Upgrading my Transducer

[NightFisher]

I have a Furuno 582L sounder on my boat, I currently have an Airmar B744V Triducer connected to it.

AIRMAR Electronic Catalog (http://airmartechnology.com/airmar2005/ex20/RMProducts/ElectCat.asp?ProdID=39&Man=All&PageNo=71)

I am looking to upgrade it. I am looking at the SS264W Tilted Wide-Beam Pair.

AIRMAR Electronic Catalog (http://airmartechnology.com/airmar2005/ex20/RMProducts/ElectCat.asp?ProdID=111&Man=All&PageNo=512)

I’m not sure that the pair is what I need though. I’m thinking of starting with the 200khz unit and just not using my 50khz side. I know with 600W and a wide angle 200khz transducer I probably won’t be able to see the bottom deeper than 30 fathoms or so but most of my fishing is in the bay and trolling offshore. I haven’t gotten into deep-dropping of wreck fishing yet. If I do feel the need to see the bottom in deep water I can pick up the 50Khz transducer later or put a narrow beam 200khz in.

Does this sound reasonable? How do you set up your sounder when you are trolling in 50-100 fathoms? Do you set it to see the whole water column or do you drop the range down to only see the top 20-30 fathoms?

[TAT-TUNA]

When I get over 50 fthms I set mine to the top 50 fthms...on 200 k instead of 50.I have the flush mount thru hull tilted beam b164 1kw

[NightFisher]

Thanks for the reply. I looked at the B164 but I really like the 25 degree 200khz beam on the 264W and if I just go with the 200khz side its about the same price. Do you ever use 50khz?

[trnsmaster]

was told you really need a 1kw machine not the 600watts the 582 puts out for that transducer to work to its full potential.and that if you werent looking to upgrade the machine it wasnt worth the expense for the pair . the single tilted element was reccommended for our 582l

[NightFisher]

I talked to Airmar today. I was concerned about how much switching from the 12 degree B7447 to the 25 degree SS264W (200khz side only) was going to decrease the depth I could effectively read. I was thinking that with over three times the area covered I might drop from being able to read down to 60 or 70 fathoms to only 20 or so fathoms. They said I was overlooking the significant increase in sensitivity that the 264 has over the 7447, although they can’t guarantee it they feel that I will still be able to see to 60 or 70 fathoms with my 600 watt machine.

Right now I am completely abandoning 50Khz capabilities and even if I feel the need to read the bottom in deeper water I may look at pairing my 264W with a 264N (6 degree) 200khz and a switch.

The forecast for the weekend looks bad but I will let y’all know how it worked out after my next trip.

[TAT-TUNA]

Well I called Garmin a few weeks ago about marking fish and In 50 to 150 fathoms $3000.00 gps sounder and $800.00 transducer...and couldn't mark chit past 50 fathoms...what there teck told me was my transducer was to powerful for my unit...to turn It to kHz and put the gain all the way up well that worked great inside 100 fathoms but over I lower the gain and set to 50 fathoms..and It works awesome..!I guess the only way to get rid of the guessing part Is to buy a commercial unit..!Not to mention the dam XM weather sst shots are junk lol

[smithbros]

Well I called Garmin a few weeks ago about marking fish and In 50 to 150 fathoms $3000.00 gps sounder and $800.00 transducer...and couldn't mark chit past 50 fathoms...what there teck told me was my transducer was to powerful for my unit...to turn It to kHz and put the gain all the way up well that worked great inside 100 fathoms but over I lower the gain and set to 50 fathoms..and It works awesome..!I guess the only way to get rid of the guessing part Is to buy a commercial unit..!Not to mention the dam XM weather sst shots are junk lol

Thats what was going on with my raymarine unit. Logic told me to crank the gain up when I hit the 100 fm line and could not find bottom. But really it was the opposite, I needed to reduce the gain.

Taylor

BTW Raymarines online tech support is useless, they are a complete joke.

[Regulator]

Taylor,

Which Raymarine unit & transducer are you running? I have a C80 & DSM250 and keep flipping back & forth from auto gain to manual gain. I find that when I changing depths (100-200 fathoms) the gain setting needs constant tweaking in manual mode. And how the hell did you get Raymarine techs to answer the phone

[NightFisher]

First trip offshore with the new 264W installed. The thing exceeded my expectations, even with my 600W machine I had much better detail and I could read bottom all the way out to 140 Fathoms using the 200khz side.