electronic map of Monduran and Somerset?

[pontificator]

Is there such a thing that I can load onto a H'bird 737?

[hodges4]

I contacted Navionics, the makers of the maps for Humminbird, this morning and received the following.

No freshwater data available. In the future suitable surveys may be done, but until the demand is commercially viable I do not know who will pay for those surveys.

There's no software available to produce your own maps either.


John

[BaitThrower]

I know you can make maps for the Garmin series of GPS navigators. I have fiddled with making a map of the Maroochy river using various print sources of charts.
Wouldnt be much different for dams.

[Sniper]

I contacted Navionics, the makers of the maps for Humminbird, this morning and received the following.

No freshwater data available. In the future suitable surveys may be done, but until the demand is commercially viable I do not know who will pay for those surveys.

There's no software available to produce your own maps either.


John

How are they going to access if there is demand? Should we all ring them up every month and keep asking? or will they just guess if there is demand??

Also, before these dams were built, I'm sure there would have been surveys done of the area to be flooded, so why don't they use them? I think that is how the map of Monduran was done. Correct me if this is wrong. And its not like the terrain underwater will have changed much, if at all.

[hodges4]

I think it's just their 'polite' way of saying 'not interested' or 'there's not enough in it for us'.

[Sniper]

Its not like they have to go out and survey the area. Like I said before, I'm sure there would be records of the area before the area would have been flooded.
Also wonder if they are going to include all the new "Green Zones" that come into affect next month.
I think your right in saying its too hard for them or not enough in it for them. I know of at least a dozen or more people who would by the Navionics cards if they had impoundments on them. They haven't so far as its not worth their while to purchase them without freshwater on them.
Would be interesting to know what department to talk to, and if its Navionic Australia call or big brother in the States.

[hodges4]

Sniper
The following is what I got from them re the Moreton Bay Green Zones

'We have received a 14 page licensing document from The EPA. It has gone to our head office in Italy for legal appraisal. We are hopeful to be licensed shortly. Then we have to alter the chart, produce a new version and hope that can occur this year.'




John

[hodges4]

I asked Navionics how they determine if it's worthwhile and received the following.

Basically it needs to come from the plotter manufacturers and be able to stand up against the US situation. We did a survey with Humminbird and Lowrance giving data. In Australia we have a small but growing fresh water situation. In the USA they have a huge but currently shrinking situation.

I think I can sum it up by saying that the sport in USA is huge. The best Bass fisherman in the USA although Japanese earned more than double what Darren Lockyer did last year.

Our best Bass Fisherman made pocket money.

More than 90% of plotters and combos sold are for salt water. Maybe that would grow if fresh water charts were available. We have to convince the plotter manufacturers to demand that. Thet are the only ones that Navionics head office will listen to. Its all about population. We need a lot more to get what you can get in the USA and Europe.

Garry Linacre

At least they replied.

[Sniper]

Yes, at least they replied.

Ok, now we have to bug the crap out of the Australian distributors to bug Navionics to do freshwater maps for OZ.
Hmmmm, this ain't gonna be easy. lol

Oh, and what does the competition scene have anything to do with sales of Nav charts? Most of the US Pro's would know their lakes inside out. There would be higher "recreational user" sales than "Pro" sales I'd think.

[Sniper]

Is there such a thing that I can load onto a H'bird 737?

Sorry to Hijack your post mate.

As for your question, no at this present time. The H/birds have basic built in maps that I have found are semi accurate, but I would definately not use them for navigational purposes unless you want to commit suicide. Nah, they're not THAT bad.

[Lockie]

I bought a cheap old laptop and use the Oziexplorer program. This allows the scanning of maps to be downloaded into the program. Then you just plug in via the usb port a gps receiver (around $60) and bingo, you have got just what you want. Works well for me. All up cost around the $100-$150 mark from memory.
Beats my Navman any day because the display is so much larger on the laptop. Just a small problem with power, the batteries don't last very long, could be because of the age of the laptop.
One thing i will say is once you start to fish a lake like Somerset, it really doesn't take very long to get to know the area, hence maybe the gps senario is slight overkill.
cheers
Paul

[ben_460]

would such a map be able to show water depth? most dams have a pretty big range in water height from full to empty. would they just contours from sea level or something to show rise and fall?

[Lockie]

No mate, water depth is a variable. Only ever seen maps with contour lines above max water level. I only ever used this system to show me my relative positioning on the lake surface.
cheers
Paul