You know what they say about "....a bad day fishing...." :D

Hate to hear about your locator problems. I've had quite a few over the years, and just replaced my dashboard Lowrance unit TWICE in the last two years... Each failed JUST past the 1yr mark, so the kind folks at Lowrance told me just which bridge I needed to go jump off of.
I've had Humminbirds go bad before also, but never in 1yr, and never consecutively.

Must be like the Ford/Chevy brand loyalty fight... loyalty depends on your particular (and recent) experience with the brand. That is, unless you're OSS, then the scale is a bit skewed. :D:D