On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:37:40 -0400, DownTime
wrote:

Tom - i am curious to know what units you are using and what is your
overall satisfaction with it/them. If you were to outfit your boat
again, would you pick the same one? Same manufacturer? Or completely
different?

I wouldn't buy anything other than Raymarine. I've always had good
service (although in the past, they had some issues, but I never
experienced them), quick turnaround on repairs and every time I had an
issue, I received solid advice from experienced technicians - which I
haven't need much of except for an installation that I screwed up on
the last Contender I owned. Strictly my fault, but they stood behind
the unit and replaced it with a new one.

Raymarine - it's as simple as that. :)

Having said that, Furuno makes good gear as well as Si-Tex, Simrad and
Standard Horizon.

It all depends on your price point.

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
I wouldn't buy anything other than Raymarine. I've always had good
service (although in the past, they had some issues, but I never
experienced them), quick turnaround on repairs and every time I had an
issue, I received solid advice from experienced technicians - which I
haven't need much of except for an installation that I screwed up on
the last Contender I owned. Strictly my fault, but they stood behind
the unit and replaced it with a new one.

Raymarine - it's as simple as that. :)

Having said that, Furuno makes good gear as well as Si-Tex, Simrad and
Standard Horizon.

It all depends on your price point.

I've liked the looks of the Raymarine line. A friend in the UK works for
company which supplies parts to Raymarine. I intend to look at them as
my first choice. If it helps me catch more fish, price is of no concern.
It simply raises the cost per fillet.

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:37:40 -0400, DownTime
wrote:

Tom - i am curious to know what units you are using and what is your
overall satisfaction with it/them. If you were to outfit your boat
again, would you pick the same one? Same manufacturer? Or completely
different?

I wouldn't buy anything other than Raymarine. I've always had good
service (although in the past, they had some issues, but I never
experienced them), quick turnaround on repairs and every time I had an
issue, I received solid advice from experienced technicians - which I
haven't need much of except for an installation that I screwed up on
the last Contender I owned. Strictly my fault, but they stood behind
the unit and replaced it with a new one.

Raymarine - it's as simple as that. :)

Having said that, Furuno makes good gear as well as Si-Tex, Simrad and
Standard Horizon.

It all depends on your price point.


The Navigator had Raytheon (Raymarine) electronics. The depth finder was a
dual freq unit and worked well in shallow water.
I had an offset programmed into it, (boat's draft was 4.5') and it very
accurately let me know just prior to going aground when it read 2.8'.
Don't ask how I know how accurate it was.

Eisboch

Eisboch wrote:
"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:37:40 -0400, DownTime
wrote:

Tom - i am curious to know what units you are using and what is your
overall satisfaction with it/them. If you were to outfit your boat
again, would you pick the same one? Same manufacturer? Or completely
different?
I wouldn't buy anything other than Raymarine. I've always had good
service (although in the past, they had some issues, but I never
experienced them), quick turnaround on repairs and every time I had an
issue, I received solid advice from experienced technicians - which I
haven't need much of except for an installation that I screwed up on
the last Contender I owned. Strictly my fault, but they stood behind
the unit and replaced it with a new one.

Raymarine - it's as simple as that. :)

Having said that, Furuno makes good gear as well as Si-Tex, Simrad and
Standard Horizon.

It all depends on your price point.


The Navigator had Raytheon (Raymarine) electronics. The depth finder was a
dual freq unit and worked well in shallow water.
I had an offset programmed into it, (boat's draft was 4.5') and it very
accurately let me know just prior to going aground when it read 2.8'.
Don't ask how I know how accurate it was.

Eisboch



I have a Ray depthfinder on son of Yo Ho, attached to a through-hull
(not shoot through the hull) transducer. No offset, because it actually
is measuring the distance between the bottom of the hull and "the bottom."

The unit is fine, except its color screen is not nearly as good as the
color screen on competing Garmin units, in terms of how visible and
readable it is in bright sunlight.





--
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do
something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do
the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I
should do, by the grace of God, I will do.

— Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909)

"hk" wrote in message
news
Eisboch wrote:


The Navigator had Raytheon (Raymarine) electronics. The depth finder was
a dual freq unit and worked well in shallow water.
I had an offset programmed into it, (boat's draft was 4.5') and it very
accurately let me know just prior to going aground when it read 2.8'.
Don't ask how I know how accurate it was.

Eisboch

I have a Ray depthfinder on son of Yo Ho, attached to a through-hull (not
shoot through the hull) transducer. No offset, because it actually is
measuring the distance between the bottom of the hull and "the bottom."


Makes sense on a boat like yours. The Navigator's transducer was obviously
thru-hull amidships. The offset was to account for the rudders and 30"
diameter props.

