Airmar P66

Tug · Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:04 pm Post subject: Airmar P66

Currently i have a Lowrance single frequency transducer mounted on the Port side of my transon.Seeing that i am going to epoxy and bottom paint my boat i was thinking on removing the transducer and mounting board and relocating them on the Starboard side.I have a Airmar P66 transducer that i bought last year , is the P66 transducer that much of a better transducer to warrant the trouble of the move. Thanks Tug

rogerbum · Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:53 pm Post subject:

I'd love to know. Here's what I'd do if I were you. I'd mount the airmar to a piece of lumber and then run out to some known location with structure - e.g. someplace you normally boat and fish. Then I'd clamp the airmar to the transom and then slowly cruise over the structure a few times swapping the cable between the airmar and the other transducer to see if you feel like you get a better signal. Repeat this at a few depths and then determine if it's worth the time and effort. A friend of mine with a small aluminum boat mounted his transducer to a cut off broom handle. He'd clamp that to a rail and only lowered it into the water for trolling. His head unit was mounted with a ram style mount. The combo (while not pretty) allowed him to easily remove the whole shebang when he left the boat outside. While I wouldn't recommend this as a permanent setup for anyone, for testing transducers, it would work fine.

forrest · Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:59 pm Post subject:

The dual beam transducer will give you a better picture. The low frequency 50 HZ will give you a wide cone and pick up bait fish schools while the narrow beam 200 HZ will give you more detail. I just put a 1000watt P260 which will give me 50 times the resolution of the P66. Can't wait to try it out in the ocean.

Tug · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 10:02 am Post subject:

All good ideas , i forgot to add that i have the Lowrance X510C single frequency Sonar with the 200 KHz Deep Water Skimmer. If i switch to the dual frequency Airmar P66 i could only utilize the 200 KHz frequency feature on this transducer.The Airmar puts out more watts so one would think that the bottom detail would be alot better. Tug

Matt Gurnsey · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 12:53 pm Post subject:

While the Airmar is capable of 600 watt output, I believe it is limited to what the sounder head puts out.

rogerbum · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 2:39 pm Post subject:

Matt Gurnsey · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 6:25 pm Post subject:

Ah, yes, Lowrance's published power output. They have caused more confusion in the marine electronics industry for so many years.

Lowrance used to publish sounder out put using peak to peak measurement and not the RMS power output that everybody else uses. According to some Airmar sheets I was just reading today, peak to peak is about 8 times higher than RMS.

So this unit puts out 300 watts RMS. The transducer is rated for 600 RMS. In either event, it is the sounder that puts out the wattage, and not the transducer.

It's like stereo speakers, hooking up a 100 watt speaker to a 10 watt sound system doesn't give you 100 watts of output.

PS- Lowrance now publishes actual RMS numbers, and then an analog RMS equivilant. Can't they just publish a real number and be done with it?

Tug · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 7:22 pm Post subject:

Matt,now i am really confused .The transducer i have on the boat works great so i will leave good enough alone.I will keep the Airmar P66 for a spare or if i ever get another sounder with dual frequency capabilities. Tug