Airmar replacement transducer for Lowrance

[yarcraft91]

Originally Posted by Andre

I was thinking going that way but the fact that Airmar are more suitable for the deep fishing style using the 50-200kHz, I would like to stay in the 200 with a wider angle.

Perchjerker, what is you're style of fishing?

I for my part fish 70% of my time between 40 & 125ft and the other 30% is between 10 & 30 ft. So for me a narrow cone is not something that I was looking.

I run a Lowrance 200 KHz Skimmer and an Airmar P66 side-by-side on a boat. Both were installed new within a 6-month period. The Airmar 200KHz "cone" is narrower than the Lowrance cone and that shows up as the Lowrance marking more and stronger fish "vees" in water under 20' deep. At 50 KHz, the Airmar cone is wider and marks more and stronger fish "vees" than the Lowrance at 200KHz. I switch from one frequency/transducer to the another based on where I am fishing.

While I have not done a thorough controlled study, I observe that the Airmar at 200 KHz is more sensitive and shows more detail than the Lowrance transducer, based on how each marks submerged trees- not surprising, as the Airmar has a narrower cone. I do not find the Airmar speed paddle wheel to be useful- if calibrated at one trolling speed, it will be grossly in error at half or twice that speed (as measured by GPS). That may be the fault of the limited calibration capabilities of my LMS-527 sonar/GPS, not the transducer.

[Jim Carroll]

Originally Posted by yarcraft91

I run a Lowrance 200 KHz Skimmer and an Airmar P66 side-by-side on a boat. Both were installed new within a 6-month period. The Airmar 200KHz "cone" is narrower than the Lowrance cone and that shows up as the Lowrance marking more and stronger fish "vees" in water under 20' deep. At 50 KHz, the Airmar cone is wider and marks more and stronger fish "vees" than the Lowrance at 200KHz. I switch from one frequency/transducer to the another based on where I am fishing.

While I have not done a thorough controlled study, I observe that the Airmar at 200 KHz is more sensitive and shows more detail than the Lowrance transducer, based on how each marks submerged trees- not surprising, as the Airmar has a narrower cone. I do not find the Airmar speed paddle wheel to be useful- if calibrated at one trolling speed, it will be grossly in error at half or twice that speed (as measured by GPS). That may be the fault of the limited calibration capabilities of my LMS-527 sonar/GPS, not the transducer.

I think this is really an astute post. The specs of the transducers are different, and Lowrance has optimized the sonar to their Skimmer transducer. With the narrower 200 kHz cone on the Airmar P66, you may see some better resolution in certain situations. And it is, after all, about twice as expensive as a Lowrance Skimmer.

The paddle wheel on the P66 is pretty useless in this age of GPS, and the shape of it isn't as forgiving or easy to tune as the Lowrance Skimmer.

I think that for most walleye anglers the Lowrance Skimmer is the BEST overall transducer for their unit.

However, the best sonar picture I've ever seen on a Lowrance HDS was hooked up to an Airmar M260 (1kW transducer in-hull about $800). That was pretty awesome, as you might expect. If you are serious about Airmar, I'd skip the P66 and save pennies and dollars for the transom mount Airmar TM258, but it has limitations with cone angles.

Really serious? Airmar SS264-200kHz widebeam or SSTM270W might be the ultimate shallow water transducers, but cost about as much as an HDS-10 head unit and would be "fun" to rig.

I'm sticking with the Lowrance Skimmer

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

[perchjerker]

Originally Posted by Jim Carroll

I think this is really an astute post. The specs of the transducers are different, and Lowrance has optimized the sonar to their Skimmer transducer. With the narrower 200 kHz cone on the Airmar P66, you may see some better resolution in certain situations. And it is, after all, about twice as expensive as a Lowrance Skimmer.

The paddle wheel on the P66 is pretty useless in this age of GPS, and the shape of it isn't as forgiving or easy to tune as the Lowrance Skimmer.

I think that for most walleye anglers the Lowrance Skimmer is the BEST overall transducer for their unit.

However, the best sonar picture I've ever seen on a Lowrance HDS was hooked up to an Airmar M260 (1kW transducer in-hull about $800). That was pretty awesome, as you might expect. If you are serious about Airmar, I'd skip the P66 and save pennies and dollars for the transom mount Airmar TM258, but it has limitations with cone angles.

