# Looking for Satellite Data



## CaptDQ (May 13, 2011)

*This is the absolute best link you could use for the most accurate data on the Gulf Coast as we are a GIS Interface Site. We give away more Free data than the others charge you for that are NOT GIS Interface period. Counting pixels and as such it is positionaly inaccurate. *


*It is a flat image representing a round earth. Temperature or Chloro shots in this type of product is based on the colors of the pixels. This is inaccurate as well. 99% of the SST & Chloro Products on the internet are done this way, We call them PRETTY PICTURES!*

*Still people are SOOOoooo used to using this type of product that we have broken down and created one for our users. *

*The RIGHT way of doing this is through a GIS interface such as Bluewater Supermap. This technology was developed for NASA to display Satellite data and has a HIGH degree of positional accuracy. You can access it here. **Bluewater Supermap**<-IT's FREE too! But if your looking for better data that the free stuff can't give you, we have that* *too. *

*Also there's Reefcast that Nobody has and it's Free also.*


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## whome (Oct 2, 2007)

Ok, so I was bored tonight and checked out the site. Don't take this personal, but this is my honest opinion. The site is not easy to navigate at all. It took me 15 minutes to figure out where to go to find the chlorophyll shot. Then I get to that page and the most recent shot I see is from 3 days ago. The last 2 days have been the best days for a sat shot and they are not there. If I can't get the latest information it does me no good at all. Hiltons showed a decent shot tonight, a good enough shot that I can tell where the water is anyway. The site is very cluttered and like I said hard to navigate through. I appreciate your efforts and hope it works out well for you, but it doesn't even compare to Hiltons or Roffs in my opinion. Hope you don't take it personal.


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## CaptDQ (May 13, 2011)

Capt. Jon, no I do not take it personal. But don't you take this personal, as I'm just explaining about the site. Most fishermen/people get into what I call their comfort zone with certain things or applications of what their use too using, whether it's right or wrong. But most hate change, but let me just give you a little info. that you might not have known about the site. 

Just because something else is easy to navigate, does not make it right when your PAYING money for that site to use and the data is not totally accurate because of not being GIS mapped. There not giving you anything for FREE! It is a pay service. Now is that ok with you to pay money for that site just because it's easy to navigate and shows pretty pictures. I guarrantee you none of those sites are accurate like a GPS on where something is supposed to be located without having to go farther or ride around looking for it than what it shows, because I know, because I have used them all. 

1. For one, what you might not know, there are video tutorials that show YOU how to navigate the site with Bluewater Supermap. I don't know if you watched any of them or not? 

2. What basic satellite info that we give away for FREE, is more info than what others CHARGE you for. There's no way to see everything we offer in 15-30 minutes, to much data & info. Now what we offer for free and if the satellites are blocked by clouds, OH Well! 

We're not going to give you all the good stuff for free as we have bills to pay also. But nobody else gives you anything for free on the other sites. All the other ones out there CHARGE YOU for everything. Plus their NOT GIS Interfaced. That's a big difference on how accurate your data is. GIS interfaced means it's as accurate as your GPS.

3. The Seaview side of the site cannot be accessed for free, it's $150 yr for that service and you get more data than anybody offers period. Plus you can access anything from TX to Maine for one price. We don't sale you blocks or squares.

4. The most important thing is we are a GIS Interfaced site, which means, we don't count pixels or use reference points as others do. You cannot take a flat grid map or sheet of paper or a flat picture and say what your looking at is accurate data. It is totally impossible to do. How can you take a flat sheet of paper or (Grid Map) and wrap it around a round object (Earth) without it wrinkling and have accurate data. No way!

5. Our other tool Reefcast, is a weather forecasting tool that was voted #1 by the NWS. Video Tutorials on how to use it. Very easy to understand. We are the only one's that have it and we give it away for free. Now I don't think the NWS would vote something #1 if it was not a good source of info. 

