Lowrance Chartplotters from the U.S.

[crabbie]

While surfing the net for Chartplotter prices in the U.S. I came across the below and thought that It may be of interest to anyone considering importing a Lowrance Chartplotter or combo unit from the U.S. and save them some grief.

Lowrance Marine Electronics

Dear Customers ...

We are not selling Lowrance products for the time being.

Lowrance have recently implemented their Geofencing technology into the new units (via a software update) to limit the functionality of US marketed equipment. Geofencing is a GIS term whereby software identifies a region on a map. Lowrance have a geofence programmed into the units that identifies (via GPS) where the unit is, and if the unit is an American standard unit, and the current location is outside of 30 degrees West and International Dateline East of the Americas, the unit will revert to US imperial units only and flash a message on the screen continuously saying "This unit is not set up in this area please contact authorized dealer".

I recommend a Raymarine, Furuno or Humminbird. Although Raymarine and Furuno are more expensive they have excellent build quality and reliability. Humminbird also make good quality products and are priced in a similar fashion to Lowrance, Northstar and Eagle (Navico brands).

[Noelm]

so then a GLOBAL position system (GPS) is no longer global and cannot be used to navigate? sounds fishy to me, any GPS unit will operate anywhere in the world, that's the idea.

[bluefin59]

According to some of the canadian sellers they are selling world wide units not us only and they dont have geo fencing issues but are you willing to take the chance at $2500 for a hds10 ,not me ..matt

[MyWay]

i just got my few weeks ago from US it is not Lowrance .
one i got is standard horizon cpf300 i 7' color combo whit p66 amor transducer cost me less than $1000 delivered to my door and i can not be more happy whit performance (and 3 years warranty too) made in Italy

myway