Really serious? Airmar SS264-200kHz widebeam or SSTM270W might be the ultimate shallow water transducers, but cost about as much as an HDS-10 head unit and would be "fun" to rig.

I'm sticking with the Lowrance Skimmer

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

could be

could be that my original t/d was bad all along and now I am just enjoying a good one

could be

[LWinches]

I have often wondered about the performance of the 50 kHz transducers because of my negative experience with Humminbird 83 kHz. It took me too long to figure out why the 83 kHz did such a poor job showing fish below 60 feet. Whether I figured it out or not has not been determined but I’ve formed my own conclusions anyway. Hbird pings both 200 and 83 regardless of the frequency selected. There is no manual ping control. My experience is that the pinging algorithm is biased in favor of 200 by a factor of 2-3 to 1. The already low ping rate is reduced further as you move into deeper water. Add to that a moving boat and you can go straight across fish and see nothing. At first I wrongly concluded that the problem was the frequency and that 83 would not show fish as well as 200. The Vexilar Edge did not have this problem as the low frequency (107) on it worked well at all depths. My switching from Hbird units to Lowrance HDS gained me both true frequency selection and ping control. The 83 kHz works just fine. I’m assuming from Yarcraft91’s post that the Airmar P66 at 50 kHz does well at marking fish in deep water (say 100’) since the frequency can be isolated and the ping speed adjusted on a Lowrance.

I’d also be very interested to know if the M260 does well at marking fish on or near the bottom. All the units I’ve used fail to show fish on the bottom due to the dead zone created by the width of the transducer cone. The Genetron’s were reported to mark fish on the bottom but my experience did not confirm how to make that happen. I could not adjust it to differentiate between the density of a rock or a fish on the bottom. The only control I’ve been able to successfully see closer to the bottom with is to use a transducer with a smaller cone angle which reduces but does not eliminate the dead zone particularly when the bottom has any sort of incline or irregularity.

[fisher-1]

I use my P66 @ 50kHz when trolling for salmon, I have mark them almost 300' down all the time when I am fishin the blue zone on Lk.Ont,
I know they are fish because some of them streak up to the lure and there is not much structure/rocks in that part of the lake.
I also mark my rigger balls clearly down 160'
I leave the ping speed on auto.

[Andre (wallyandre)]

Here some pics from reg. skimmer today:
I was able to "see" the thermoclyne

I have Furuno 585 with airmar P66. I have owned high end lowrance graphs with their standard tranducers for years. Best decision I ever made to switch. Not only do I graph fish much easier and better but also at a much higher speed. No losing bottom even when running 30 mph over extremely sharp drop offs. I liked my lowrances and they had a nice display, however I had to search for fish at very low speeds to get great detail. Some of the cheap tranducers that come as standard with some new units do not have the power to get the most out of the unit. I talked with a former military sonar expert and engineer who now works for Airmar. He convinced me that most manufacturers skimp on tranducer quality and power to cut costs. He said that even the very best fishfinder is always limited to the power and quality of the tranducer that is installed with it. The P66 wasn't much more money than the ones that come with most units and I am totally thrilled with the results. I can only imagine how good this unit would be with the very high end Airmar tranducer that costs 600 dollars or more. But thats overkill on a smaller tiller like I have and the P66 is all I will ever need.

[240 LTS]

I realize this is an older thread but I found it doing a search.
Info is still relevant.
Great post BTW.

Looking for a transom mount for a a LCX 25.
What model, the P66?
Dual frequency preferred and temperature a must.

Are the Airmar's only available through their site?
I would imagine they have the best price?

Thank you,



.

[perchjerker]

Originally Posted by 240 LTS

I realize this is an older thread but I found it doing a search.
Info is still relevant.
Great post BTW.

Looking for a transom mount for a a LCX 25.
What model, the P66?
Dual frequency preferred and temperature a must.

Are the Airmar's only available through their site?
I would imagine they have the best price?

Thank you,



.

no

they are available at other places. I bought mine from Star Marine Depot. Very fast service.

[240 LTS]

Originally Posted by perchjerker

no

they are available at other places. I bought mine from Star Marine Depot. Very fast service.

Thank you.

.