Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Category: Fishing & Sonar

More Ray LightHouse II goodies: Sounder Select, GPX, DSC, PDF & Fusion-Link 18

Fishing & Sonar / Navigation / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

More Ray LightHouse II goodies: Sounder Select, GPX, DSC, PDF & Fusion-Link

Raymarine_LightHouse_II_demo_mov_sonar_select2_cPanbo.jpg

One of many features in Raymarine’s latest software update (besides the just-discussed LightHouse charts) is support for multiple sonar sources. While I didn’t have the hardware or even the working vessel to test this, it’s neat that the demo video I screenshot above is built right into the LightHouse II update (and actually more detailed than the one currently on YouTube). But who needs multiple sonar sources? I know that some readers may perceive it as feature glut, but not I, and I’m not even much of a fisherman…

Navico writer’s event 2014: B&G, Simrad & Lowrance product highlights 62

Fishing & Sonar / Navigation

Navico writer’s event 2014: B&G, Simrad & Lowrance product highlights

Hawks_Cay_B_G_Matt_cPanbo.jpgNavico did it again, even better than last time. The company gathered 24 boating writers at the Hawk’s Cay Resort along with a deep roster of Lowrance, Simrad, and B&G product experts and 9 demo boats loaded with gear. The demos very much reflected the refocused brand identities we learned about last year in Las Palmas, and in some cases the Navico team went some extra distance to make them real. Thus, I found myself not only sailing on a nearly new J111 with B&G’s long-time Race Specialist Matt Fries, but actually pinging start line buoys and later working our way to the windward mark… 

Lowrance Elite-4 HDI, a whole lot of tech for a little dough 9

Fishing & Sonar / Navigation / The Trade

Lowrance Elite-4 HDI, a whole lot of tech for a little dough

Lowrance_Elite-4_HDI.jpgWhile I don’t normally follow the small-size displays closely, the new Lowrance Elite-4 HDI models announced yesterday seems to sport a remarkable ratio of dedicated marine electronics to cost. Their bright 4.3-inch LED-backlit screens, for instance, are substantially bigger than the Elite-4 models they replace, which were praised for their value. The plain Elite-4 HDI model, with a suggested $299 retail price, not only offers both regular fishfinding and high-frequency narrow beam downscanning — each with a shallow/deep frequency choice built into the included transom transducer — but also includes GPS, a bundle of lake and coastal cartography, and support for all sorts of chart card types…

Holy Garmin cow: SideVü/DownVü, GPSMAP 800/1000, GMR 18/24 xHD, Meteor 300, gWind & the Helm app 44

Fishing & Sonar / Navigation / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Holy Garmin cow: SideVü/DownVü, GPSMAP 800/1000, GMR 18/24 xHD, Meteor 300, gWind & the Helm app

Garmin_SideVü_DownVü_800_kHz.jpgGarmin is purportedly announcing nearly fifty 2014 marine products today!  A lot are related to the company’s new ability to offer the high resolution down and side scanning that’s become so popular with freshwater and near coastal fishermen (and curious gunkholers like myself). Soon the relatively easy-to-understand (and fit-on-a-small-screen) down view will  be availiable in new echo dv fishfinders and echoMAP dv fishfinder/GPS combos that will then better compete against similar products from Lowrance, Humminbird, and Raymarine. Moving up the cost curve you’ll find CHIRP-assisted DownVü and SideVü, which look wicked sharp in the screenshot above (imaging what’s likely the remains of a bridge in a man-made lake)…

Fingers on Raymarine a65, and hello a68, a75, a77 & a78! 13

Fishing & Sonar / Navigation

Fingers on Raymarine a65, and hello a68, a75, a77 & a78!

