Topic: 85hz doesn't work

[Laxwyo]

Hey all.  Thanks for a wonderful forum. 

I have the 999ci hd si and it's a pretty good unit.  Ive had an HB ice fishing finder before and like the dual beam on it.  However, 85hz doesn't seem to work at all.  All my other frequencies work great.  I was hoping to use it while vertical jigging so that my partners never lose sight of their 8" tube jig.  I've split sonar screened and had 20lb lakers that registers massive readings on 200hz barely show a faded arc on the 85hz.  Cruising the lake with 85hz never shows anything.  It does read the bottom.  I've poured through forums and emailed with HB but feel like they give me stock answers.  I'm really not sure if the 85hz ever worked or not.  I updated firmware to 7.790 and restore defaults etc.  even tried max mode with sensitivity all the way up.  As I was installing a navionics chip, I noticed that 85hz was completely blank during simulator mode.  Like, it was white with no bottom reading or anything.  I do hear my ducer clicks slow down when I choose 85hz.  Do any of you have any thoughts?  I wanted to get some other opinions before is spent $320 and sent it to HB or bought a new ducer.  I'm thinking about installing the original firmware and seeing if it's a software problem.  There was a few updates where I didn't restore defaults before installing.  Thanks for your time

[Gimp]

83 kHz was never recorded for the demo mode for the core units so it not being there is normal.

83 kHz is a very wide beam which works well in shallow water but does not work well in deep water and tends to 'wash out' or dissipate.  In water as shallow as 7-10 feet I can get good fish returns but will start to lose lures, even hard, flat topped lures that should give solid returns.

 Have you tried changing to 'Saltwater' mode? In advanced mode there is a separate sensitivity adjustment for 83 kHz, have you tried that? How high is your Noise reduction set to? Try lowering that.

If you have tried all of those things I wouldn't be too optimistic about getting good readings in the deep water that lake trout usually inhabit with 83 kHz. It just wasn't made for it.

[Laxwyo]

I'll try a couple of those things.  I have ran it in max mode and sensitivity all the way up and only thing that happens is the bottom returns gets super yellow.  I've read in a few places that people think 83hz doesn't work beyond short water.  With the ice fishing ducer on a $200 unit, I routinely would see a suspended fish at 65ft on 85hz and I'd reel up and boom, the fish would show up on my 200 hz.  So, maybe my expectations are a little high and open water ducers are a little different?  A friend of mine has ion finders and he says they see lakers come from he side on 83hz before they show up on 200hz.  I thought when I was reading the product manual I saw something about a deep water ducer for this unit.  One where SI worked beyond 90 ft.  Thanks again

[Gimp]

If you're getting nothing but yellow at max sensitivity, definitely check your noise reduction.