6. If your really interested and want to try Seaview for a 2-week free trial, PM me threw the FOC site with your username and I'll set you up. But I strongly suggest you watch all the tutorials on how to navigate the site. There is nothing difficult about it, YOU would be the first to say that it's difficult without watching the tutorials. But you must be using IE 7 or 8 or Firefox 2 or 3 on your browser. 

If what I'm saying about the data is not correct and that the other sites are not GIS mapped sites. Don't think for a minute that they wouldn't be on here telling me I was full of it. Your use to using the other site's which I have used them all. I'm just sayin that this site is very easy to navigate once you have viewed the tutorials on how to use bluewater supermap to your advantage.

DQ


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## Tom Hilton (Oct 4, 2007)

*BS*

CaptDQ,
Nothing personal, but you ARE full of it.
Capt. Thomas J. Hilton


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## Mullit (Jun 6, 2011)

DQ I use all info available when available and I am a free member at the florida offshore site as well as other pay sites. I love the reefcast the best forcast I have found, but I also find the site difficult to navigate and cluttered. I would like try the trail offer and may just need some help figuring it out, are you under the same name on the FO site as well?


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## billin (Oct 14, 2007)

*florida offshore*

the site can be a little difficult to navigate however you got to like the coverage area. i like the Hiltons site but i wish they would expand there coverage area maps or blocks whatever they call them I think its silly to have to pay for two different sites for the GOM.


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## CaptDQ (May 13, 2011)

Quote:
Tom Hilton*BS*
CaptDQ,
Nothing personal, but you ARE full of it.
Capt. Thomas J. Hilton

Nothing personal taken, Capt.Tom. But you did take the bait from that previous post. 

Capt. Dave had told me I would be hearing from you sooner or later on this side of the pond. But the proof is in the pudding Capt., nothing personal. 


Mullit or billin,

Yes, I have the same username on the Florida-Offshore.com site. Just pm me over there for a 2-week trial if your interested.

DQ


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## reeltime (Aug 4, 2008)

billin said:


> i like the Hiltons site but i wish they would expand there coverage area maps or blocks whatever they call them I think its silly to have to pay for two different sites for the GOM.


I agree. That's the main reason I haven't yet signed up. 

Also was disappointed to see they want $225 for a convenience chip with waypoints I can get off their $25 chart.

I must admit though I like Hilton's integration into the iNavX app on iPad and iPhone. It makes trip planning while at work a breeze.


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## Tom Hilton (Oct 4, 2007)

CaptDQ,
You have made several misrepresentations;

"What basic satellite info that we give away for FREE, is more info than what others CHARGE you for." UTTERLY FALSE. What you offer is not even close to what Hilton's provides.

"But nobody else gives you anything for free on the other sites. All the other ones out there CHARGE YOU for everything." FALSE AGAIN. I spent an hour and 20 minutes talking with a subscriber today - the charge? ZERO. We encourage subscribers to contact us if they have any questions or issues, or what the conditions look like for an upcoming tournament or fun trip. My cell number is 713 530-2267, or [email protected].

"Plus their NOT GIS Interfaced. That's a big difference on how accurate your data is. GIS interfaced means it's as accurate as your GPS." FALSE AGAIN. We provide a GIS interface which allows you to navigate on the imageries via your iPad, iPhone, or laptop. There is a limit to the accuracy of all of the imageries due to the size of the pixels, but it is plenty accurate to find the structures shown.

You are right about one thing though - the proof is in the pudding. Get your facts straight, promote the features of your service and let that speak for itself without denegrating other services, and good luck to you!

All the best,
Capt. Thomas J. Hilton


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## whome (Oct 2, 2007)

Tom Hilton said:


> CaptDQ,
> 
> You are right about one thing though - the proof is in the pudding. Get your facts straight, promote the features of your service and let that speak for itself without denegrating other services, and good luck to you!
> 
> ...


That's right Tom, he has to degrade other business's to promote his for whatever reason. His site sucks, I didn't want to be frank like that before but since he is being frank I will be as well. I apparently am not the only one who thinks its cluttered and hard to navigate. 

