This page is for the use of current owners of LoranGPS version 6.0 to 6.3 only and is not intended for browsing. This page is the list of maintenance updates in version 6.1 through 6.3 and a download able update program. You can download the maintenance upgrade for free if and only if you own a 6.0 or newer version. Do not download this to upgrade an older version as it may crash for lack of some vital support files. 

 
Update Your 6.0/6.3 Software to final release of 6.3

Download the last  (6.3) update of the program - 11/19/07 (4.5 Mbytes)

Download the 6.3 Manual (1.3 Mbytes)

Note that this program is not stand alone. In order to run it you need a full installation of version 6.1 (or later) of the LoranGPS program. Do not download this program if you have an earlier version, it will not work and may cause program crashes. This update only has the changed files that are needed to bring your copy up to current capabilities. If you want to upgrade to version 7.3, you need to purchase an upgrade for $25.

Do not uninstall the original program as this installation needs the files from that installation. Put the downloaded program ( Setup6u.exe) onto the desktop. Run this program from there to install the update. Then delete the installation program from the desktop. If successful, the installed program will show the date above.

Modifications and Bugs found and fixed in version 6.3:
 

11/19/07
Minor maintenance upgrades.

10/30/07
Fixed an issue in GDB importing where the program would sometimes say it could not find a file it needed in the process. Also made it work with newer versions of USR files.

8/21/07
Fixed a few issues with respect to import/export. Added an Offshore Hunter type and changed the GPX export to not have a blank in the latitude that caused GPSU to reject the file. Changed from dashes to hyphens to fill blanks in the export process as some GPS types do not like blanks or dashes.

5/23/07
Added the ability to show NOAA charts of the BSB variety. You can get these free from http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/index.htm Also fixed a few Windows Vista issues.

3/26/07
Found that three pages in the 9960 ASF table were mis labeled as 70/39, 70/38, and 70/37 and should have been 74/39, 74/38, and 74/37 respectively. This would have caused a significant error in conversion of data offshore South NJ, MD, DE, and NC. The ASF tables for a block from 60 miles to 120 miles offshore Maryland stretching from Cape May to Kitty Hawk were blank and the data that should have been there was 4 degrees further East. This made the ASFs zero instead of about 2.4 for the X slave and 2.0 for the Y slave. This problem has existed since version 5.0, released in 1999.

3/22/07
Found that I had erased the pre-calibration data for the SE US in January while adding the NE US data. Fixed that in this release.

1/22/07
Pre-calibrated the ASF tables for most of the NJ coastline with information supplied by Capt. George Steller. Began working on an eventual BSB chart capability since the NOS GEO NOAA charts are no longer available except what I have available and that is for Florida. I have the full set of 2D Bathy charts and have reduced the price to $25 per CD.

1/12/07
Added a screen to show that charts are being loaded from the CD.

12/18/06
Fixed export of partial file to get right number of readings. Also fixed a problem with Lowrance USR export where GPS reported unsuccessful load, but loaded OK anyway.

12/12/06
Fixed another bug in the C-Map exporter.

11/24/06
Fixed a bug in the C-MAP XML import where it only took the first batch of waypoints. Updated the Sonar Harvester to not crash if the user does not load a file first.

11/17/06
Fixed a math error in the Lat/Lon to Loran conversion for Loran A chains which did not share a common master station.

11/13/06
Updated help file.

11/7/06
Calibrated the ASF tables for Panama City, FL and Mexico Beach, FL.

11/2/06
Fixed a problem with the C_MAP exporter where if a reading had trailing zeros, the decimal part would be wrongly interpreted by PC-Planner. Added a utility to harvest data from a Lowrance Sonar Log. This log is a recording of the day's sonar data. To get data from the log would normally require the user to write down the data from the log and manually enter it into the LoranGPS program. With this utulity, the only thing to manually enter is the log index, the rest is automatically captured.

10/16/06
Calibrated for upstate NJ and LI as well as Holden Beach, NC, St. Petersburg, FL and the Florida Middle Grounds.

10/7/06
Calibrated for Tampa Bay inlet. Fixed a problem with export to Garmin GDB files where it would not use number for the GPS name and didn't prevent duplicates.

9/26/06
Added formats to work with RayMarine's RayTec Navigator files for uploading and downloading their GPSs. Can handle the RWF files and the text files. Added Mapsource MPS files.

9/21/06
Added the GPSBabel conversion utility to handle the Garmin GDB import/export. This utility also can handle conversion of many less used (by fishermen) formats. Still working on the RayMarine ARCHIVE.FSH format. If anyone has data on this, or clout with RM, let me know. Added Daytona to the areas pre-calibrated, thanks to Jeff Emery.

