Desert Star Acoustic Release Control System, Manual

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surface station is receiving power from an external power source onboard the vessel, unplug the STM surface station from
vessel's power source and allow the STM surface station to operate on the internal built-in battery.
Look for other man-made noise sources under your control and eliminate as appropriate.
Follow these steps to conduct the noise test and adjust the STM surface station sensitivity as
necessary. Adjusting the sensitivity by raising the signal “Threshold Level” will reduce the receiving
range of a STM surface station.
STEP 1:
Place the STM surface station’s sonar transponder overboard the vessel. Make sure to submerge
the sonar transponder at least to 6 feet or 2 meters depth.
Make sure the sonar transponder meets the optimum orientation of being pointed directly down.
When the sonar transducer is pointed directly down, it will be able to “hear” incoming sonar signal
within a 270 degrees angle (to be safe, assume 180 degree angle).
Consider attaching a weight to the protective cage of the sonar transducer in order to maintain it in
position pointing directly down. To accomplish this, attach a weight on the opposite side of the
communication cable on the metal cage surrounding the sonar transducer.
[PICTURE]
A vessel with a sonar transducer deployed overboard, shows 6 feet distance between surface and submerged
transducer. Shows orientation of transducer pointed directly down and the weight attached to its cage.
STEP 2:
Using the PC connected to STM surface station, run the “Acoustic Release Control” software.
Navigate to and click on the “Action” item of the main menu. You will be presented with expanded
submenu. Locate and click on the item “Noise Test”. This will initiate a noise test procedure and you
will be presented with a new “Noise Test Dialog” window.
[PICTURE]
A screenshot of Noise Test
STEP 3: