| Good luck- most of the commercial fatho's are a bit bigger. No
reason they couldn't be made smaller, even with comparable efficiency,
but nothing seems to be driving that. For instance, another $1.50 would
buy enough processor power to change the pulse rate with the depth; in
other words, when it's reading 300', 5 updates/sec are just wasting
your battery. But I haven't seen much practice of that. My Signet has a
pseudo-"lookahead" which beeps if the contour is heading quickly
towards shallow, but not much else. Oh, yeah, it also has a strange
sense of humor- it sometimes ramps down the readout, slowly, looking
like grounding is imminent. In their defense, the company DID admit the
dsign was less than great, and they'd replace it with the new design-
for $350 or so.
Oh well, let us know if you find one that's smaller.
Scott.
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| I just bought a DS. The best deal that I found was a Horizon Standard
DS-10 with various features: digital read out, anchor alarm (when
contour changes too much), shallow alarm ... all for $239.
I think .1 is correct in the size of the transducer. You don't have to
have the transducer through-hull mounted if the hull is solid-core.
Maybe you could fill you old hole in with epoxy then redrill with a
larger hole saw.
BTW, I had my instruments installed. The going rate is about the same
as any boatyard charges ($45-50 hour). Since the yard has all the
correct drill bits, beveled hole saws, etc. - this seemed like a deal
to me. The total for me was $112 for the DS, KM, and compass.
Bob
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| I might have found the depthsounder that meets most of my requirements!
7/8" hole required
Feet,Fathoms and Meters
Low cost (under $200)
Digital readout
Depths to 200' (700' would be nice for continental shelf)
Reasonable power requirements (12V @ 0.5amp)
Manufacturer with some longevity and service capability
The requirements have been met by an Apelco model 241 LCD fishfinder.
In addition to the above it has the following features:
Automatic or Manual Gain control
Shallow and deep water alarms (handy for following bottom contours in the fog)
Display of bottom profile (with Zoom feature) (handy for finding shipwrecks!)
Cone angle greater than some of the other "sailboat depthsounders"
5 Ranges of display (0-15, 0-30, 0-60, 0-120, 0 -240ft)
Bronze transducer
Fishfinding (wonder if it works for SHARKS...handy to know before you jump in!)
The limitations of the unit appear to be:
No zero offset
Size of digital numerals small (1/2" high perhaps)
Digital readout 4' min
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