Chirp Versus regular sonar

[striperjohn]

After the thread medicine man started I started to do some websurfing on this issue. Cabin fever ok?
This is and excerpt from "the hull truth discussion on same"

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CHIRP is the future of recreational sonar regardless of manufacturer....I agree with abbor..the new sonar hub from Navico is going to be a winner..
And shortly one will not even have to chose between a CHIRP unit and traditional tone burst unit.

One unit will have it all.

All the manufactures are now working to give the end user a wide variety of sonar selections from one single unit....thus if one prefers one particular sonar feature over another ...no need to change units.

Navico, Simrad, Raymarine, Garmin, Koden are all going to have a single units that will have multiple sonar functions.


Just one example:

With the Garmin 741xs, 1040xs, 840xs series the same unit gives a wide variety of options in their sonar capability.


The user can choose from several sonar modes to use from the same unit.

1) Traditional 600 /1 kw 50/200 kHz sonar and a wide selection of traditional transducers .
2) CHIRP and a selection of High, Medium and Low single band transducers.
3) Down Vu (455/800 kHz) and traditional sonar (77/ 200 kHz ) with the 010-12087-01 transducer.

And add the GCV 10 Black Box....Down Vu / SideVu with the 010-12089-00 transducer.....and this feature can be used at the same time in combination with either traditional or CHIRP sonar.



So all in all, the manufactures are working to give the end user a wide section of sonar capability and use from a single unit that may greatly expand ones choices and options depending on their fishing parameters.

A win win for everyone.
Then on a trip up to the Ashland BPS where Lowrance had a Tech rep this entire last week. This guy said CHIRP will be replacing regular sonar on all the units and said if you like SS and DS wait until the new CHIRP units come out in a couple years. He said you could put CHIRP on a trolling motor unit up front and by using their planned 60/20/8 degree selectable cone angles it would provide coverage unseen before, combined with the DS and SS interface the computer would match specific images seen on CHIRP with the DS and SS images. Basically a 3d image around the boat. Obviously a better image in deeper water than real shallow.
Of course all this is dollar signs to the industry.

[medicineman]

Now you make me want to just buy a "cheap" CHIRP unit without SS and wait a year or two.

[mwardncsu]

Feb 4, 2015 10:20:02 GMT -5 medicineman said:

Now you make me want to just buy a "cheap" CHIRP unit without SS and wait a year or two.

That would be the Lowrance Elite units........

Of course, as with anything in the techology world - there is always "something better" coming..... so you have to decide what as the best value for the $$ for you and go with it.....

[Deleted]

Feb 4, 2015 10:20:02 GMT -5 medicineman said:

Now you make me want to just buy a "cheap" CHIRP unit without SS and wait a year or two.

I would recommend AGAINST this.

CHIRP may offer some better sonar images. However, keep in mind that optimizing crap simply makes better crap! And no matter how you slice it, traditional sonar is crap compared to side and down scan.

[striperjohn]

Feb 4, 2015 11:45:30 GMT -5 Yam said:

Feb 4, 2015 10:20:02 GMT -5 medicineman said:

Now you make me want to just buy a "cheap" CHIRP unit without SS and wait a year or two.

I would recommend AGAINST this.

CHIRP may offer some better sonar images. However, keep in mind that optimizing crap simply makes better crap! And no matter how you slice it, traditional sonar is crap compared to side and down scan.


View Attachment

I agree Yam. I personally do not use my sonar now except when running to fast for the ss to work.

[mwardncsu]

I'll disagree here - just to make it interesting

I still find traditional sonar to be of significant use. 1st, you can SEE the fish much better - a good fish shows a large, intense mark, vs. a small white dot on the down/sidescan. This is even more important when you have 7" or smaller screens. Also, the coverage areas are different. With downscan & sidescan, you are seeing a slice of the water off (typically) the transom of the boat - vs. sonar providing at least some "forward" visibility due to the conical coverage vs. more of a very flat cone. So the fish you see have gone by the time you see them (yes, maybe they will come back if you have the right bait ).

