Versa Electronics
www.marcumtech.com
Dead Zone
–
All sonar units will have a dead zone in certain circumstances. This occurs on
sharp drop-offs where the transmit beam (cone) hits the shallower edge of the
drop-off and returns before the deeper edge returns. This in effect creates an
undisplayed area between the shallower and deeper water within the transmit
beam. The 8 degree transducer option on the Digital Sonar will greatly reduce
this effect.
FISHING IN SHALLOW WATER
The Marcum Digital Sonar is designed to be an effective fishing tool in a wide
variety of environments. Most of the time, simply turning on the unit at factory
default settings is all that is necessary. Shallow water [10 feet or less] can be
problematic without making a few adjustments. If you are having trouble getting
optimal performance out of your Digital Sonar in shallow water, here are some
adjustments to experiment with. This will also apply if you are fishing in deeper
water, but trying to mark your jig or fish just below the ice. Depending on the
actual circumstances, one or more of these adjustments may be necessary.
First thing, when in shallow water, keep your transducer near the surface of the
water [at the TOP of the ice, almost in the air] no matter how thick the ice is.
This gives the ducer a little more room to “work”. Be sure that you manually
select the 10 foot range. Next, press the MENU button, select SONAR
SETTINGS, and then scroll to SONAR MODE. Highlight it and select OPEN
WATER MODE. We realize it does not seem natural to use “OPEN WATER
MODE” when you are on the ice, but making this change will “back off” the gain
curve, allowing better performance in certain ice fishing conditions. Finally, you
should also consider changing the color palette from the default six-color palette
to one of the three-color palettes.
HOW TO DECIDE WHICH CONFIGURATION TO USE
With 5 different sonar windows, along with a plethora of other settings, it can
be hard to decide on which one to display. If you have used traditional
mechanical flashers in the past, you may like the familiarity of the Digital
Sonar’s flasher display. The flasher displayed with one or more of the vertical
display is likely to be how most anglers use the Digital Sonar, at least for
starters. We get endless feedback on how well the scrolling graph display
works for ice fishing, so be sure to give it a try. Be sure to experiment with
different color palettes and backgrounds, too. You can have up to three
windows displayed at once.
CIRCULAR [FLASHER] DISPLAY
— This Sonar window will read much like a
traditional flasher-style display. You can set the range manually, or allow the
Auto Range or Dynamic Depth interface to automatically lock into a RANGE
that will optimize the use of the circular display. Signals are displayed as
various colored lines on the dial, and the different colors represent different
signal strengths.
VERTICAL DISPLAYS
— These Sonar windows are very easy to interpret—
top is the top, bottom is the bottom. Anything in between the top and bottom is
weeds, fish, or your lure. There are two different Vertical displays—one shows
the entire water column, one shows your ZOOM window. On each one, signals
are displayed as various colored lines on the column, and the different colors
represent different signal strengths.
