On Dec 27, 2007 4:35 PM, John Fereira <jaf30_at_cornell.edu> wrote: > > I have also been building my own maps using available GIS data and > have created some pretty good base maps with street/park/hydrology > and a few other features. It's a pretty tedious process though. Navigational charts produced by the U.S. Government are not copyrighted and are available free of charge on the Internet and also from companies which have made DVDs from this data and sell those relatively cheaply. Charts from Canada are under a copyright owned by the government of Canada and are not freely available. Companies which produce GPS units quickly realized that they could enhance their revenue stream (e.g.: make more money) by making their units so that they only accept proprietary mapping data. They they create that proprietary data from the free US charts and cut deals with the copyright owners of other navigational data. Garmin has their Blue Charts series and others use the C-Maps. What I'd like to know is if there are GPS units out there (or Chart Plotters - some of which may not have a built-in GPS - just so you know) that easily accept the non-proprietary navigational data. This is, of course, for my mutha.... er, mother ship project. :) Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Craig Jungers wrote: > What I'd like to know is if there are GPS units out there (or Chart Plotters > - some of which may not have a built-in GPS - just so you know) that easily > accept the non-proprietary navigational data. Craig, I use an older Nobeltec raster-chart-bsed plotting program on a laptop at home which has a GPS interface. That might be the easiest way to go on your mofo-ship. As to adapting raw charts to a GPS, I'd wonder about that for small units like the Map60C I own. The display is so small; the detail of a trad. raster-based chart would overwhelm the microprocessor; clutter on the screen might lead to mental distraction. It costs about $0.13K/region to get BlueCharts, and is a small cost, relative to the overall cost of cruising. I just pay the freight and go for it. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> On Dec 27, 2007 4:35 PM, John Fereira <jaf30_at_cornell.edu> wrote: > > > > > I have also been building my own maps using available GIS data and > > have created some pretty good base maps with street/park/hydrology > > and a few other features. It's a pretty tedious process though. > > > Navigational charts produced by the U.S. Government are not copyrighted and > are available free of charge on the Internet and also from companies which > have made DVDs from this data and sell those relatively cheaply. Charts from > Canada are under a copyright owned by the government of Canada and are not > freely available. > One can only hope that the Canadian Hydrographic Service will eventually follow the lead of Natural Resources Canada and make their digital data available for free. I can understand there being a cost involved in updating the "notices to mariners" (or whatever it is called), but the basic islands and water depths do not change -- any more than the data on topo maps change -- and that stuff should be available freely. If you could get vector data, there are programs that will let you convert it into the formats used by Garmin, Magellan and Lowrance GPS units. (Not sure about the units used for in-car navigation, and not sure about other brands either. But there's lots of support of the Garmin GPS handheld units.) -- Darryl *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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