Topic: Maximum depth in standard sonar

[jam session]

I just used my HB 998 in saltwater for the first time.  The side imaging was working well and I was able to show a shipwreck clearly in 60ft of water and maintain a good bottom signal to beyond the claimed 150ft.  What I was not able to do was keep a lock on the bottom in sonar mode over about 200-220ft.  I have the 83/200Hz transducer and this is advertised as capable of 1500 ft.  I would like to be able to set the SI to 150 or 200 ft and still see std sonar below that.  Is there a setting to do this?  What are the best settings to maximize std sonar depth?  Do I need to use a std sonar only view?  This was all at slow speeds but  I am getting a good signal at speed in depths less than about 100 ft so I don't think transducer turbulence is the issue.
Thanks for any suggestions.

[Humminbird_Greg]

jam session,
This sounds like you are using either a switch or the AS-Si-DB-Y splitter cable with two transducers connected.  If this is so try testing the 2D sonar at these depths with only the HDSi transducer connected.  There may be a problem with the DualBeam transducer, it’s mounting or the switch/splitter cable that is causing this.

[jam session]

Nope, the accessory trolling motor transducer is on my second boat, I move the head unit to the boat I am using and don't have a switch.  My question was about using it with a transom mount only ducer on my saltwater boat (21 Seaswirl Striper WA cuddy). 

I called the HB help line and got the answer.  Under advanced mode there is a setting for water type.  What I needed was "deep saltwater" setting.  Was out just yesterday in Puget Sound to test it out and got good readings down to 750 ft which was as deep as it gets near where I was fishing.  Since I was fishing for silver salmon which are usually shallow, but out in open water, I set the max display depth to 160 ft to see more detail in the display in the depth that I was fishing. It continued to display the actual depth in the digital readout. This worked great but unfortunately silver fishing has been slow so far this year.  We found numerous bait balls but landed no silvers.

Thanks for your reply.