Here's a little follow-up on what NOAA is doing with the nautical
charts.

The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available for free
download over the Internet. Weekly updates are also available for free
download. About 540 of these vector-based electronic charts are
available, and more are added as NOAA finishes them. They comply with
the International Hydrographic Organization standard S-57. The
download site starts at
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/MCD/enc/index.htm.

The NOAA Raster Navigational Charts (RNCs) are also available for free
download over the Internet. Cumulative updates of Notice to Mariners
corrections are available weekly at the RNC download site. Nearly all
of NOAA's 1,021 charts are available. The RNCs are in the .BSB format,
and conform to the International Hydrographic Organization standard
S-61. The download site starts at
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/Index.htm.

NOAA has also posted nearly all of its charts on the Internet for free
viewing using any web browser. These posted charts are updated weekly
for all Notices to Mariners. The On-Line Viewer site starts at
www.NauticalCharts.gov/viewer. This is a new service, and NOAA has
provided a "Click Here to tell us what you think" button on the site to
solicit your comments.

For those who are GIS users, NOAA is providing a free, on-line
translator to query the ENCs for selected feature categories, and then
translate and download those feature categories in popular GIS formats.
The service is called "ENC Direct to GIS", and the Internet site
starts at http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/...direct_new.htm.

wrote in news:1141306157.505568.65190
@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available for free
download over the Internet.

I'd like to correct the notion behind this, Dave.....

NOAA is not providing free charts. NOAA is providing its TAXPAYERS a
SERVICE for the money that has been extracted from them by force.

NO service provided to any taxpayer, in any country, should be fee-based.
The taxpayers have already paid through-the-nose for the service or data
and should not be charged twice for its delivery or use....

It's not you, Dave. It's the entire bureaucratic establishment that thinks
it's some kind of business that needs to sell something.....

Thanks for the information on its retrieval! Nautical chart delivery has
been long overdue, I suspect because of lobbying by commercial interests
that have always sold the taxpayers the data they continue to already pay
for. Weather data was also long sold for profit, but that has busted wide
open in the past few years.

I'm with you. I pay a lot of money for charts and I have already paid
the taxes to have them made. Our government has long thought that we
are subjects when in fact, they government is subject to us. Too bad
more people don't know that they own the country and we are a
government OF the people FOR the people. Too bad people keep calling us
a democracy when in fact we're a republic - and too bad they
don't even know what a republic is!

Like they say, "There is no free cheese in a rat trap".
G


"Larry" wrote in message
...
wrote in news:1141306157.505568.65190
@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available for free
download over the Internet.

I'd like to correct the notion behind this, Dave.....

NOAA is not providing free charts. NOAA is providing its TAXPAYERS a
SERVICE for the money that has been extracted from them by force.

NO service provided to any taxpayer, in any country, should be fee-based.
The taxpayers have already paid through-the-nose for the service or data
and should not be charged twice for its delivery or use....

It's not you, Dave. It's the entire bureaucratic establishment that
thinks
it's some kind of business that needs to sell something.....

Thanks for the information on its retrieval! Nautical chart delivery has
been long overdue, I suspect because of lobbying by commercial interests
that have always sold the taxpayers the data they continue to already pay
for. Weather data was also long sold for profit, but that has busted wide
open in the past few years.

On 2 Mar 2006 05:29:17 -0800, wrote:

Here's a little follow-up on what NOAA is doing with the nautical
charts.

Dave, thanks for the information, and kudos to NOAA for finally
realizing that we shouldn't have to pay twice. I was always infuriated
by the sweet heart/monopoly deal that Maptech was awarded in the past.

The online chart viewer seems to work well and is a nice addition.

Uhhhhhh, Larry?????

Could you please forward this on the to good folks at CHS, Candian
Hyrdological Service (or some variant of that attempted spelling.)

The situation for Canadian charts is much differnet, and MUCH more
expensive.

While I agree with all you say, the situation state-side is much better.
At least on this particular topic.

Howard


Larry wrote:

wrote in news:1141306157.505568.65190
@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:


The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available for free
download over the Internet.


I'd like to correct the notion behind this, Dave.....

NOAA is not providing free charts. NOAA is providing its TAXPAYERS a
SERVICE for the money that has been extracted from them by force.

NO service provided to any taxpayer, in any country, should be fee-based.
The taxpayers have already paid through-the-nose for the service or data
and should not be charged twice for its delivery or use....

It's not you, Dave. It's the entire bureaucratic establishment that thinks
it's some kind of business that needs to sell something.....

Thanks for the information on its retrieval! Nautical chart delivery has
been long overdue, I suspect because of lobbying by commercial interests
that have always sold the taxpayers the data they continue to already pay
for. Weather data was also long sold for profit, but that has busted wide
open in the past few years.

Dave wrote:
On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 09:02:59 -0500, Larry said:


NOAA is not providing free charts. NOAA is providing its TAXPAYERS a
SERVICE for the money that has been extracted from them by force.

NO service provided to any taxpayer, in any country, should be fee-based.
The taxpayers have already paid through-the-nose for the service or data
and should not be charged twice for its delivery or use....


So, Larry, 'splain to me again why you and I and other yachtsmen deserve to
have those folks out in Arizona pay for our charts.
Or why we Canadians can download them for free......or anyone else.

On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 01:31:27 GMT, Gary wrote:

Or why we Canadians can download them for free......or anyone else.

They are not free to Canadians, George W will explain the terms and
conditions later on.

:-)

"Da Kine" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm with you. I pay a lot of money for charts and I have already paid
the taxes to have them made. Our government has long thought that we
are subjects when in fact, they government is subject to us. Too bad
more people don't know that they own the country and we are a
government OF the people FOR the people. Too bad people keep calling us
a democracy when in fact we're a republic - and too bad they
don't even know what a republic is!


Da Kine,
What's the difference between a republic and a democracy?

Wayne.B wrote:
On 2 Mar 2006 05:29:17 -0800, wrote:

Here's a little follow-up on what NOAA is doing with the nautical
charts.

Dave, thanks for the information, and kudos to NOAA for finally
realizing that we shouldn't have to pay twice. I was always infuriated
by the sweet heart/monopoly deal that Maptech was awarded in the past.

The online chart viewer seems to work well and is a nice addition.

Here in the UK, the UK Hydrographic Office will not allow us to receive
tidal information through software such as Tides32 since it (theUKHO) deems
that all such info belongs to the UKHO, and must be paid for. Unable to
control the tides, they control the information about the tides.

The British Government very cleverly "privatised" the UKHO, making it a
profit-making body, whilst retaining all the Crown Copyright rights it had
had as a government body.

Who carried out most of the depth surveys you see on British charts, The
Royal Navy of course, at taxpayers expense! The depth info is also Crown
Copyright, unless you happen to hit an uncharted rock, then it becomes your
problem.

Like I said, you are so lucky across the pond.

Dennis.