Marine Electronics Forum - HDS10 + Airmar P79 performance.

Hi, what sort of depth will a P79 reach shooting through the bottom on my glass boat? Will the transom mount 50/200 give much better performance? Hooked up to a Gen2 HDS 10.

I just had the HDS (Gen1) and P79 combo installed this week. Will splash boat tomorrow. I'm usually in 150' or less but occasionally out to 40 fathoms. It seems the trick to getting the transom mounts to work correctly is to get the mounting height exactly right. After issues with Lowrance trans. mt. ducers cracking, getting hit with debris, and losing bottom consistently over 20 mph, I went P79. I'll let you know.

I had an HDS-7/P-79 on the old boat. 500' was the deepest I had it, and it still showed bottom.

Won't the thickness of your hull affect how deep your combo will read? I would think that my boat and your boat would be different as far as how deep it reads.

The P79,B60 and the P66 all have the same element and sonar paramaters.

Under normal conditions the B60 will give better performance followed by the P66 and the P79.

The B60 being in direct contact with cleaner water usually has the edge. But in water less than 150' the P79 should work just as good as long as it is correctly mounted,and the hull is not overly diminishing the signal.

And it does help to be firing a full 600 watts with the P79.

I just installed my HDS10 and P79, I'm getting great pictures in 30' of water and can hold bottom and show fish at 36knots. Its a bit more complicated to fit the transom mount transducer due to the boat live on a swing mooring but I'm sure it will be worth it once I get over 500' deep.

Semperfi, you said "And it does help to be firing a full 600 watts with the P79" What does that mean exactly? When I installed I selected Airmar P79 on the menu list on HDS. Is there some other setting I should change?

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Semperfi, you said "And it does help to be firing a full 600 watts with the P79" What does that mean exactly?


There are of course some losses by firing thru the fiberglass hull so it does help to have the P79 used at its maximum potential...600 watts.

In shallow water this is not really that critical but when trying to get greater depth out of the P79 it may help to have a full 600 watts .

Tested it in 33m/ 100 feet yesterday. Picture looks good, all I have done is select the P79 transducer and turn the sensitivity down to reduce the screen clutter.

Anyone got suggestions on settings I should use?

These shots were taken while drifting.

OZ,

Thanks so much for posting those screen shots!

I have an older (top of the line at the time) lowrance and was advised by BOE to move up to the HDS-7 with an airmar 50/200 to improve my performance in deep water. your shots show me that I will get what I want if I spend the money to upgrade. So now my mind is made up.

I could not get anything but a depth reading when I went to the gulf of mexico a couple weeks back, so we were never sure we were on the reefs/fish or not. pretty much fished the GPS numbers. that was in ~27m/90 feet of water. If we would have gotten what you show it would have helped us a bunch.

cheers
Jerry

You have turned your sensitivity down far too much, it should look like light rain on your screen when there is nothing in the water column.

To set your Colorline go to palette #3 and when you know you are over sand, adjust so you just start to get a dash of red dots appearing over the yellow. When you go over a hard bottom this light red will turn to a thick solid red.

Surface clarity should be off, with noise on low.

You have turned your sensitivity down far too much, it should look like light rain on your screen when there is nothing in the water column.

To set your Colorline go to palette #3 and when you know you are over sand, adjust so you just start to get a dash of red dots appearing over the yellow. When you go over a hard bottom this light red will turn to a thick solid red.

Surface clarity should be off, with noise on low.

Thanks for the tips! If I make that colorline change on palette 3 will it save that setting for other palettes?

Do you have screen shot showing the "rain" on the screen?

I fish in salt water from depths of 7m-300m.

There are of course some losses by firing thru the fiberglass hull so it does help to have the P79 used at its maximum potential...600 watts.

In shallow water this is not really that critical but when trying to get greater depth out of the P79 it may help to have a full 600 watts .

In other words, if you want to get full use out of the transducer, get a unit that shoots 600 watts rms and not 30 "something" watts rms... right???

see...........:thumbsup: and that was not on 50hz!!!!!!!!! thats on the 200hz...........just be sure you have a solid hull and a good spot.

In other words, if you want to get full use out of the transducer, get a unit that shoots 600 watts rms and not 30 "something" watts rms... right???

Generally speaking..

If you have a 600 watt transducer and want to get the maximum depth then 500 or 600 watts being fired will of course be more advantageous than 100 or 300 watts.

But at shallow depths full power can also be a slight detriment...some sonars will reduce power power depending upon depth...you dont want 600 watts at 25'.

It is all about meeting ones fishing conditions in a balanced manner.

see...........:thumbsup: and that was not on 50hz!!!!!!!!! thats on the 200hz...........just be sure you have a solid hull and a good spot.

WOW!!! That's impressive:thumbsup:

Any chance you can share your settings? Ping speed, sensitivity, palette etc etc?

Tested it in 33m/ 100 feet yesterday. Picture looks good, all I have done is select the P79 transducer and turn the sensitivity down to reduce the screen clutter.

Anyone got suggestions on settings I should use?

These shots were taken while drifting.

I prefer palette 13. I recommend turning sensitivity on manual and adjust your colorline until your bottom looks better. I like to turn it as high as it will tolerate without having a cluttered screen. Then, I usually take a 6 oz lead or so on a rod and lower to the bottom.... then adjust your sensitivity so you can see it being jigged up and down off the bottom. If your screen marks this, it will surely mark a fish. This is how i effectively set mine up... I'm sure there are some other good ways.

So what are people using to fix the casing with ?

I have just recently moved my transom mount transducer inside my hull and it has made a marked improvement. I'm considering installing a p79 and maybe upgrade from the HDS5 to an8

Thanks Snelly

So what are people using to fix the casing with ?

I have just recently moved my transom mount transducer inside my hull and it has made a marked improvement. I'm considering installing a p79 and maybe upgrade from the HDS5 to an8

Thanks Snelly

I used Sikaflex to glue my P79 in place.

WOW!!! That's impressive:thumbsup:

Any chance you can share your settings? Ping speed, sensitivity, palette etc etc?

And if you go to the M260..that will be 50 times more sensitive.