jrc ff50

[chinga]

hi all, i have a jrc ff50 sounder and am having some trouble getting a clear bottom reading in any water deeper that 25 meters. i have been unable to find a dealer around brisbane that can help with this.. if anyone has any ideas on how to best set this model up , it would be greatly appreciated. cheers stu

[Smithy]

Trymax Marine have always been big sellers of JRC gear. Get onto them.

[GBC]

A little more info on your settings etc. might also get you some help here.

Does the bottom get fuzzier as you're driving?

What mode?

Manual gain?

Which frequency?

[insideout]

jrc's are hard to drive.....

[Alchemy]

I had an FF50 until recently and loved it. All I needed was a few tips from those in the know. I had it for about 7 years and the only reason I don't have it now is that I have sold my boat.

I always had it set to high frequency and in bottom discrimination mode, and would set the shift so as the right side of the screen looked at the bottom 10 metres or so and the left side at the bottom two to four metres or there abouts. If cruising slowing hunting up ground I'd set the gain at roughly 10% of the total depth, but if cruising at speed then would drop the gain back till I got a good picture.

I had a standard transom mount transducer and in good to average conditions had little to no trouble getting a clear picture, but if rough it was a waste of time at speed.

Is the problem you're having new; ie has it performed well in the past?

[Bill_Corten]

Hi Chinga

As Smithy said, go see Trymax Marine electronics at Capalaba. No salesmen there, only qualified marine electronics techs and they know the JRC backwards.
Had an FF50 on my last two boats over nine years. It probably saw nearly 5000 engine hours of blue water boating and thousands of actual trips across the bar. Never missed a beat and less button presses than most comparable units available and so easy to drive when properly set up.
Virtually unbreakable too as a mate found out when he was collected by a longline tuna boat on auto pilot, no one at helm, at speed on the way back in to Mooloolaba a few years ago. Unit was dragged underwater with his boat after they dived out of the way to survive. Was several hundred metres before boat popped out from under the twin hulled longliner. Was bench tested by Trymax and nothing found wrong with the FF50. Still going strong!!!

Cheers
Bill

[chinga]

thanks fellas... really appreciate all your advice... we will take it over to trymax over the next couple of weeks... cheers