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Some of you have for sure already found this out but I thought it was worth a post, http://opencpn.org is a free program anyone can download and is copywrite-less. once you download the program you can then download the free NOAA charts. next all you have to do is attach a GPS antenna and bam! you have a computer that is also a chart plotter....
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You can also download/copy free cruising guides a http://www.freecruisingguides.com for some areas. The DR and Puerto Rico ones are good - haven't tried the others.
Tim - DE32 'Pelli'
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I've been using opencpn for a couple years and it seems to work good. The charts at NOAA are great.. full download of all of them is about 2.5 gigs and takes up about 4 gigs of space on the hard drive. That is for both raster and vector charts. If you just get the vector charts they are much smaller. I will have to write up my setup sometime and list links to the parts needed for this 🙂
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swaimah44 said:
Some of you have for sure already found this out but I thought it was worth a post, http://opencpn.org is a free program anyone can download and is copywrite-less. once you download the program you can then download the free NOAA charts. next all you have to do is attach a GPS antenna and bam! you have a computer that is also a chart plotter....
I can not speak more highly of both NavX and Navionics and to some extent GPS HD on the iPad.
What a wonder! Traveling up from Seattle to Homer, Alaska, the iPad blew-out my chart plotter and GPS hand-held. I did not need any tide and current books, nor did I need a special program to send my GPS location out.
I must admit, the vector program, Navionics was superior to the NavX raster USGS charts. Not only was it quicker, but when it overlaid the Google Earth photos, it was so real.
The iPad blew my MacBook Pro out of the water too. Being able to use the touch-screen capabilities was superb.
It mad the trip so, so easy.
I recommend doing away with chart plotters and going with an iPad and the above three programs--total cost $60 + iPad, which was about $500 plus it has a few other features my wife uses.
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I've been using OpenCPN on my mac for a little while now and I love it. I picked up a usb GPS antenna with a 6' long cable ($60) and voila...chart plotter.
The best part of it all is the chart collection I have...I'm not even sure where I got it...it may have been from a Brazilian guy I used to work with...not sure... Long story short, I found myself with a collection of charting software and none of it seemed to work very well...but amidst all the programs I found a folder with every single C-Map detailed chart...of the world!
I don't know the easiest way to get it to everybody, but should anyone like a copy of it I am more than willing to burn it off and mail it or if there is someone with an easy means of digitally sending/receiving/sharing it, that'd work too. I think it's around a gig or so. Email me if you're interested, I'd just as soon share this sort of wealth! 😉
Scratch
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🙂 nice. I haven't chased after all the other maps so far as I live on the east coast of the US and the free noaa maps do a decent job for here. I will need a full set of them though if we actually get away from the dock like we want to.
scott
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