BlueChart Software.

[Bad Finger]

Has anyone used the BlueChart software along with the high end Garmin Charplotters like the 2010 or 2006? If so, what were your impressions, like or dislikes?

[Thom]

I will be buying a 2006 next week, along with the Blue Chart for the area from about the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay to the NC/SC border. I'm looking forward to seeing it, as you might immagine. I have a friend in VA who picked up the Blue Chart CD for his GPSMap-76 bout 2 weeks ago. He is very pleased with it, very pleased indeed. I have also been in contact with a fellow in California who is using the 2010 with a Blue Chart chip for his are - he describes it as simply astounding. I understand how the various cartography companys come by and reproduct the information they use, and what the limitations are based on the type of cartography in use. Based on what I've seen about the systems the Blue Chart is simply the very best charting technology available, bar none. There is one thing though, and its a big thing for many of the fellows who visit this board regularly (though its of no particular concern to me). That is that inland coverage is sparse at best. The great lakes are covered, as I understand it, but little else. I believe that only NOAA charts have been converted and so if the area you are using was charted by some other body, like the Army Corps of Engineers, or a state agency, it simply won't be available on Blue Charts. That would leavy you in the position of having to rely on blank data cards (very expensive) and then downloading the relevent data from Map Source CD's. I don't think much of this second choice, simply because I'm not a great fan of Map Source myself (though I use it for road maps in my GPSMap-76). That help any?

Thom

[Bad Finger]

Yes, that helps. You're right about the lack of inland coverage. I'm planning to use the unit on Great lakes only, mainly Green Bay and Lake Mi.. Looks like those areas are covered.

[Hugh Albrecht]

You might want to contact Freebyrd. I think he has one of these units and has been very impressed with it. You could also check the archives as I think this subject has been previously covered. It does sound to me from what I have read that the BlueChart provides very good mapping qualities. I only wish they had more inland lake coverage as that is what I fish most.

[FreeByrd]

BadFinger,
I bought the Garmin 2010 monochrome in Sept and used it on Erie. It is great. I've replied to several posts in the last couple months about it - you can do a search by "author" or topic try "Garmin". The detail is astounding for the price. They are actually scanned versions of the official NOAA charts - you can scroll through and see the actual chart numbers. This includes contours and spot depth soundings. I found it to be very accurate. The new units include a WAAS receiver. I went within a couple feet of some channel markers on the Huron river and it showed that on the screen. I could also look at my boat sitting in the dock I was at.
I'm very happy with it.
Steve

[dogfish]

Talked to the people at garmin the other day. There suppose to be coming out with more of the fishing hot spot maps for inland lakes in the next couple months. The blue charts are nice, the best I've seen, but your right, not much coverage besides the great lakes.

[Mike Michalak]

More than 200 lakes have just been released and the info (and a sale!) are posted on their site (www.garmin.com).

Mike M
FHS

[knappy]

Actually blue charts are not scanned version of charts they are vector-based versions. The Garmin web sites has a good discussion on BlueCharts under their Cartography section. I've got a GPSMAP 182 and use the bluecharts for Lake St.Clair / Detroit river and Lake Huron (all on one chart). They provide excellent detail and with the WAAS capability on the 182 I get very good accuracy. Haven't used Hot Spot maps on it (mainly due to the fact that I also have the paper versions of the Hotspots !) For wide coverage in the great lakes the blue charts are hard to beat.

[Sunshine]

Mike,
I must be slow today. I went to the garmin site and could not find the sale that you mentioned. Any help?

[bobco]

Mike, great to see you are getting the inland lakes. May I suggest you narrow you western region down a bit, people that fish Lake Powell would love to buy the map but a $116 it is rather high when you consider 99% of the people will never use the other lakes in California etc.... the West is a big place and so it Lake Powell. Say the ability to get just Powell for $50 would be reasonable in my thinking. Do you have any plans for Colorado? Allot of people from Colorado fish Colorado and Lake Powell maybe a zone that has Colorado and Utah ? Just some thoughts I'm sure you are looking at it from a marketing view.

[Mike Michalak]

Sunshine...
Garmin has several things going right now. For BlueCharts, they have new bundles that include the MapSource CD software along with a USB datacard programmer and 16MB card. From home on a PC you can select coverage areas then transfer the map detail to the card for use in your chartplotter. Coverage areas are listed on the site.

They also has a $50 rebate promotion going on the purchase of select MapSource CDs with Garmin GPS receivers. This factory direct offer is good with the purchase of either a BlueChart or Fishing Hot Spots CD along with a GPSMap 76, GPSMap 162/168 Sounder, eTrex Legend or eTrex Vista until July 7th. There is a rebate coupon that will be available at retailers.

Bobco...
Fishing Hot Spots only supplies the map data to Garmin. The MapSource software is their product, not ours. So we have nothing to do with the pricing structure, sorry. They are responsive to the market, and hearing you comments would never hurt. Email them at sales@garmin.com.