I guess I feel both have their place - sidescan helps you spot schools or pods of fish off to the side, outside the range of your regular sonar (or downscan sonar). Downscan confirms with no question if you are looking at a tree, a school of bait, or a piple of gamefish (though once you get used to your sonar, you know this as well. I can tell more about the size of fish, and often even the type, with regular sonar now than you can often do with side/downscan.

CHIRP promises to bring "regular" sonar closer to the target-resolution offered by side/downscan.....

[Deleted]

I didn't mean to suggest that regular sonar doesn't have value. It is a required element of the puzzle especially at higher speeds. However, I don't believe that the value added by enhancing the clarity of traditional sonar comes close to the original value added by structure scan. Thus, I would pick SS over Chirp if I had to choose between the two.

Secondly, I don't see how Chirp will make a vertical streak at 30 mph look any better than a vertical streak. Maybe enhanced color? So now I will have a deeper red vertical streak? Ahem...

[johnr]

I've been using just an Elite 7 HDI since I bought my new boat in May. Prior to that I used HDS 7, 8, 10 w/ SS,DS and LCX 37C on my Skiff. I can say with certainty, that I have not caught any less fish by downgrading to the cheap Elite 7. I can also say with certainty, that I spend much less time looking for fish on my sonar, and subsequently blaming the sonar for not showing me any fish. This allows me more time to actually fish, and subsequently catch more fish.

I see no benefit to the larger screens with DS, SS, and all those gadgets for targeting a fish that is pelagic such as stripers. They have a real hard time 'hiding' from sonar, unless they are super shallow, then SS becomes a great advantage. If walleyes, or perch were the main target, then yes I could see having all these gadgets. Walleyes and perch are very adept at hiding from sonar, so the bigger screen and better target separation are very useful in finding fish buried in the mud and rocks. I mainly target walleyes now, and have no issues finding them with my cheap sonar. I do believe that we have reached the uppermost range of usable "stuff" when it comes to sonar. From here on, to me, it's just fluff.

[striperjohn]

I have and old Bassmaster magazine where a guy they called the bass professor , named Doug Hannon wrote and article entitled "technology ends with the new fishfinder". In his article (70s)he wrote that the flasher fishfinder was about the end of technology for use by bass fisherman. Lol. I think Johnr is correct in many ways simply because once you learn the fish, technology is not going to help you much more. If you know the when, the why, and generally where, the how to catch follows. Assuming they are biting.

[piper]

I think this new technology is cool as crap. YES I do spend more time staring at my fish finder then actually fishing but why not, its a spectacle at times seeing what you can pick up. Chirp, no chirp I dont know. From my understanding all it is is fluff at this point. The next wave to grab attention. Time will tell. I have read a few times that this Chirp technology is prone to burning out the transducers at a higher rate.. something to ponder.

[Pete D.]

I have chirp and wouldn't go back. Just another bell/whistle though.

[Deleted]

Mar 17, 2015 16:32:55 GMT -5 Pete D. said:

I have chirp and wouldn't go back. Just another bell/whistle though.

I will hate chirp until I have chirp. It's my way of not spending more money on something else that I don't need.

[Pete D.]

Mar 18, 2015 16:48:20 GMT -5 Yam said:

Mar 17, 2015 16:32:55 GMT -5 Pete D. said:

I have chirp and wouldn't go back. Just another bell/whistle though.

I will hate chirp until I have chirp. It's my way of not spending more money on something else that I don't need.

Hahahaha, I hear ya. It really doesn't make a huge difference in my opinion. At least not what Lowrance's offers. The biggest difference that I notice, is target separation off of the bottom. It also shines in 30' of water +. Not worth the $700 for sonarhub, if you ask me, but I bought a sonarhub bundle so I think I only paid and extra $300 for it, and a friend of mine gave me a TM150 (chirp ducer)

[valleythunder]

As my local Lowrance/Simrad rep says: You'll never keep up with all the latest tech. Unless you have DEEP pockets.
Best solution is to buy the best equipment you can. Everyone gripes about buying another box to get chirp on the "old" HDs units, but at least you can get it for a unit already paid for. Says this guy who just bought an EVO2.....

Here is some "light" reading regarding chirp. Found this from THT as well, does a great job explaining exactly what CHIRP is:
www.thehulltruth.com/marine-electronics-forum/506221-chirp-sounders-fish-finder-explained.html

Rob