Thread: what about chirp

IF U WANT TO SEE FISH IN BRUSH THEN GET A GOOD DI UNIT,CASE SOLVE,WISH THEY ALL WERE THAT EASY

so for example, and i am i just using this one because its on my list as is some Lowrance's and Garmin . but say a helix 9 di is better than a helix 9si which also has di is better for di

A helix 9,2d unit,coupled with an 360 would be a great option imo.

In general, a chirp unit will have better 2D than a non-chirp unit ....... and a unit with a dedicated DI transducer will have better DI than one that doesn't.
The DI will have the best target separation since the operating frequency is higher and also the beam width is much more narrow front to back. The drawback to DI is that the beam is much wider side to side and it is more difficult to determine exactly where an object or fish is located.

There are some who are extremely knowledgeable crappie fishermen who argue that 2D isn't necessary.....You only need DI ...... I personally wouldn't have a unit that doesn't have 2d because boat positioning and accurate waypoint marking are much easier.....Of course the 360 takes all that to a higher level.

2D, DI, SI, and 360 together ..... with each used for their strength would be the ultimate in my mind......and as Kosmo has stated, you could get all that fairly economically with a Helix 9 2D GPS unit and a 360.

Garmin is developing new technologies with the Panoptix technology, and I have talked to some who have the Panoptix down view .... sounds like another terrific tool.

thanks for the info guys it is very informative and help full.

You were asking about chirp,but I guess u didn't really get any comments on chirp.I don't have a chirp unit,so really don't no for sure,but I don't think chirp will do a whole lot in shallow water

Originally Posted by kosmo

You were asking about chirp,but I guess u didn't really get any comments on chirp.I don't have a chirp unit,so really don't no for sure,but I don't think chirp will do a whole lot in shallow water

I spent some time a while back watching videos of various chirp units.....and Kosmo is correct that the benefits of chirp dissipate very quickly the more shallow the water is.

Another interesting thing about chirp units is that it appears that the improved 2D image may not be from the chirp frequencies themselves as much as it is from the enhanced 2D processing capabilities of the unit and the chirp transducers are generally higher quality transducers.
On one of the videos I watched, the user was running the unit at a fixed frequency around 100Khz and was getting VERY good 2D images .... he temporarily switched over to running chirp in that range and the 2D image actually got worse ..... he switched back to a fixed frequency and the image improved again.
That is some real food for thought when it comes to a chirp unit.

I would be interested if anyone who has a chirp unit has done any comparisons to a fixed frequency on their unit compared to a "chirped frequency." Videos of this comparison would be great.

No sonar expert here but my career was in missiles and radar for 38 years....very familiar with CHIRP. It was first designed for use in radars for the same reason you want it for crappie....target separation.....in radars CHIRP is also used for other functions as well. Theoretically the lower price units you see that are advertised as CHIRP are CHIRP...but the frequency spread is nowhere near as wide as say a five thousand dollar unit....and the high end unit can give you great separation at 10,000 feet of depth. Obviously you are not worried about that...LOL. But the bigger the frequency span the better the target separation. CHIRP can also be used in your di and si....which would really blow us away with what we would see. As with all things today it is about cost. The Digital Signal Processors are much cheaper than years ago...and will continue to drop in price which will be good for us. But right now a high end CHIRP unit is not in most folks price range. The transducer has a big part in it also....better transducer more cost. As Bob said I also would want to see a CHIRP unit in operation....I have seen the Dragon Fly 7 and I saw nothing there that would make me want to buy one....and give up my now obsolete HB 899.

Regards