Budget Chartplotter?

[nigelmercier]

There are no charts available for my 2000 vintage Garmin GPSMap 225 chartplotter, so I currently use it just to to feed a laptop with the NMEA data. This works OK, but there are two drawbacks:

I no longer trust the Garmin since I discovered that moving the map offset also changed the displayed coordinates, as well as the output data stream! This is a <u>terrible</u> design flaw.

Secondly, if the PC were to fail my backup would be the above device, which is using very small-scale charts.

I've decided to buy a new chartplotter when I visit the USA next month. Mainly to feed the PC, but also to act as a standalone. Garmin are too expensive, and I'm concerned about the above flaw, and their ability to make a chart cartridge obsolete in such a small timescale.

I think that C-MAX NT/Max charts are a must, so I've been looking at the Standard Horizon CP300 (I must have an external antenna). This is about £600 in the UK, or $750 in the USA. Any other suggestions?

 

[pvb]

If you're looking at that sort of budget, and you want C-Map cartography, also look at the Northstar 567 at around $650.

 

[Rabbie]

£530 here - http://www.cactusnav.com/product_info.php?products_id=1168

 

[bobupanddown]

Hi,
just got back from the USA yesterday. One of my goals was to buy a new chartplotter but found it very difficult to find any stores that actually had the models I was interested in. I was looking for Northstar but stores I tried no longer stocked them due to lack of demand. They only had a couple of lowrance or Garmin in stock. I would have bought online but had no available delivery address. Where are you thinking of buying from??