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Random Quote: My dad is a T.V. repairman. He has an awsome set of tools, I can fix it. Jeff Spicoli
I have a Compact Flash (CF) reader that works fine in my PC. I have installed Raymarine RayTech Planner. When I start up Raytech RNS 6.0, RayTech Planner:
"Can not read charts from a non Raymarine CompactFlash reader.
...make sure you are using the Raymarine E86026 Navionics Multicard Reader."
Hm... is it really so stupid that I must buy a CF reader from Raymarine?
When I check on their homepage:
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Navionics Multichart Card Reader
USB compatible Navionics Multicard Chart Reader for RayTech RNS 6.0 and RayTech Planner.
Kit includes card reader/writer with attached USB interface cable, and a free RayTech Planner CD-ROM.
Sorry this product is currently out of stock
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Checked on internet on some online stores, about $70 is what they want for it.
By by Raymarine - no RayTech Planner for me (just uninstalled it), You give me free to use software but force me to buy Your special
card reader. It will not happen.
I have bought a chartplotter from You and if you are not willing to let me plan on PC for free to make it easier for me to use the chartplotter
You can keep your free software.
Just my opinion.
The cards are mechanically copy protected, they won't work in a regular CF card reader. If you want to access the card in a PC you have no other choice than to use the crappy reader they offer.
__________________ -Bill Kearney, 34' Four Winns 348 Vista
Follow the links to download free charts and get the ones you want. Fire up RM Navigator. From the file menu select install charts. This will bring the charts into RM Nav. From there you can manage your waypoints, move them to/from the CF card on a standard reader etc. The charts are good but not identical to the ones on the Navionics card. Works well for me.
The free RayTech planner will read waypoints, routes, etc. from a "normal" CF card onboard reader. As stated above, the Navionics charts are copy protected.
With the free charts described above, you can do just about anything you need to when planning a trip.
Will the chartplotter use any of the free charts? I already have the Navionics platinum card so I don't "need it" but it'd be interesting to have the option.
Meanwhile I've found MapTech's Chart Navigator Pro (a private labeling of Rosepoint's Coaster Explorer) to be an excellent windows-based chartplotter program. Around $350 from defender and it came with the entire US waters DVD collection (13 discs!). Raytech is clunky, it's "less worse" than previous versions. But in attempting to mimic the chartplotter on a PC it really doesn't work all that well. Free might be better than nothing but I hated using it. Not as much as Navionic's utterly horrendous NavPlanner though, that was truly abysmal.
__________________ -Bill Kearney, 34' Four Winns 348 Vista
The chartplotter will not use free charts. Only the Navionics charts that you can get almost anywhere.
Have you tried the new Navionics NavPlanner? According to a friend of mine, the latest version is MUCH better than that terrible first version release.
Please reread my post. I was not saying that the free charts wouldn't work with the RayTech Planner. The question that was asked and I answered was that the free charts would not work with the chartplotter.
If I am wrong, and you can get ANY of the free charts out there to work on a chartplotter (for example, a Raymarine E120), please let us all know how it's done. That'd save a bunch of us a whole bunch of dollars.
Raymarine RayTech Planner and CF card reader? 
