Bird Mode dosn't work

[jdbravo]

Hello,

I bought a DRS2DNXT radar along with a TZT10X, with the main purpose of locating bird flocks to help me find fish.

When activating Bird Mode with Calm Water, it always shows too many points, making it impossible to identify the birds. If I switch to Moderate, I simply stop seeing the bird flocks. I activated it while visually spotting a bird flock, and the radar just didn’t detect them, or when it did, each bird disappeared from the radar immediately, making it impossible to visualize any group.

What could I be doing wrong? The radar was installed on the boat respecting the viewing angles.

Does the boat need to remain stationary for this mode to work? Or should it work while navigating? I also tested it while stationary, but it didn’t work either.

 

[Johnny Electron]

You might take a look at this guide:

https://www.furunousa.com/-/media/sites/furuno/reference_materials/furunoradarguide_lr.pdf

It offers a section about locating birds. It takes some getting used to because filtering is normally off and gain very high. It is harder to do with Domes than Open Arrays. I know the DRS4D-NXT works well for birds but never tried the smaller 2D-NXT. The longer the antenna array the better the radar eyesight (better horizontal resolution). The shorter array of the 2D will make it more challenging. Looking at the boat photo, you might benefit from a bit of wedge mount but I would also worry about some reflections from the front rail and items put up behind the radar. Just for testing you might try sector blanking the aft when you have a lot of metal reels up there. It could be your picking up too many close in reflections making it harder to get such small targets further out. Keep in mind it is X-band not X-ray.

How does the normal radar modes work for you?

 

[jdbravo]

Hi Johnny,

Thank you for taking the time to help me.

In the guide, it states:

“To target the birds, set the radar to a mid- or long-range. Next, increase the Gain control until you see noise on the display.”

However, if the bird mode is enabled, it doesn’t allow me to adjust the Gain. I have to disable bird mode to access certain parameters like Sea, Rain, and Gain.

It also mentions:
“When operating in Head Up or True Motion, be sure to turn on your target trail function.”

For some reason, I’m unable to enable the trail function. Regardless of whether bird mode is on or off, that option remains grayed out. Do you have any idea why this might be?

When trying to locate birds, I avoided looking at the rear of the boat on the screen because I know the fishing rods create some interference. Instead, I focused on the front and sides of the boat. I’ll try adjusting the sector blanking next time.

In normal mode, the radar worked well—I could see boats, floating buoys, weather, and the coastline without any issues.


Thanks again for your help!

 

[Johnny Electron]

Automated Bird mode is just a set of parameters that generally work for most but you are dealing with an array that is the smallest made. By the sound of it you will need to shift into using your own parameters that work the best for your use. The concept is explained the the radar operations guide I posted. When running yourself, the other features like gain should be at your disposal. There are features like true motion that you will need to ensure your boat has heading data available or it is likely locked out even when you are in manual control of all the settings. Bird mode is going to put items into automatic and lock out many things. That obviously isn't working for you. While the 2D will be more difficult, if you play with the settings you should still be able to locate birds greater than normal view. Back 20 years ago it took a 6ft array and at least 6kw of power to see such small targets. Rezboost and other features should assist but it isn't going to be cookie cutter and there they are. It will take a bit of practice to be able to pick out the small targets from the noise of such high gain.