furuno 295

[Anonymous]

need help setting up a 295
i am using a airmar ss260 (200/50) ducer
when setting up the ducer i had to set 200 and 50 khz frequency but what do i use for bandwith

the 50 band was working semi well but 200 was not showing much(less detail than the 50!)
both was showing less detail than my hds 10 this was in 100m water depth

any help much much appreciated

 

[Snips]

Gr8White,
Good question and one that's not explained well in the manual. Bandwidth sets the frequency slewing range of the LF & HF channels. The max setting can be up to 50% of the selected frequency. So for 50Khz the Bandwidth can be 25Khz and for 200Khz it can go as high as 100Khz. Under the SOUNDER MENU there is a setting called FREQ CONTROL. In theory the FREQ CONTROL should allow you to change the FCV-295's frequency to the Bandwidth limits. So if you set the LF to 50Khz with a Bandwidth of 25Khz your adjustable frequency range should be from 37.5Khz to 62.5Khz, 200khz with a BW of 100Khz should allow a range from 150 to 250Khz. You noticed that I mentioned "In theory/should" that's because the FCV-295 is blocked out from transmitting in three frequency bands. The first is 53-65, 111-139 and 171-183Khz. So even though you set the Bandwidth control wide enough the sounder won't allow access to those frequencies.

Having said all this, the Bandwidth setting has very little affect on the FCV-295's overall performance. Out of the box the sounders default settings are more for deeper waters than shallow. A couple of setting changes that may help are TX Power from AUTO to 10, TX Rate from AUTO to 20 and lower both the TVG Level/Distance values. The default TVG distance is set to 600ft so the sounders gain is suppressed to that depth. The Rule of Thumb on TVG values is "Less is More", the less the values the more you will see.

Hope this helps.

Snips

 

[Anonymous]

Snips thanx a lot for that
the manual is also not very clear on how to connect up the ducer- pin 1 is pos and pi 3 in neg
but thanx to this forum i sorted that out

what i cant understand is that the 50 shows the weight/line dropping , on the 200 nothing -i expected the 200 to show more detail
i have played with tvg but will try again when this weather breaks(winter over here in OZ)

 

[Snips]

Gr8White,
That is because 50Khz has a wider beam than the 200Khz, 19 vs 6 degrees. Below is a screen shot that I did with a B-260 and FCV-1100 showing the beam width difference. The cone width of 200Khz is only 21ft at a depth of 200ft.

Snips

 

[Anonymous]

thanx Snips
is there a post on here somewhere which deals with tuning(getting most) out of ones sounder -eg what strength(power) at what depth etc

 

[Snips]

Gr8White,
Maybe these FCV-295 screen shots will help. One of the nice features of the sounder is that you can have both channels programmed for the same frequency which makes it easy for me when I am comparing settings and different transducers. In the pictures below I am comparing the 25 degree 200Khz of the SS270 on the left side to the 8.5 degree 200Khz of the CA-50/200-12M on the right. The first picture is showing the 270 with a high TVG Level/Distance setting vs a lower setting for the 12M. From this screen shot you can see how much a high TVG setting takes away from the picture.

The second screen shot is actually out fishing. This isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison because the transducer locations are different. The 270 is hanging over the size where the 12M is in more turbulent waters closer to the outboards. Here both 200Khz channels have the same TVG, power, pulse length and clutter settings. Only the gain is a little different.

Hope these help.

Snips