GPS Program

[Trojan]

My Wife gave me a new GateWay laptop for Christmas. I also have a new GPS antenna for it. What I need is a good program to run it. I only float the Great Lakes and Canada. Any ideas on a good program?


BILL

 

[mstailey]

Bill,
Maptech has alway received good reviews and I've used it with success.

http://www.maptech.com/

 

[Trojan]

Maptech seems a little pricey. Are they all that costley?

BILL

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Bill,
I have MapTech, about 2 years old now. I like it but I have only used it on the Great Lakes so far. It uses the NOAA charts, so it is the same as looking at the paper, but with your boat animated on the chart. I find the 3D bottom feature essentially useless and I almost never use the split screen feature. The aerial photos are nice, but I rarely use those either. I can't say how it compares to other programs since I didn't really shop it before buying.

I have my laptop at home for the winter, so if you get near Lansing and would like to check it out, give me a call.

 

[outbound]

have used maptech offshore navigator for years, florida to nova scotia, never a problem. seems to run all area charts, and is accurate. we use it on a hp laptop.good luck .

 

[OldHatt45]

I've been using the Nobeltec program (Not the Admiral) for a number of years as my Backup plotter. It's VERY powerful, and every time I use it I find something New. It can use several different types of charts including the Maptech, and also a neat feature is the Bathy charts (Giving Bottom contours). As I understand it (and FWIW) I thought the latest version was also slated to work with your Depth FInder and update chart information for certain types of charts. (I'm still using an older version and have not upgraded to the latest).

Anyhow, Hope this helps.

OldHatt45

 

[Maynard Rupp]

We use Nobletech on our racing sailboat and love it. Ours is an older version and doesn't have tide charts. Of course, we also don't have tides in the great lakes. I have put the laptop from the sailboat in our lower helm on the Hat. We have Navman 5600 on the bridge and have run a NMEA cable to the lower helm. I think it may be too bright on the bridge to use a laptop.

 

[Nonchalant1]

I used the First Mate program by The Cap'n. It's only $199 for the program and $149 per region for the CDs. It was selected for use by the US Coast Guard. It worked great and I could get the inland rivers charts which were unavailable on C-Map or Garmin until 2005. Now that C-Map has them, I just sold the software, cable and 3 rivers on CD (Ohio, Illinois and Missouri) for $124 on eBay. ($600 of software). "First Mate" is set up to receive NMEA0183 GPS position information from a 9-pin D-shell computer cable which they supply with the software.

Doug Shuman

 

[StratPlan61]

Skycheney, I'm in Lansing and would accept your offer to look at your Maptech. I have Maptech on an old laptop (inherited w/boat) and was thinking about investing in the Great Lakes charts for it. I wouldn't mind looking about it some evening if you have the time? Curious about the cable to tie it to my GPS, hear your thoughts, etc. I guess I could even be co-opted into buying the drinks.

Bear'
1984 61' MY Strategic Plan

 

[DLCameron2]

Hi Bill:

Check out this one. The guy who designed it is retiired from Microsoft. Very cool and relatively inexpensive. You can download a trial version.
http://www.rosepointnav.com/default.htm
Let us know what you think. By the way it has been rather warm here this week.....

DC

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Bear,
No problem. Just send me a PM when you plan to be in the area. I would be happy to meet you with my lapatop and let you check out the software. Maybe I could even talk my dad into meeting us for such an occassion. I just use a USB cable to interface with my old Garmin 160, but the Maptech software will talk to any of the NEMA devices. You just have to tell it what protocal you are using.