About Admiralty Charts

ARCS chart data is produced by the UK Hydrographic Office and is supplied on a series of 11 CD-ROMs. The 11 Regional Coverage (RC) CDs supplied are:

• RC1 North Sea and English Channel to Gibraltar
• RC2 British Isles (west coast) and Iceland
• RC3 Northern Waters and Baltic Sea
• RC4 Mediterranean and Black Sea
• RC5 Indian Ocean (northern part) and Red Sea
• RC6 Singapore to Japan
• RC7 Australasia, Borneo and Philippines
• RC8 Pacific Ocean
• RC9 North America (east coast) and Caribbean
• RC10 South Atlantic and Indian Ocean (southern part)
• RC11 Ocean Charts (one overall CD for the worlds oceans)

ARCS CD coverage

In addition, there are weekly Update CDs produced which contain Admiralty Notices to Mariners, new editions and new charts. Chart updates are applied to the base chart data, with the base chart data typically being supplied on the 'RC' CDs.

Note: base chart data may, on occasions, be supplied on an Update CD. This happens in the case where a chart has been re-issued but the 'RC' CD it belongs to has not yet been re-issued.

ARCS Chart Service Levels

The UK Hydrographic Office offers 2 levels of service with their chart data; namely, Skipper and Navigator. The Skipper service, in essence, involves a one-off purchase of a chart or set of charts. With this, the user will be supplied with the base chart data (on one or more 'RC' CDs) and an Update CD which together bring the chart or charts up to date to the day of purchase. It is also possible to subscribe to a Quarterly Update Skipper service where the user is issued with updates in March, June, September and December.

The Navigator service is licenced to the user by an annual charge and provides the user with weekly update CDs allowing their chart set to be kept up to date.

In either case, when a user purchases a chart or set of charts they are supplied with the relevant 'RC' CDs, an Update CD and a floppy disk containing a licence and permit file. The licence file is named GB.LCN whilst the permit file is named GB.SCP, under Skipper service, and GB.NCP, under Navigator Service.

New charts may be added to an existing licence at any time, in which case the relevant 'RC' CDs, an Update CD and new licence and permit files will be supplied.

Note: Under the Skipper service, when a new chart is added to an existing licence any 'RC' and Update CDs supplied with the new licence and permit files should be used to install and update ONLY the new chart. The existing charts on the users licence should be installed and updated using the 'RC' and Update CDs supplied at the time of purchase. This potentially cumbersome process can be eased through the purchase of the Quarterly Update Service.

For more information on the UK Hydrographic Office visit their website on http://www.hydro.gov.uk/ or for further Admiralty Chart information try http://catalogue.ukho.gov.uk/home.asp

A User's Unique Licence

A Permit Details sheet is issued as part of the ARCS for GIS package. This sheet gives information on the unique User Permit and Personal Identification Number (P.I.N.) which have been generated by Intelliscan Ltd for that user. These numbers relate to numbers which are programmed into the user's hardware key.

The user must obtain a licence and permits for ARCS charts to use with ARCS for GIS. A licence and permits are obtained using the unique User Permit and P.I.N. by quoting those numbers to the Chart Agent (of which Intelliscan Ltd is one). Additionally, if more charts are to be added to a user's folio of charts, then these numbers should again be quoted to the Chart Agent.