9/18/06
Pre-calibrated the ASF tables for Sebastian, Canaveral, St, Augustine, Mayport, Mobile, and Masonboro inlets. This is based on inputs from Tom Downey, Val Thomas, Tom Littlepage, and myself.

9/10/06
Added a "search for missing files" utility to help those that somehow misplace data files.

9/9/06
Updated the USR, GPX and XML file exporters to allow the user to select a portion of the file to export while retaining the same waypoint numbers as in the source file. If you select Waypoint number to be the GPS "name", all your points on the GPS screen wil be waypoint numbers. This keeps the data in the GPS coordinated with your printed list when the list is longer than what can be loaded into the GPS. It also makes it easier to "name" the waypoints uniquely to avoid duplicate names. Also added the ability to specify saving the exported file directly into a memory card for loading into a GPS.

8/31/06
Added XML importer/exporter for C_MAP files and PC_Planner files. Updated USR import/export to work with GDM6 and latest Lowrance GPSs. Now you can export a USR file to the MMC or SD card directly for loading into your GPS. Added Standard Horizon import/export of WPL files. Updated Garmin Mapsource text file import/export to handle variations in the fields sent. Added "save-as" capability to these routines to make it easier to get the file to the memory card.

6/26/06
Modified GPX exporter to not use characters a GPS might not understand; like punctuation.

5/16/06
Added GPX import/export.

4/4/06
The Raymarine importer stopped on blank records. Fixed

2/25/06
Added import/export routines for Furuno NavNet GPSs. These GPSs can upload/download directly to a PC, but in their proprietary format.

2/11/06
The add readings dialog did not show what reading number you were on if the number got too long. Fixed

1/28/06
Fixed the Garmin downloader to show the downloaded file correctly.  It was not clearing out the display of old file information.  Also fixed a problem causing a crash on startup if the last file loaded was a track file.  

12/13/05
Made the Garmin uploader symbols default to a dot if there is no symbol defined in the file.  Also removed a feature where I used psuedo Lat/Lon in the TDs columns if there was no TD information.  Now it show 0's.  

10/23/05
Added importing and exporting capability for Lowrance USR files.  These files are uses by Lowrance on rthe flash card (memory stick) for saving and transferring data.  You need a computer with a card reader to be able to exchange data between the newer GPSs and your computer.  Thanks to the GPS Babel group for help in understanding  the USR format.  

9/13/05
Incorporated a new Garmin upload utility that handles USB connections.  Added ability to swap description and comments where an imported file has comments that are better as descriptions.  Added landscape and portrait modes to instant plotting.  

5/6/05
Added NOAA charts to the list of files that can be backed up or restored by the program.  

12/1/04
The RayMarine text export routine was not tolerant of missing commas in the fields that it was using.  Also added a procedure to show all the NOAA charts on a graphic so that they could be better identified.  Going by just the name does not give a good feel as to where and how much the chart covers in all cases.  

11/11/04
Fixed the companion NorthStar loader's slow downloading in Windows XP problem.  If you have the utility and need the update, click here.  Place this file into the LoranGPS folder.

10/15/04
Added import/export for Northstar DB_LOAD and DB_UNLOD programs' files. 

3/11/04
Fixed an issue with backup/restore where it would give an error or not depending on which direction you pushed the file.

1/20/04
Fixed an issue with NMEA 183 import of the $PNTI sentence. Had miscounted the commas.

12/17/03
Fixed a minor issue where if you close the Nos/Geo window with the Chart/Quit menu rather than minimize it or kill it, then it will not come back later.

12/4/03
It appears that some Windows platforms that have not had service packs applied may not have the MSVCP60.DLL library, which is required by the NGX module that runs the new NOAA charting operation. This causes a crash when trying to run the NOAA charting. It will be included from this date forward. If your installation gave an error message about the ngx.ocx, download the update above.

11/22/03
Fixed some problems when a chart straddled the International date line. Put in the new help file.
11/10/03
The "center a chart on a reading" always says the reading is off the chart. Ignore it as the centering works anyway (to the extent it can). Since the chart is finite, the program cannot always scroll the chart to make the reading show up in the center. It will only scroll until one edge of the chart is against the side of the screen.

The Lat/Lon of a reading shown on the bottom of the NOAA chart screen was showing in radians instead of degrees.

11/7/03
First 6 programs shipped to beta testers
 

Notes on the new features of versions 6.0 and later versus version 5.7:
 

I added the NOAA chart viewer to the program. This viewer will take nos/geo formatted files and display them on the screen. It will overlay lat/lon lines and/or loran lines and your readings. The main impetus for this version is to display 2-D bathymetric charts with your readings on them. The printing function is not as high a quality as I would like, but it works.

I added landscape/portrait printing that works. Previously I relied on the printer dialog that promised landscape printing, but did not always work. Now it does. You can set up each of your maps as either orientation and they will print that way.