That’s a beautifully built Interphase forward looking sonar (FLS) transducer — actually two phased array transducers, one 90� vertical and one 90� horizontal, cast into the same epoxy block (hence the dual outputs). It can be used with several Interphase FLS models, but I’m looking forward to trying it with the company’s new Ultrascan PC90, discussed here last Fall. And I went to some trouble, including the careful band sawing of that fairing block above, to give it a good view. In fact, some may call me crazy…
The concept is pretty sensational: The ARGUS (Autonomous Remote Global Underwater Surveillance) system would equip volunteer vessels with a custom WiFi transceiver that are connected to the nav system for GPS and depth, and that can automatically upload (when possible) the resulting data files to a shore server where it’s collated and quality controlled before being turned over to NOAA so it can better manage its dredging and charting responsibilities. If it all works out as hoped, the volunteers might even get the equipment for free and be able to use the WiFi connects for their own Internet needs…
In
general the feeling was quietly positive. Everyone still around will probably be able to weather the remainder of the economic storm. Attendance today was lower than the earlier two editions I visited, but then this was my first time visiting on the last day so I can’t say for
sure how busy it was. Sorry to say, there was no big big news. Still there were a number of exciting new developments. I’ve kept those to the end of this long mail!
Even though the EchoPilot Foward Looking Sonar (FLS) I tried back in 2002 couldn’t see very far and wasn’t reliable (kelp seemed able to hide even steep Maine ledges), it hooked me on the potential of the technology. In tricky waters my eye regularly flicked to that little screen above, hoping to see the bottom ahead. Thus I got excited when Furuno previewed a purportedly powerful FLS in 2005, and again when hints arose last winter. But that product has never surfaced. Interphase, however, is attacking FLS issues from two directions…
On Monday I spent a few hours cruising around the Harbor and Bay with Lowrance’s StructureScan module attached to an HDS-10. Impressive! This upstart seemed to image the bottom as well as the Humminbird 1197C I was also running, and Humminbird has completely owned this niche for years. Lowrance’s side imaging is also easier to use. Humminbird SI, for instance, doesn’t have an auto range feature that adjusts the displayed bottom width (and resolution) according to the depth, nor does it have the useful soft keys seen above. They both work pretty well, though, and the more I use them, the more I think they’re valuable to fisherman and even cruisers…
The cropped Google Earth iPhone image upper right shows Gizmo’s location (Google Maps version here) among the strings of mooring floats in Camden’s inner harbor, strings I ran up and down with the Humminbird 1197C now installed on Li’l Gizmo. Over and over again, because I couldn’t believe the detail I was seeing with side imaging! There are thousands of Camden Harbor images on the web (including on Panbo), but I don’t think anyone, divers included, has seen the bottom as well as in that bluish half screen above. Ever wonder how all those 30′ x 6′ two-boat floats stay safe and orderly in 10 feet of water plus 10-12 feet of tide? Well, that’s my float’s up-harbor 2 ton granite mooring at the screen top left, just west of my northern neighbor’s down-harbor block. You can see not only the heavy bottom chain, and the furrows it’s been digging when tide and wind shift Gizmo around, but even — once your eye is trained — the 6″x6″ skid under the float itself (that straight white line lower left). And this image was no fluke!
I finally got the loaner Humminbird 1197c installed on Li’l Gizmo, and am pretty darn impressed with its side scanning abilities. But before I get into that, check out that hi res map of my local Lake Megunticook. Yes sirree, Navionics recently updated their Premium and Platinum Hot Maps to include the data I helped collect one crazy day last fall. Frankly, the Megunticook map came out better than I expected. I know how fast the surveyors criss crossed spots like this, and how far apart their tracks were, but I’ve sonared a few miles of lake bottom right alongside the new map, and have yet to find a surprise. Going from the old sketch chart to plotting on this level of detail is a giant leap in situational awareness (and possibly fishing success), and adding the side scan view is another big step…
I could easily write a dozen more entries on 18″ radomes, AIS, NMEA 2000, and iPhone apps, but how about something completely different? I received and bench tested a loaner Humminbird 1197c this week. My plan is to check out its side-scanning abilities, particularly now that Lowrance is challenging its dominance in this niche. But I couldn’t help but notice the rather amazing downrigger controls shown in the machine’s demo mode. The screen above shows one of three downrigger pairs being automatically positioned 5 feet off the bottom as my simulated boat trolls a wavy bottom. And there’s much more…
Lowrance demonstrated its new StructureScan system in Orlando yesterday, with a surprise added feature. As expected, a high-frequency, very-narrow-beam transducer collects bottom info on each side of the boat and builds an almost photographic, though somewhat distorted, image as you move along. In the picture above (click for big version), we’ve chosen to display only the curious structure on the left side of our track. In other words, in that left window our boat is at the top right corner and the window shows the water column and bottom extending out about 70 feet to our left and about 200 behind us. The lower right window is normal Broadband Sonar image, derived from a separate transducer, but that upper right window is a little different, as is the structure being imaged…
I’ve long been interested in the ability of some Humminbird MFDs to side scan with near photographic precision, at least in fairly shallow and calm waters. A lot of fishermen, especially of the freshwater kind, are using the technology to find the structures where their quarry like to hang out, and you can see lots of real world results on this Yahoo group. Humminbird has virtually owned this niche for several years, and claims some patent protection, but now Lowrance is coming right at them with an HDS add-on called StructureScan. It will debut at the MAATS/iCAST show in Orlando this July (and I’ll be there), but Lowrance has started showing proof of performance images…
