Welcome to the Humminbird Side Imaging Forums nwifishnut.
1. Yes they can if you want to do that. You will need the As-SysLink cable. It’s like a long Y-cable in that one arm is 20 feet long. The GPS Receiver plugs into the bottom of the “Y” and each unit plugs into each “arm”. However, if you mark a waypoint with either unit the resulting waypoint will be off as the unit assumes that the GPS Receiver and transducer are at the same location. It is possible that when you try and come back to the same waypoint that you will be off by up to twice the linear distance between the GPS Receiver and transducer (Example: if there is 6 feet between the GPS Receiver and the transducer, you will be up to 12 feet away from it even though the GPS Receiver shows you as being on top of it). This is in addition to the normal inaccuracy of the GPS system.
2. Oops… I already answered that. In addition to this is that if that one GPS Receiver ever fails you have no GPS at all. Having a second GPS Receiver on the boat will give you a backup.
3. Yes. The US2 transducer has nothing to do with the i-Pilot Link system. Be sure and select the US2 option in the Transducer Select menu when you do this.
4. I’ll choke back all the smart aleck comments that I wanted to post and just tell you that you need the MKR-US2-8 Humminbird 7 pin Adapter Cable (
http://store.humminbird.com/products/437277/MKR-US2-8 ).
5. Which transducer would this be? Is this the 200/50kHz Dual Beam transducer or the 200/83kHz DualBeam transducer? The 998 can use either transducer with the right menu settings but to use one in combination with the HDSi transducer it needs to be the 200/83kHz DualBeam transducer (XNT-9-20-T).
6. Again, depending on which transducer you were using with your 917 unit there may or may not be an advantage. If it is a 200/83kHz DualBeam transducer you could mount your HDSi transducer where the Si sonar will work best and possibly in a more protected area. Many mount their HDSi transducers up higher on the transom or on the jackplates so that they will be more protected and install an inside-the-hull DualBeam transducer for the best high-speed depth readings (fiberglass hulled boat only).
7. AS-Si-DB-Y cable.
8. What, no eighth question? I was on a roll here…