Conference unifix::sailing

1410.0. "NAVINFONET" by AITG::COUTURE (Abandon shore) Tue Dec 12 1989 17:37

Yes, Allen, I put in a keyword - navigation

I'm sure several of you saw the article in Practical Sailor that you could
log into the Defense Mapping Agency computer in Washington to get the
chart corrections on line.

I tried it and it works great.  First, you have to write to the Defense Mapping 
Agency, Hydrographic/Topographic Center in Washington, DC  20315 and
request a users manual for NAVINFONET.  They will send you a manual along
with a user I.D. (the first four letters of my name).

The manual is very easy to follow (strange for a government publication)
and in the back are listed phone numbers for 300, 1200 or 2400 baud.
There's no charge except for the toll call.

The system is menu driven. As well as chart corrections you can get
broadcast warnings, light lists and corrections, catalog numbers and
corrections, and other information (anti shipping activity) that hopefully
most of us will never need.

I found the chart corrections especially helpful because I just specify
the chart numbers and timeframe I want specified, and all of the
corrections come spewing out, dumped to a printer, of course.

It makes it very concise because I only have to look at corrections for
charts I actually use and it should save a lot of trees since the local
notices to mariners in New England now also cover New York.  Still, there
are some things that aren't on the menu that are in the notices to mariners . .
things like events and proposed changes aren't one of the menu options.
But it does have a mailbox utility so I could write in and suggest that
this would be an improvement.

Alas, this wonder is operating on a Prime.  Maybe if enough of us sent
mail and recommended a better platform :-) .

How far back do the chart corrections go? There is a hardcopy book 
available (published quarterly I think) that lists only the corrections to 
the most recent edition of a chart. Not too useful or helpful if you don't 
have the most recent edition (and at $13.50 or whatever per chart virtually 
all of our over 100 charts not the most recent). 

    The manual doesn't say how far back the notices go.  It keeps referring
    to "current" notices.  I ran one back to Jan. 87 just last week. 
    I suspect, however, that 1987 is as far back as the corrections go
    because that's when the system was installed.
    
    On the positive side, I updated my charts in record time.
    Because there was so little "useless" information and I just printed
    out corrections for the charts I actually use, it went very fast.