Either way, I have used Hilton's for years and have found it to be as accurate as I can expect based on ever changing conditions. Some things you just have to predict yourself based on experience. I also use Roff's which I find just as dependable. Both business's have went out of their way on different occasions to assist me beyond what they had too.

Capt DQ, try another advertising tactic and try not to come off as arrogant and you may do better :thumbsup:

BTW, Capt Tom has been fighting for the Recreational anglers rights on his own time for years....I assume you have done the same DQ:whistling:


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## ADRENALINE (May 6, 2008)

I have personally never looked at supermap, but I will check it out soon. I will say Tom Hilton has personally helped me get tuned into his site. It is not very often you find a company that you can call and the owner will speak with you for an hour or so about there product. Thumbs up for Hiltons customer service!


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## Bow Down (Jun 8, 2011)

I have been a member to hiltons for several years and will say the info i get for my money has been awesome. I have all three blocks of the GOM and find it very easy to use. I have been a member (free) to bluewater supermaps for a couple years now and i love the reef cast but i too still strugle to get imagery, navigate through the site, and have issues with it loading (taking to long to load and i use IE* and Firefox3). I still like having another option to look at but i can tell you i would not pay for a subscription on bluewater supermap after all the years i have been checking it i have yet to get up to date info on the areas i am wanting to fish. I have watched the tutorials and they do help some but i get tired of waiting on the info to load just to get a black sceen when it has been sunny for 3 days with no clouds.


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## Capt_Dave (Jun 4, 2009)

Greetings All,
I always seem to be late to these parties. Sorry. I was off fishing all weekend. Up here in the Carolinas the wind machine has been blowing way too much....Somebody pull the plug on that thing!

I guess introductions are in order....
My name is Captain Dave Tilley. I own and operate a series of websites around the country based around SST-Offshore.Com.
http://sst-offshore.com/

Florida-Offshore.Com is one of those sites.
http://www.florida-offshore.com/

I also operate the head boat Continental Shelf based in Morehead City, NC.
http://www.continentalshelf.com/ 

So here is a little background on what we do and why.
Back in the day...I used to run a 56 foot Custom Charter boat, Gulfstream fishing pretty steady. I used all kinds of SST services. I would plot my daily temp reading and compare it to what these services were providing. There was always error. It was almost like converting Loran C numbers....there was always error X yards in Y direction. Now at this same time I was teaching Navigation at Houston Marine Sea School. It occured to me what the problem was. Flat Images and a round earth. 
A picture is flat. It is always going to be flat. There is no way to make it round. You can try to compensate for it....but even that only works to some extent. There in lies the issue with satellite data and the internet.
NASA recognized this well. They worked with the University of Minnesota because they needed a way to make its satellite imagery available to the public. (You can read all about it here)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapServer

NASA went on to develop Coastwatch Software....You want really FREE SST information....and ALL of the available goodies...
Here is the software...
http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/software/software.html
and you can download the files here...
http://coastwatch.noaa.gov/
You see the GOV gives all this information away for free and they do it in a way that is positionly accurate. So please go download it....pull you a couple of files and check them out.

At it's core Supermap does not display images (Pretty Pictures). It takes data (Lat. Long, Value) and gives it color. This is a fundamental difference between what we do and what everyone else does. We take this data and wrap it around a model of the earth and then colorize it. That is why it is positionally accurate. It is also why it can be slow at times. We are moving a BUTTLOAD of data to make it work.

So on with the story....
At this time I had just finished development on ReefCast. When I was introduced to Map Server. I was like...AH HA....The solution to flat images and a round earth. So I created Supermap #1. It was just Modis SST and Cloro. and it was cool. A couple of years later I went back and created the current version of Supermap and I give it away all for free.

Why Free....Because you can go download the data (I gave you the link above) for free....so why should I charge you for it?

