Fishfinder Sonar View

[LDUBS]

Anyone know what would cause these vertical lines? I see this every so often and have no idea.

 

[Frankenfish]

111 feet deep? What business does anyone have boating in water that deep? Deepest lake in my state is only 65ft. Should be illegal to boat in the triple digit depths

Your lines look similar to interference from other sonars when they're on the same frequency. Were you near another boat when they started popping up? You can also get interference if you have two sonars on your boat using the same freq. If you can fiddle with the frequency, that may be a solution.

 

[LDUBS]

111 feet deep? What business does anyone have boating in water that deep? Deepest lake in my state is only 65ft. Should be illegal to boat in the triple digit depths

Your lines look similar to interference from other sonars when they're on the same frequency. Were you near another boat when they started popping up? You can also get interference if you have two sonars on your boat using the same freq. If you can fiddle with the frequency, that may be a solution.

Thanks for the info. There was one other boat but he was pretty far away the whole time I was out. I would say closest was 150' while we chatted with each other, and most time 1,000 feet or more.

This screen happens every so often and is very intermittent. It has happened at other lakes too. It looks like I'm reading streams of bubbles. I don't remember it ever lasting very long. I only have the one sonar. Power to the FF is a separate fused circuit direct from the battery. Ground is to a shared negative bus. I wonder if there is any feedback issue with the trolling motor wireless remote. But then I think it would happen every time I used the remote. I was near the dam. I wonder if there is some kind of monitoring system that might cause interference -- but that is probably just my imagination running away.

BTW, of the three lakes I go to, this is the shallow one! Haha

 

[Frankenfish]

I wouldn't think the cones would cross at that depth and another boat 150' away, but I'm no expert on it. I would look for patterns when this shows up to double check it isn't electrical interference with trolling motor, ignition, or other electronics, although sounds like your circuitry is isolated. An easy check you can do that may tell you nothing at all - when you see this show up, unplug the transducer wire from the back of the unit. If the artifacts remain, then [dropshadow=blue]THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE BOAT![/dropshadow]

Again, no expert so take all other advice before mine.

 

[LDUBS]

"THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE BOAT!"

haha, now that made me laugh!

Anyway, thanks Frankenfish. Now it will be a challenge to figure this out.

 

[AquaKing]

I’ve had similar experiences and read up on the common causes before.

Transducer being to close to another one of you run multiple. To close to the main motor while running and having other electronics such as a trolling motor tied into the same battery. My issue ended up being a pinched wire from my 5yr old pushing up on the transducer against the transom.

If you find out the cause let us know.

 

[MrGiggles]

I get them too.

I see them even when the bow unit is off, so it is not crosstalk, although it may still be some sort of interference.

I've often wondered if it could be those columns of bubbles you see here and there on the water, from organic matter decomposing on the lake bottom.

 

[LDUBS]

I did not see a repeat of this when I was out at the same place a couple of days ago. The only difference I noted is that for some reason there was a lot of junk (vegetation) in the water compared to a couple weeks ago. It does look like bubbles on the screen. But in my case, I wonder how much vegetation would there be in depths over 100'.

I think it must be some kind of intermittent interference. Maybe only happens when the planets are in alignment or something.

 

[eeshaw]

Have you changed the transducer mount before this started happening? Sometimes I've noticed that if the mount allows it to move around it can cause these lines.

 

[LDUBS]

I haven't changed the transducer but I did move the boat up off and back down to the trailer. I was pretty careful to keep supports away from the transducer. Anyway, I just checked it and it seems OK. Thanks for the tip.