Raymarine_a65_w_radar_on_Gizmo_cPanbo.jpg

There’s been a small Raymarine a65 MFD installed at Gizmo’s lower helm since early last fall (as seen here) and I’ve used it a lot. Frankly, I wasn’t at all sure I’d like the all-touchscreen interface as much as I liked the “hybrid” mix of touchscreen, buttons, knob, and cursor joystick I use on the nearby Ray e7 (tested here) or the similar Simrad NSS8 hybrid interface (compared here).  Didn’t Steve Jobs say that touch couldn’t work on less than a 10-inch screen?  Well, surprise, the a65’s 5.7-inch touchscreen interface works quite well, even on a moving boat, and it’s getting better as Raymarine rapidly introduces new versions of its Lighthouse MFD software (v5 discussed here, v7 just about to drop!). And today we learn that the all-touch “a” is not just an interesting oddity in Ray’s now-huge a, c, e, and g display lineup…

Furuno at MIBS 2013; CHIRP, FCV587/627, and NavPilot FPS8 11

Fishing & Sonar / Network & control

Furuno at MIBS 2013; CHIRP, FCV587/627, and NavPilot FPS8

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When I was at the in-water powerboat portion of the Miami show before it opened one morning, I discovered Furuno marketing manager Jeff Kauzlaric and product manager Eric Kunz making video. Of course I interrupted them for a photo but I was also hoping to see their long-rumored CHIRP fishfinder in action. But while it turned out that the big sonar screen behind Eric was not showing CHIRP, Furuno did announce the new DFF1-UHD during the show and Eric showed me the nifty NavPilot Safe Helm and Power Assist modes just about ready for release…

CHIRPing bottom all the way to Bermuda, maybe fish too! 10

Fishing & Sonar

CHIRPing bottom all the way to Bermuda, maybe fish too!

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It’s a rare day when someone calls to say he’s sending marine electonics screenshots that gave him goosebumps! The someone was Peter Braffitt of Gemeco Marine and Airmar Technology, and while he certainly has a business interest in high-performance sonar transducers, he’s also a straight shooter. Besides, isn’t that screen above pretty darn amazing? It was taken aboard the handsome 80-foot Merritt-built sport fishing boat Speculator en route from Beaufort, North Carolina, to Bermuda. They not only held bottom the whole way — even in 17,624 freakin feet of water (or 5,372 meters or 3.3 miles!) — but they may have spotted fish at great depths too…

Airmar expedition, searching “tunny” in Scotland 0

Fishing & Sonar / Zany

Airmar expedition, searching “tunny” in Scotland

Scotland_tuna_fishing_1933_courtesy_Airmar.jpg

Do you too wonder if the Colonels dressed like that as they fished off their steam yacht in 1933? Actually I didn’t even know that there once was a giant bluefin tuna fishery off Scotland until this morning when I read Airmar’s new blog about an expedition that starts tomorrow. The company already had a crack tuna fisherman on staff in the person of Bertrand Picarda and now they’ve teamed up with a gentleman from Inverness who fishes a 40-foot Rodman 1250 Fisher Pro..that now has some new holes in its bottom… 

Sonar wars: Navico StructureScan HD & Humminbird 360 26

Fishing & Sonar

Sonar wars: Navico StructureScan HD & Humminbird 360

Lowrance_LSS_vs_LSS-2_transducers_cPanbo.jpg

Yes, there was some jocularity in Miami about the manliness of the new Lowrance StructureScan HD transducer, once it was whipped out by Lucas Steward (of tricked-out Hobie Pro Angler fame). But more impressive than what 
an SS HD user gets to show off at the launching ramp is what they’ll see on screen. Navico has managed to give StructureScan more range and improved resolution while also simplifying its use and keeping the price the same (at about $600 for the new transom transducer and LSS-2 module)…

Lucas’s Hobie Pro Angler, a Lowrance testing platform 6

Fishing & Sonar / What's on board...

Lucas’s Hobie Pro Angler, a Lowrance testing platform

Navico_Product_Manager_Lucas_Stewart_w_bass.jpg

Navico product manager Lucas Stewart may look like he’s having fun, but he really is putting a lot of Lowrance gear through its paces. Really. When I got chatting with him during an early morning Miami demo (more on that soon) and he mentioned that he does some testing aboard his Hobie Mirage Pro Angler, I pictured perhaps an Elite-5 DSI fishfinder/plotter mounted on its deck. But it turned out that Stewart had a much grander vision for his 14-foot pedal boat…