POSITIONING YOURSELF.

Charting equipment manufacturers are doing lots of little things that are designed to help you get the big picture.

Versatility. More for the buck. That's what navigation hardware and software manufacturer's are giving fishermen. More to the point, it's what fishermen have been asking for. After all, there are vector charts (on which the operator can manipulate data) and raster charts (on which he cannot) from several companies; what fishermen need is hardware that can take advantage of the particular software package they want.

That's why Furuno, which manufactured its chart machines to operate with its own cartography, then with charts from Navionics, has now done additional engineering so that its GP1650 and GP1850 GPS plotters can be used with CMapNT charts.

But don't expect to use any of the three charts whenever the mood suits you. "It's like DOS and Mac," says Matt Dankoff, Furuno's northwest regional sales manager. "Yes, you're using a computer, but there are different operating systems."

Buyers must specify the chart program they want to use when purchasing the machine. (If you already own a GP 1650 or GP 1850, that runs, say, Navionics, Furuno can convert it.)

The GP 1650 is a 600-watt dual-frequency machine with a 5.6-inch color LCD screen; the GP 1850 is a 1-kW, dual-frequency plotter with a 6.5-inch color LCD screen.

In another company's effort to add additional chart capability, Leica has given raster-chart display capability to its PC-based MX 480 Professional Charting System. Operators have the Option of running either vector or raster charts with the MX 480, which includes a Leica Mx 412B DGPS. The MX 480 now accepts NOAA and British raster charts along with CMapNT vector charts.