Transducer

jjhjrcmh

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
88
I have a 50/200 Lowrance transducer mounted to the transom and would like to get a shoot through 50/200. What is everyones opinion? I have the HD-5 lowrance
 

BobGinCO

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
539
Re: Transducer

Just a guess, but I'm guessing the transom transducer will work better than the shoot-through transducer.
 

dingbat

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
16,319
Re: Transducer

In going to a shoot thru, the accuracy of the depth will remain the same but you will loose a bit of "range". The down side is that your sensitivity will go out the window. If you don't fish, it shouldn't be a concern
 

BobGinCO

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
539
Re: Transducer

The difference is like opening a door to another room to hear what's going on in there, vs trying to listen through the door. Yeah, the speed of sound in water is the same, so your depth reading will still be accurate, but the sound level is greatly reduced, so you won't get the finer details.
 

Georgesalmon

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Apr 14, 2012
Messages
1,793
Re: Transducer

In my op. the best transducer is a through hull type. Yes you now have another hole in your boat but the benefit of good readings at high speed are worth it to me. I know some people can get good readings at speed with transom mounts but I've just never had good luck.
 

BobGinCO

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
539
Re: Transducer

the benefit of good readings at high speed are worth it to me

Very good point. If I'm at all concerned about depth, I am NOT at high speed. When in doubt, I slow it down, and the transom-mounted transducer is just fine. Oh and do you realize that at high speed, your depth-finder will read deeper than actual? Because of the fact that your boat moves farther forward in the time it takes for the sound to get down to the bottom, and bounce back up, you have actually made the sound travel farther than just down and back at a standstill. Is it appreciable? I'd have to do some trigonometry to figure that out.
 

dingbat

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
16,319
Re: Transducer

Yeah, the speed of sound in water is the same, so your depth reading will still be accurate, but the sound level is greatly reduced, so you won't get the finer details.
Your gain setting will take care of most of that. The bigger problem is the frequency shift induced by the signal passing thru the hull. The shift will put up to 10% of the signals outside the response zone of the transducer.


Because of the fact that your boat moves farther forward in the time it takes for the sound to get down to the bottom, and bounce back up, you have actually made the sound travel farther than just down and back at a standstill. Is it appreciable?

Sound travels thru water at 4,800 feet per second. Traveling at 60 mph in 30 feet of water, you?re looking at an error of 2.4? At 30 mph your looking at an error of less than a ??
 

Low dsrt jon

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
May 14, 2009
Messages
77
Re: Transducer

This is just my opinion but I like transom mounts better than thru- hull set ups. I don't like putting another hole in my boat . I thought about it hard when I bought my boat brand new and decided on a outside mount transducer. The speed and clarity concern's are adjustable for me so I don't have any problem's at all. LDJ :dog::dog:
 
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