[Xastir] USGS DRG files no longer free..

[Tyler Allison]

Looks like the USGS has now "partnered" with a commercial group that
charges an arm and a leg for the DRG maps and they've removed the 'free'
download. (something like $75 per grid, which would cost me over $1000 to
get the topos for Kentucky)

I found the following Kentucky State website to download DRG files im
interested in:
http://ogi.ky.gov/data/drg/drgzone.htm

However, I downloaded one of the tif files and of course it doesnt come
with a fgd file and the file is not in USGS name format so the perl script
that creates fgd files that comes with Xastir doesnt work.

So I created a bogus fgd file using the README.MAPS information just to
see if it would load anywhere in the world.  However, it looks like the
TIF file was created using the commercial library of tiff so it's using a
compression format that was removed from libtiff due to lawsuits and what
not...what that means it that xastir is trying to access the file in
'random access' mode which is not support by libtiff with that type of
compression.

So I use tiffcp to 'uncompress' the file. I get a couple errors about some
lines ignored because of bad format or what not but the new files reads
okay in my various graphic viewing software.

I put the new tiff in the maps directory for Xastir and Xastir prints an
error every time it tries to load the map:

Problem in translating
Problem in translating

Anybody know how I can get these tif's to work in Xastir?

Or a place to download the USGS name formated tif's without paying my
first born for them?

ps: does it make anybody else mad that their taxes paid for the USGS topo
work yet you have to pay to get what your tax dollars paid to create?

-Tyler