Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On 19 Jan 2007 09:30:04 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:


JoeSpareBedroom wrote:


Can't you use the electronic things to just view the maps, but ignore GPS
and focus on your compass instead, as you would with paper maps?

Not on most plotters that I'm familiar with. The plotter needs geo
coordinates to know which chart to "draw" on the screen.

Um...no?

You can pull up a chart, have zoom functions, set waypoints and have
the data handy to navigate. What it won't do is tell you where you
are and for that you need to be able to do dead reckoning. You will
need to be able to lay a course, figure set and drift, etc., which
would be handier on a paper chart, but you can certainly still use the
chart and use it.

If you can't do that on your Simrad, you need to upgrade.

With the Simrad it is possible to look at charted areas anywhere that
is on the inserted chip. What you cannot do with my unit would be to
decide to look at Chart #184XX and pull it up as a separate unit. With
PC Nav, you can get to a distinct chart from a library, but with my
plotter all the charts just "run together", and you either need to
scroll along on the screen or zoom out, select a different sector, and
then zoom back in again.