Here is a list of all the FREE data layers we provide...In no real order...
Offshore Nav Charts
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) 
Emergency Closures 
Lat/Lon grid 
Bathymetry color relief (Bottom Topo)
Bathymetry contours 
AWOIS shipwreck data
MODIS SST
AVHRR SST
GEOS SST
MODIS Cloro
MODIS 1 Day Composite
MODIS 3 day composite
Current infrared image 
Current visible image 
Current water vapor image 
MODIS true color 
Weather buoys 
Weather warnings 
Refectivity composite 
Warnings 
Velocity 
One-hour precipitation 
Storm total precipitation 
NWS coastal & offshore 
GFS (MAV) 
GFS Marine (MMG) 
ETA/NAM (MET) 
ETA/NAM Marine (MME) 
WaveCast Wave Height
Wavecast Wave Period
ReefCst
ReefCAst with Extra Wave Data
ReefCast Ensemble <-NWS Called the best offshore forecasting tool they have had in decades in writing
Tide prediction stations <- All of them
Solunar tables
Waypoints.....1000's and 1000's of waypoints. Some good....Some Bad. 
But here is the real trick....The abbility to upload YOUR waypoints for display on ANY of our charts
all of this is 100% zoomable and positionly accurate.
and it is ALL FREE!

Ok...Now I know some are going well what is the $150 all about then?
So over the coarse of creating supermap I was introduced to Ocean Imaging. They had some really cool datasets. A lot of it is available nowhere else because they create it inhouse. There was no way for me to get access to datasets for free. So I cut a deal for access for anyone that wants it.

Seaview <- $150 a year
SST, most recent 
SST, 1 day composite 
SST, 3 day composite 
SST, 8 day composite 
SST, Cloud Free Microwave-Derived 
SST contours, most recent 
SST contours, 8 day composite 
SST contours, Cloud Free Microwave-Derived 
Sub-surface temp, 50m depth <- Sub Surface Sea Temps....Baddass!
Sub-surface temp, 100m depth 
Sub-surface temp, 200m depth
Plankton density, MODIS Aqua 
Plankton density, MODIS Terra 
Plankton density, composite 
Salinity 
Sea surface height anomaly 
SSH-derived, geostrophic currents 
HYCOM model-derived currents <- Badass current model!
Winds 
Mixed layer depth <- Display the depth of the Thermocline 100% Badass! This is the best data layer of them all!!

So there you have all the good stuff. Now lets talk about the bad stuff.

#1 Supermap is FREE and it gets HAMMERED at times. We are moving a lot of data If you try to use it at 9pm friday night before a pretty weekend. Be prepared for it to be SLOW! Because it is free. 

#2 There is a learning curve to using it. It is not something that you will open up and go Oh Gee that is easy. It takes a little time to used to how it works. I can set up a trip from start to finish in about 15 mins.

#3 The browser wars are a hugh pain in my butt. IE, FF, Opera...the list goes on. Getting everything to work as expected in every browser known to man is a huge undertaking. Currently we support IE 7,8,9 and FF 2,3. Firefox is the by far the fastest to use with Supermap. If you are having trouble with it being slow...try FF.

If you have any questions...Feel free to contact me 
910-458-3145
[email protected]

Now for Mr. Hilton....
CaptDQ,
You have made several misrepresentations;

"What basic satellite info that we give away for FREE, is more info than what others CHARGE you for." UTTERLY FALSE. What you offer is not even close to what Hilton's provides.

*Really....See the list above.....*

"But nobody else gives you anything for free on the other sites. All the other ones out there CHARGE YOU for everything." FALSE AGAIN. I spent an hour and 20 minutes talking with a subscriber today - the charge? ZERO. We encourage subscribers to contact us if they have any questions or issues, or what the conditions look like for an upcoming tournament or fun trip. My cell number is 713 530-2267, or [email protected].

*I talk to folks most everyday....and I do it for FREE. *

"Plus their NOT GIS Interfaced. That's a big difference on how accurate your data is. GIS interfaced means it's as accurate as your GPS." FALSE AGAIN. We provide a GIS interface which allows you to navigate on the imageries via your iPad, iPhone, or laptop. There is a limit to the accuracy of all of the imageries due to the size of the pixels, but it is plenty accurate to find the structures shown.

