question regarding fish finders - help please!

[magic1963]

New to your forum...... a newbie to fishing in general! I am hoping to buy a 2nd fish finder for my husband's boat - he has an Eagle, of course, mounted in back for HIM to see..... but the person sitting in the front of the boat (usually ME) has no clue what's going on under the water unless I ask! I know you can add a 2nd fish finder to a boat, but do they have to be compatible??? If he has an Eagle, does the 2nd one have to be an Eagle? does it matter what kind? any help you can give me is much appreciated!
Thanks!

[allingeneral]

Hi Magic. Welcome to the forum.

I think you have two options...

1) Sit next to your husband so you can see his depth finder (ugh! Sit next to your husband?! hehe)

2) Have him buy a second depth finder, mount the transducer on the opposite side of the boat from where his is mounted and mount the unit up front where you can see it.

There aren't any "dual display" depth finders that I'm aware of. Not within reach of a normal person's wages anyway. I'm not sure what kind of issues you may have with two finders conflicting and causing noise for each other. I think you would have to look at the operating frequency of the two units and make sure that they aren't running at the same frequency. Otherwise, both would pick up each others' sonar returns and cause problems.

Here's a little bit of information that I found using a google search:

Choose the right operating frequency for your sonar. High-frequency units show greater bottom and fish detail, but use a narrower sonar cone that does not penetrate to the depth that low-frequency units do. Unless you fish deep and large lakes, a medium- to high-frequency unit is your best choice.

Consider buying two depth finders, one mounted where you steer the boat and the other mounted where you sit to fish. The steering-area unit should be designed primarily to read the lake bottom for general structure and possible obstructions, while the other unit should deliver detailed images of the area you're fishing in.

I've never personally tried to put something like this together.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

[magic1963]

thanks for answering! LOL - ya - sit next to my husband when he's directing me to put down the trolling motor or bring it up... sometimes I think he does it just to have me do something besides fish!!! ok - yep, I do remember him saying something about the frequencies of the units having to be compatible.... gosh... no wonder he takes care of the boat and I don't! what do I know? I guess I have to find out more about his present fish finder first.

[allingeneral]

If you look at his depth finder and post the model number here, I'll get the specs for you...operating frequency, etc.

[kais4795]

I don't know a ton about fish finders, but I do know that my brothers use the same finder and when we go ice fishing, they have to sit about 100 yards from each other if they both want to use their finder. They got the same model thinking they would be ok used next to each other, but this isn't the case. I think the best bet in a boat is to find a splitter and use the same transducer with two screens. I found a site that has some splitters for sale (http://shopping.superpages.com/Fishfinders--al29723). Just an idea. Hope you get it all worked out.

http://onetoomanyhobbies.com

[magic1963]

Finally found out what he has for a fish finder! An Eagle Cuda 168.... does this help me?

[allingeneral]

Finally found out what he has for a fish finder! An Eagle Cuda 168.... does this help me?

Here's a link to the Product Operations Manual for the Eagle Cuda 168

It operates at 200 kHz, so as long as the other unit isn't within 50kHz of that, you shouldn't have any interference issues. Unfortunately, all of the Eagle products on their website use a 200Khz frequency. So do all of the Garmin models...and Humminbirds too. Looks like the industry standard is 200kHz on single frequency models and anything with dual frequency capability is 200kHz and 80-83kHz.

So, the previous post about getting a splitter may be the way to go...but I don't see anything on their site about a splitter, and you would have to make sure that any splitter you get is pinned out the same (has the same connector) as the transducer cable.

Maybe contact Eagle Electronics and see what they say about a single transducer/dual display setup with a splitter?