Thread: Humminbird Greg

Don G,
I’m not so sure that using the Upper and Lower Range menus or the Zoom function will allow for more picture ”clarity”, but depending on how old (water logged) a brush pile is and what it is made of will make it harder or easier to see it on a sonar unit. Assuming that yours are pretty soft and old brush piles that do not reflect much sonar; than anything that you can do to take better advantage of the vertical pixel count on the display could be a plus as it may allow you to see a sonar return that you could not or chose to ignore before. So setting the Upper Range menu to 5 feet or more or using the Sonar Zoom (even the Bottom Lock feature) would help in allowing you to see these weaker sonar returns. Think of setting the Upper and Lower Range menus as a user definable Sonar Zoom feature. Basically what you are doing is using the same number of vertical pixels to now show a smaller distance of the water column. Example: if your unit were to be showing from 0 to 60 feet deep, than each vertical pixel would have to represent (60 feet / 640 pixels) 0.09 feet (about 1.13 inches). If you were to set the Upper and Lower Ranges menus or use the Sonar Zoom feature to show only 30 feet of the water column, than each vertical pixel would represent half of those distances or about 0.56 inches. Objects that were smaller on the 0 to 60 foot depth scale would appear twice as large on a 30 foot depth scale and therefore may be easier to actually see them on the unit’s display.

I would look at setting the Beam Select to the 200/83kHz setting so that you are covering a wider area with the sonar. Also set the SwitchFire menu to the Max Mode (unless in less than about 10 feet of water) and adjusting the Sensitivity menu so that you can display the weaker sonar returns from the brush piles. I would also look at changing the Background menu setting along with the Sonar Colors to something that has more contrast for the weaker sonar returns. If you are not interested in the first 5 feet of the water column than by all means set the Upper Range menu to 5 feet.

If the Fish ID feature is turned off than any changes to the Fish ID Sensitivity menu have no affect on anything.

thats good info!!