10-15-2023, 01:37 PM
David Burch of Starpath School of Navigation has just released a new book "ENC Essentials" dealing with the transition from paper charts to electronic navigation charts.
It is available from Amazon as a Kindle book or paperback.
I have no association with Amazon, Starpath, or David Burch other than having been an occasional customer of each.
How do you like the ENC's vs. paper charts?
My experience with ENC's is minimal but so far I much prefer the paper version. Much easier to see the "big picture" and then focus in on the details you need. With ENC's some of the elements appear and disappear with the zoom level. So zoomed out you might see the entrance to a destination harbor in relation to your departure point but not some of the rocks or buoys that are there until you zoom in on them.
Also the zoom level doesn't always change the size of the rendered elements meaning that zooming in doesn't change the size of printed information. It seems as if you need a huge electronic screen to render some of this stuff in sizes that are readable at a glance..
I sometimes use raster e-charts which are scans of paper charts on an iPad mini or even my iPhone and with those you can increase print size by zooming in, or see the big picture by zooming out.
I guess it is age related ;)
Peter
It is available from Amazon as a Kindle book or paperback.
I have no association with Amazon, Starpath, or David Burch other than having been an occasional customer of each.
How do you like the ENC's vs. paper charts?
My experience with ENC's is minimal but so far I much prefer the paper version. Much easier to see the "big picture" and then focus in on the details you need. With ENC's some of the elements appear and disappear with the zoom level. So zoomed out you might see the entrance to a destination harbor in relation to your departure point but not some of the rocks or buoys that are there until you zoom in on them.
Also the zoom level doesn't always change the size of the rendered elements meaning that zooming in doesn't change the size of printed information. It seems as if you need a huge electronic screen to render some of this stuff in sizes that are readable at a glance..
I sometimes use raster e-charts which are scans of paper charts on an iPad mini or even my iPhone and with those you can increase print size by zooming in, or see the big picture by zooming out.
I guess it is age related ;)
Peter