*Feel free to download the software above and a couple of datasets and see for yourself above how much error is induced by image mapping. I do not know much about how you do what....but I can tell you that if you roll the mouse and the values change (Temp, Cloro whatever dataset is displaying...it is most likely Image Mapping and that in and of itself induces error)*

You are right about one thing though - the proof is in the pudding. Get your facts straight, promote the features of your service and let that speak for itself without denegrating other services, and good luck to you!

*Damn if that is not the Pot calling the kettle black. My god Tom, You have all but kicked my dog and called my boat rotten at some point or another. *

*Someone in this thread said something about Helping Protect Fishermen... I am very happy Mr. Hilton is onboard with this effort! We need all the help we can get. Here in NC....I head up the RFA, I was at the March on Washington DC. I also created these banners....Feel free to use them anyway you see fit. Put them on your websites....make stickers...whatever.*








I have also created something called the Contact MOD. It is used through our sites to contact groups of people with whatever message you deem needed. I don't have it on Fla as of yet but it is coming.

All the best,
Capt. Thomas J. Hilton 


*I will just sign my name....*
*Dave*


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## Caspr21 (Oct 4, 2007)

Tom Hilton said:


> CaptDQ,
> You have made several misrepresentations;
> 
> "What basic satellite info that we give away for FREE, is more info than what others CHARGE you for." UTTERLY FALSE. What you offer is not even close to what Hilton's provides.
> ...


 

have to agree with this one. Capt Hilton has always been available to reach to ask about things and know 100% positive it is ipad compatable as we looked at it on the way out this weekend. AND I will say his site has been way more accurate than a lot of other sites


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## CaptDQ (May 13, 2011)

Thank You Capt. Dave for spending your time and helping set the record straight.


Now for,

Capt. Jon Pinney Quote:


Capt DQ, try another advertising tactic and try not to come off as arrogant and you may do better :thumbsup:

BTW, Capt Tom has been fighting for the Recreational anglers rights on his own time for years....I assume you have done the same DQ:whistling:

Nowhere on this site have ANY of my post or my tactics been arrogant as you say. The only thing I have tried do here is show fishermen something different and better in my opinion. Anybody that knows me except for YOU and some here, know's well enough that's not my personality.

Nowhere on this site have I used another business name or owner's name to degrade it as you state. I was promoting Florida-Offshore.com for what it offer's and display's and how it works. Even then I did not respond being arrogant. 

BTW, as for fighting for fishermen rights, that's everybody's duty including Yours, actions speak louder than words my friend. I might suggest you get your facts straight before echoing jibberesh. What I have done on my own time & monies, to promote fishing and conservation in Pensacola for what it has to offer, you have no idea.  & Have a nice day!

DQ


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## Xanadu (Oct 1, 2007)

All I can say is that I've been a Hilton's subscriber since it was first introduced. Tom could look it up, but I'd bet I was one of the first hundred or so and I've been on ever since. Over the years, I've watched it grow and change and improve. I've seen glitches, had questions and found problems I couldn't resolve and every single time I've called or emailed I've gotten a response and I mean within minutes usually.

Just a week or so ago, there was some little issue I couldn't figure out. I think I was trying to print an image including bath info from my phone on a strange printer and couldn't do it. I called Hiltons while working on it and nobody answered. I didn't leave a message and, instead, got on another computer and had one of the tech smart guys at the office figure it out. While Damian was figuring how to do what I needed him to do which involved opening the color network printer to my phone and not a Hiltons issue, the phone rang. It was Tom calling from the caller ID because he'd missed a call.

That's service. He was willing to talk me through the whole thing at 6pm on a weeknight if I'd have needed it. Now, I don't know the first thing about any of the other services, but I can assure you that Hilton's has been on board for a ton of great fishing over the past 8 or 10 or however many years.


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