Sounder problem

[Homer_Jay]

I have a furuno 600L sounder and the problem I have with it is that it wont read in shallow water. Once its over about 30 ft it works perfect. But in shallow water it wont read just keeps bouncing from depths between 3ft and 500ft. Wont track the bottom and its useless. I am thinking it is just a setting i have to change but I just run it in auto so I would have thought it would just work.

[Spaniard_King]

try manual gain and back it off, You will get a better picture if you learn to run it in manual

Garry

[davez104]

Also try manual depth. If the problem is at speed, as soon as the bottom reading starts to break up a bit, the unit might start to search for a solid bottom again, hance the changing depths.

Dave.

[Homer_Jay]

Its not only at speed, it will do it when stopped. I thought it must be getting interference from something electrical but the fact that it works in deep water says that its not that. It has me puzzled. I will try to back off the gain next time.

[Pitsta]

Hi homer , I've got the same sounder .Mine was doin the same as you described . Put in manual mode it was fine at what ever speed i was doing ..!! Just have a fiddle with the gain and depth, there a great sounder once you work them out ......

Mark

[Homer_Jay]

Thanks Mark. Sounds like I better stop being lazy and work out how to use it properly. I just thought that in auto mode it would always be right, might not get the best performance but didnt think it would do this. Thanks for your help.

[davez104]

It shouldn't be like that when stopped, I thought maybe at speed due to air bubbles under the transducer etc. Is it dual frequency? Try using it on the higher frequency if it is, that would give you a better reading in shallow water. It should still be ok in 10M of water though, watever the frequency. Is your transducer still pointing straight down, hasn't been knocked or anything?

Dave.

[Homer_Jay]

yeah it is dual frequency. I will make sure it is on the higher one. I have checked the transducer and it isnt damaged and is pointing down. What has me confused is that it works fine in deep water. I think I will try to play around with the setting next time i head out.

Thanks Dave