Marine Electronics Q&A with BOE Marine - Simrad NSS issues

Jim,
I'm having a few issues with my NSS7 and Sirius weather module and was wondering if you could help me out with them.

My first issue is that the thing will not hold bottom very well, or continues to read 1-1.5ft of water when I am 50 miles offshore. I cannot mark anything on it as well when I am over any kind of structure. I know that this is most likely either a settings problem or a transducer (p-66) mounting issue, but I have played with all different combinations of settings, and the mounting of the transducer is in the EXACT same place that my last P-66 was installed in with my old Furuno machine, and I never had any problems whatsoever with picking up bottom/structure. Are there any setting that you could recommend to help get rid of this problem? This is becoming increasingly frustrating when I am offshore and I cannot pick up anything and my sounder is reading 1.5ft of water! I can send you pics of the transducer mounting if you would like if you think it would help.

My issue with the WM2 Sirius weather module is that when I want to look at the NWS forecast all I can seem to bring up is forecasts for the Boston area, is there a way to change this? I cannot figure it out for the life of me!

I have heard of this Boston issue before. If I amnot mistaken, the Boston area is where they show the demo. Might just be looking at the demo. Does it say your subscription is active? Call Navco on this one, i think they will know exactly whats wrong.

Which ducer do you have selected in the Sonar setup menu?

I have the p66 5k selected...not sure what the difference is between that and the 10k though

And the subscription is def active...everything else works fine. I will give then a shout and see what they have to say

The 5k and 10k affect the temp. So if the water temp is off by about 20 degrees switch it to the one you don't have selected.

I am having the same issue with reference to the nss8 displaying 1.5 ft depth, when I am in Deeper water. Also have p66 set to 5k and it is mounted correctly. Unit needs to be powered off/on to resolve. But, It keeps occurring randomly.

Anybody from Navico tech support who can address this issue, as I am seeing this from other NSS8 owners?

Have you tried turning down the gain? How deep is the water when it is displayng 1.5'?

At the Echo Settings page there is an option to set maximum search depth. I think the options are 300', 1000', or unlimited. Make sure the selection is set to a larger depth than what you try to track.

Also make sure you have selected a range larger than the actual depth, or that the unit is set to automatic range (preferred). Unlike Lowrance the Simrad's does not search for bottom deeper than the set range.

I have two boats with NSS, one with HST-WSBL transducer and one with B60 ( same transducer element as P66). I have not seen any performance problem in deep or shallow waters (0-1500'). I have one of the boats in a deep lake the other in salt water.

Thanks guys. Will check my settings and make adjustments and let you know if this fixes the 1.5 depth false reading issue.

I have this issue in shallow water (under3') that I loose the bottom, then at around 2.5' I don't have any soundings at all. So, I can't use the side scales either.
I have tried the gain adj. nope
I've tried min. depth settings nope!

I do have a stepped hull boat, but that shouldn't matter when idling around.

The transducer is the P79 shoot through hull type. I've called Simrad NA, and they said that it is normal problem with water under 3'. I'm hoping the experts here can suggest something, since this is the depth of my normal fishing grounds. I really just need it for approaching the area and leaving when I'm done.

Jeesh! my old garmin 178c worked perfectly to about the point where the boat hits the bottom.

Thanks sincerely,
Rob

It is prety normal for them to stop working in very shallow water. While your numbers may stop reading, you still might see the scrolling bottom. Have you check that? You can just match it up to the scale on the right of the screen.