now this really is a rip-off!

[Birdseye]

Just glanced at the maptech marine site maptech to find that for $19.95 I can get charting software for my PDA plus official marine charts of the whole of the US coastline. So thats less than the cost of a single UKHO chart. And in all probability even the PDA would be cheaper.

There's no doubt in my mind that the biggest rip off merchant in the UK is the government. Eat your heart out MDL!

 

[Talbot]

Thats cause the US Government reckons that its public actually paid for the surveys in the first place, so shouldnt have to pay again for the data. They also provide free downloads of a lot of atlas and pilotage data and astro tables. Thus the maptech charts of USA are great. However, dont expect their UK ones to be the same price! I have been itold that they way they keep the UK area down to a price is by not using a very modern version of the charts . I personnally cannot substantiate it cause I dont use maptech, so if you do - check against an up-to-date chart.

I find C-map does everything I want and provides up-to-date data

 

[fireball]

My Maptech charts of the solent - purchased end of 2003 are the 2000 edition.
I don't think there have been any major updates since then - Portsmouth is still there !!

 

[Birdseye]

Talbot - WE paid for the surveys of the UK in the first place, but it doesnt stop the government repeatedly selling us the same old info. Thats why the UKHO made a profit of £9.2m on a turnover of just £60m despite civil service manning levels.

The surprising thing is that whilst there are lots of file sharing sites swapping MP3 files, there doesnt seem to be one swapping chart data.

 

[Sea Devil]

You can get US charts of the entire world from Tides End in USA who sell them for as little as $4.50 per chart - I think Maptech also do world charts at similar prices if purchased in the USA.

I agree all European charts were brought and paid for by the public years ago and the prices charged by the Admiralty depot are obsene.

Not quite sure why everyone in the 'trade' are so keen on updated charts - I do not have one that is less than 3 years old and most are 10+ and none corrected. Far too many - full time job!

The rocks and reefs and shorelines do not move - Some small lights may change now and then but mainly around wrecks which come and go - for the rest - bouyed channels frequently change but thats what the bouyage is for.

 

[AlexL]

yeah, well the US have a cracking rule that if the taxpayer paid for something in the first place - i.e tide and depth surveys, military positioning satelites etc. then the public have to be allowed to use that data for free.
The UK on the other hand seem to think they own all the tidal data, spend taxpayers money collecting the data, then sell it back to the same taxpayers for extortionate prices and then spend more taxpayers money sueing anyone who published tidal data even if it not orignoting from UKHO data.

 

[Koeketiene]

We do it best!

Could this not be blamed on Europe / Brussels somehow? Or is this a purely homegrown rip-off?

PS: it's been a while since we had the blimps out to play.

 

[RBJ]

I just got a set of Maptech Charts for Christmas (France-English Channel West). They seem to be correct up to 3rd Quarter 2003.

I wanted to use them with GPSNavX on my Macintosh and tried several times to get a sample chart from Maptech UK. They were distinctly unhelpful and insist on using premium rate contact numbers. Don't see any point to Maptech UK really. Just as easy to buy the charts from the USA. Cheaper to talk to them as well.

Seems a bit cheeky to sell out of date charts digitally. Would have thought price would have included free updates for a couple of years.

However all now installed and working seamlessly with GPSNavX. Will be fine, but not cheap, for my purposes.

 

[Guest]

<<The surprising thing is that whilst there are lots of file sharing sites swapping MP3 files, there doesnt seem to be one swapping chart data. >>

Not true .... try p2p and just input maptech for example ...... this was explained to me many moons ago when I received info from another gps mad user !!!! he recc'd Shareaza .....