I need HELP!!! Sorting out electronic charts

[Richard Marble]

OK I have a Garmin 182C. Now I want to get charts of the East coast of the USA and I don’t want to go bankrupt doing it. Garmin says I can buy most of them for about $1000.00.But Wait NOAA sells electronic charts (I think on CD) and so doesn’t Nav Pak and OZIE Explorer and a few others. I guess I can buy the CD and down load the maps on a chip that will fit my Garmin, and I think most of the other companies chart info is compatible and will read in my Garmin right? But Nav Pak doesn’t say on their web sight if theirs will fit into a garmin and Ozie Explorer doesn’t say if they have charts or just topo stuff, And can you buy NOAA charts that will download? and I’m getting a little confused. So what’s cheapest and what will down load into my Garmin 182C?  Anybody care to help me sort all this out?

 

[Jack]

Ozzie

I have Ozzie Explorer on a pc interfaced with a garmin GPS. This system has standard charts and is very Garmin friendly. Whether the charts will work directly on your Garmin without the rest of the Ozzie Explorer software is questionable.

 

[Colin]

use an old laptop and down ENC charts.

Your garmin will work with a laptop and the charts on the NOAA site are free. You just need to buy Fugawi, Nobeltec or some other Both of these are very cheap programs.