That Quadrabeam is kinda like a side imaging little brother. Its range is limited to the depth you are fishing . For example in 35 foot of water you could read out 35 foot on each side. My present setup on my small boat consists,of a 987C with a transducer switch. The two transducers are both mounted on the transom. The quadrabeam is for high speed and the side imaging transducer is when I am on the hunt. My 987C is GPS linked with a 777C2 that's transducer is a Quadrabeam that is mounted on my electric trolling motor.
My trolling motor is deployed on the side. Side pulling is like spider rigging except that you use the side of the boat. Since these transducers are directional mounted I could not use the transom transducers. Hence this was a solution I came up with.
Another and cheaper solution would have been to use the transducer switch and use the Quadrabeam on the trolling motor for the 987C. The way I went allows for greater backup usage and its versatility is great.
If you cannot afford a 997 or 1197 look for a 987. I can personally attest that they are fine units. Yes, the newer ones are better , the SI frequency is higher ( better definition ) and a stronger processor. But the 987 is nothing to sneeze at. It is showing up at affordable prices as guys are upgrading to the newer ones.
Garminarmin gpsmap 1040 xs networked with Garmin gpsmap 1242 xsv , Panoptix PS 30 and PS 31. Livescope LVS 32
Ice rig Echomap Ultra 106SV with LVS 12 and GT10-IF