After downloading the free charts from NOAA's website my browser did not recognize the file. How do I open the file?
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To use the NOAA soft charts, ya have to download a software program to read them. The "Seaclear" is a good one that is free.. There are a few out there.. Many for dollars but a few free ones that are very good and can "talk" to a GPS receiver (hocky puck) through the UBS port for real time navigation. I think there are some trial programs on the NOAA site that are free to download, like Nav Pac Pro, etc.. Search the archives here for free software and you'll find a thread from a few months back that had a discussion of several programs. Happy Hunting !
rjarrell....it depends...
If you just want a chart to look at, try NOAA's booklet charts, at http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/BookletChart/. Then select a region, like Atlantic Coast. Then I usually do a text search with a name I recognize, like "Chesapeake", and select to correct chart based on what I see. These are good planning charts
Rich
about to be poor b/c of the boat show and cold b/c of the wx
Don't expect your browser to recognize ENC's, if that's the format you downloaded. As another has mentioned, you'll need SeaClear II or something similar, to use the ENC's. (Seaclear at www.sping.com).
If you just want a chart to look at, try NOAA's booklet charts, at http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/BookletChart/. Then select a region, like Atlantic Coast. Then I usually do a text search with a name I recognize, like "Chesapeake", and select to correct chart based on what I see. These are good planning charts
Rich
about to be poor b/c of the boat show and cold b/c of the wx
Raymarine also have a free version of the Raytech Planner. It will open the NOAA charts and you can plot courses etc. The free version will not allow you to transfer to your chartplotter.
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