Sonar Question

[fisherhead]

I have a question guys. What importance does the peak to peak power have on a sonar. Some I have seen vary from 1500 to 4000 maybe depending on the unit. How does this make a sonar/gps any better/worse?

[Broadside]

All sonar units have enough power for the depths catfish live in, and unfortunately I think the advertizements for sonar units push this number as a way to confuse people as to which unit is better.

The higher the frequency the transducer operates at, the better the resolution of the unit can be. Units that use the higher frequencies often have much higher peak to peak since a higher peak to peak means that sonar returns will stand out better over the background clutter and be easier for the sonar head unit to pick out at long distances (lower frequencies penetrate farther than the higher ones, so you need to boost the high freq power) . You could build a very high fidelity, highly sensitive unit and use less power, but it would be more expensive.

IOW, Peak to Peak is not near as important as the frequency the head unit can work with.

[WVBowhunter]

Think of the power as a flashlight - a 1500 watt unit is like a 3 cell mag lite, a 4000 watt like a 250,000 candle power spot light, a 8000 watt unit is like a 5 million candle power spot light, now turn out the lights and which one do you want to use

[fisherhead]

SO WVB, referring to your analogy is there such a thing as too much light? (too much power?)

[WVBowhunter]

Well imo no,,the same conditions that would give a lot of clutter on the screen will affect the returns nearly equally, and with the sensitivity and other options - you should be able to reduce the screen clutter about equally.

[Broadside]

Most sonar units control the gain in reference to the distance of a target, so they do not overpower....otherwise they'd be useless in 20' of water. You can also do this manually with the sensitivity setting, just like the squelch on a CB.