Eisboch

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:12:58 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:37:40 -0400, DownTime
wrote:

Tom - i am curious to know what units you are using and what is your
overall satisfaction with it/them. If you were to outfit your boat
again, would you pick the same one? Same manufacturer? Or completely
different?

I wouldn't buy anything other than Raymarine. I've always had good
service (although in the past, they had some issues, but I never
experienced them), quick turnaround on repairs and every time I had an
issue, I received solid advice from experienced technicians - which I
haven't need much of except for an installation that I screwed up on
the last Contender I owned. Strictly my fault, but they stood behind
the unit and replaced it with a new one.

Raymarine - it's as simple as that. :)

Having said that, Furuno makes good gear as well as Si-Tex, Simrad and
Standard Horizon.

It all depends on your price point.

The Navigator had Raytheon (Raymarine) electronics. The depth finder was a
dual freq unit and worked well in shallow water.
I had an offset programmed into it, (boat's draft was 4.5') and it very
accurately let me know just prior to going aground when it read 2.8'.

I can't get mine to read accurately at any depth under 5 feet at all.
Even with the discrimination at max and sensitivity down under 30%, I
still get false returns. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever
had one that would read accurately under 5 feet.

I do know that the bow unit will read accurately to four feet, but
nothing past that.

Don't ask how I know how accurate it was.

You had to get out to use the telephone on the beach? :)

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:12:58 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


Don't ask how I know how accurate it was.

You had to get out to use the telephone on the beach? :)

Not quite. But I *did* find a handy use for a bow and stern thruster.

Eisboch

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:15:42 -0700, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

For shallow water I would look at the cheap Eagles, Humminbirds, etc. Lot
less power. My old, really old, Humminbird did a lot better in shallow
water than my Furuno I now have.

Yes, I've had a couple of inexpensive Hummingbirds and they've been
accurate down to 2 or 3 feet when they're working at all, not very
reliable but cheap to replace. I'm now using one on my RIB dinghy.

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:09:48 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:15:42 -0700, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

For shallow water I would look at the cheap Eagles, Humminbirds, etc. Lot
less power. My old, really old, Humminbird did a lot better in shallow
water than my Furuno I now have.

Yes, I've had a couple of inexpensive Hummingbirds and they've been
accurate down to 2 or 3 feet when they're working at all, not very
reliable but cheap to replace. I'm now using one on my RIB dinghy.

Bill made a good point about signal strength - the less expensive
units are generally lower power units.

I didn't think of that.

"Gene Kearns" wrote in message
.com...
On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:16:03 -0400, hk penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

|Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
| On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:53:28 -0400, hk wrote:
|
| Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
| On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:34:34 -0400, DownTime
| wrote:
|
| - Can you put two different transducers, from two different
| manufacturers on the same stern and each will function accordingly?
I
| guess I am wondering of Garmin's transducer and branx X's(assuming I
go
| that route) might interfere with each other.
| Well, no - not on a small boat. The two signals will interfere with
| each other. Even at twenty feet or so, they will interfere - I have
a
| transducer mounted on my trolling motor which is 21 feet away from
the
| stern and they still interfere with each other.
|
| Has to do with the angle of the beam.
|
| With respect to shallow water performance, that's natural. Get
within
| five feet of the bottom and the signal return will be overpowering
and
| produce nothing but hash. Plus, if the bottom is muddy, you can get
| false returns to hard bottom. I've turned down the sensitivity on my
| Raymarine DS600 to zero and still can't get a reliable reading under
5
| feet.
|
| Shallow water fishing is mostly sight fishing anyway. Even in deeper
| water, depending on the species, it's mostly sight fishing.
|
| The best way to handle this situation is to set the offset for your
| draft - at least that will tell you what you are getting into shallow
| waters.
|
| On my previous Parker, I had a Furuno fishfinder in the cabin and a
| Lowrance fishfinder mounted in the cockpit. They were wired to
different
| transducers on opposite sides of the transom. The transducers were
| different frequencies. Both units worked just fine, even when both
were
| operating at the same time.
|
| Thus, the answer to the question of two transducers is - maybe.
|
| Um...what frequencies?
|
|
|I don't remember. They were installed in 2003, and I sold that boat off
|last year, but before installing them, I spoke with someone at Lowrance,
|and he said the two frequencies would not interfere with each other.

SWAG would be.... 50/200 kHz

--
Agent 5.00 Build 1159
Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepage
http://pamandgene.idleplay.net/

Rec.boats at Lee Yeaton's Bayguide
http://www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats

Probably a bad SWAG. There were some 120khz units out there, and could be
used in conjunction with a 200 khz.