"Steve" wrote in message
...
The areas you mentioned are mostly outside the US and there for the charts
would not be NOAA but of the nation that has jurisdiction over that
area...

Admittedly they US does have some foreign chart coverage but that usually
falls under the Defense Mapping Agency.. If these charts are
non-classified
they would also be in the public domain but so far I haven't seen any
available for down load.

Actually, many of the copied charts of the example I'd based my expectations
on were DMA charts. (See long ago posts of mine about the initiation of
Lydia with my ex-father-in-law on a leg of a circumnav which he did entirely
with charts copied from the Chicago Public Library at $2.50/page,
doublesided...) Others were NOAA, and I have that complete set of the
Bahamas from that trip - but he was hell-bent-for-leather to get home, and
only included the direct route he was taking, not any peripheral stuff.

Of course, I'm going to want to have details on pretty much every island, as
well as the large scale charts of the area. So, I really don't care about
the source - and I believe that many DMAs were British Admiralty of over a
century ago, as it was!


While it is legal to copy and reproduce (download) a US chart or
document/publication, it may not be so for those produced by a foreign
government or agency.. Canada is an example of this..

The trick is finding where to do this - a trick I've not yet learned - and,
even more importantly, since there seem to be about a thousand of them,
knowing which one to use, which I'd think to be in a catalog, which I've not
yet uncovered.


Regarding printing of charts, I have recently discovered that my favorite
copy shop now has large format scanner and printer.. Not only can I get a

That's the sort of thing I have in mind about my potential to print stuff I
get by download. I'm expecting I'll wind up purchasing a full set of
electronic charting, but for hard navigation, at least to my mind, and in
particular in the Bahamas where there's a huge area where we'd be in shoal
conditions, nothing beats a full-sized chart on the table.

paper b/w copy of the original, but they can also give me the .tif files
for
that chart. My point, I could borrow charts, copy them and maintain a .tif
library of these charts to run with Fagawi or have replacement copies
printed

That part might be useful - but I'd have to assume that a chart program that
I bought would have that info/ability already...

at a later date. Cost of scanning and printing a large format chart is
presently $4 each however the cost of just scanning should be half or less
that amount (I haven't ask about yet). Also you can print from .tif on an
ordinary PC printer and tap section together if you just need a small
area..

That was a suggestion from one of the university sources I had, but I don't
consider that a viable alternative for actual use...

L8R

Skip



--
My opinion and experience. FWIW

Steve
s/v Good Intentions



--
"And then again, when you sit at the helm of your little ship on a clear
night, and gaze at the countless stars overhead, and realize that you are
quite alone on a great, wide sea, it is apt to occur to you that in the
general scheme of things you are merely an insignificant speck on the
surface of the ocean; and are not nearly so important or as self-sufficient
as you thought you were. Which is an exceedingly wholesome thought, and one
that may effect a permanent change in your deportment that will be greatly
appreciated by your friends."- James S. Pitkin