HDS Frequency - Comparing Fish with 83 and 200 plus On May 14, 2013
Your HDS has a choice of frequencies (83 or 200) to choose from the standard transducer which is the same transducer as the 200 kHz skimmer. The 200/50 transducer is designed for saltwater so we will not cover that in this tutorial. We will compare the freshwater HDS frequencies plus how to eliminate cross talk.
The best feature of the 83 is when you are fishing next to another boat with a 200 kHz transducer. Now you can switch to the 83 and get a clear picture on the sonar display without the crosstalk. At least until the other boats get this choice and switch to the 83 and then we are back to crosstalk again. But if you have the StructureScan you can use the DownScan™ and choose either the 455 or 800 kHz frequency. This will eliminate crosstalk from an 83 or 200 freshwater HDS frequency transducer.
We now have good tools to eliminate crosstalk in freshwater HDS frequencies when fishing around boats (4 different transducer frequencies to select from); finally the days of crosstalk are over.
Look at the StructureScan tutorials for examples comparing DownScan to traditional 2D sonar. DownScan enhances your understanding of sonar.
I have been doing some comparisons and the 83 works well in shallow water 10-40 feet. You get a larger cone with the 83 which will display fish arches with longer tails. The tail on the fish arch is the fish on the edge of the cone. The below image demonstrates the longer tails on the 83 kHz image. The DownScan has a narrow cone so fish show up as dots when you are moving over them.
The next example is 2 crappies that I was catching. The black arrows show the crappie arch missing a tail on the 200. this is because the cone is wider on the 83. The black arrows show targets on the 83 and not the 200 because of the wider cone.
There are 3 fish in this image. The 83 shows all 3 well, the 200 separates the fish from the bottom by color better and only part of one fish because of the narrower cone and the DownScan only shows one fish because of the narrowest cone.
Since I have been using CHIRP I have found the 83 performs much better. The 200 is good with or without CHIRP.
