech
online charts (free).  All of this was time consuming
enough that I probably would have just bought them,
were it not for the feeling that it would be a ripoff.

I will probably do the rest of the bay sometime when I
have the time and patience to tackle the project.

It is my personal opinion that NOAA should distribute
them in a raster format (tiff, jpeg?) for free. 
Unfortunately my opinion is irrelevent on this matter.

BTW:  I find that Oziexplorer is a great tool for
creating waypoints and routes from electronic charts
and maps and getting them into the GPS.  OziCE also
works great on my iPaq.  I connect it to the GPS and
it works like a chart plotter.  I have not used OziCE
or the iPaq in my kayak though (I do use them in the
car and on the sailboat quite a bit).  I may do so in
camp on multiday kayak trips in the future.

Pete

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