Portable GPS recommendation?

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by xymotic

? The entire US is $100 didn't seem too bad to me.

Consider that the entire US is Free from NOAA. I think its 2273 charts. If you have Sea-Clear or Open CPN (also free share-ware) you are navigating on your laptop for 'free'. You may need to add a BU353 antenna. Charts are free in vector or raster format.

The charts on all of the US chart plotters are based on the free maps from NOAA re-packaged in a format that will only run on their hardware. It irks me that they charge 100 for the intellecual property we-all already paid for. This said, check into the cost of non-US based charts for any other part of the planet. That is where you will pay for the IP with every chart.

If you are persistant you can find a deal as we did for last year's model LOADED with all US detailed charts AND discounted. Ours also came with unlimited upgrades for the first year. Price was 210 four years ago at West Marine. We have since added the chip for the Canadian eastern Great lakes out to the east coast and south to Maine. That was a pricey chip but we used the heck out of it in the North Channel for 3 weeks last summer. Paper charts are still way more expensive.

BTW in my post above I was mistaken. Our unit is an OREGON 400C. You can still get this one reconditioned (discontinued) for 270.00 although I wouldn't consider buying obs. hardware.