A few general sonar questions

[cd1]

I'm looking at SI sonars...if I get one it will be the 10 inch version.  For those that have this do you run your sonar from the console or do you have it mounted on the bow so you can use it while trolling?

I'm thinking I'll get the most out of it if I have it mounted at the console so I can use the big screen for navigation as well as looking at structure.  I've even wondered if they have a swivel/arm type mount so that I can swing it around and still be able to see it from the bow when I go up there.  I have zero experience with the gear though so I'm interested to hear how people deploy it.

I've seen on the Lowrance HDS 10 that you can split the screen and show 3 or 4 displays at once.  Most of the Humminbird screenshots show only two...can you split the HB screen to show 3 or 4 screens?  Also...is it worth splitting it 4 ways?  It looks cool on the screenshots but I realize there may or may not be a real world application for running 4 screens at once. 

The Lowrance also has the ability to get live weather radar via sattelite (with a sirius satellite subscription).  I looked at the HB site and all I could find is a "weathersense" application that as far as I can tell only provides barometric pressure readings.

Any insight is appreciated.

[DougV]

I mount mine on RAM mount next to the console or you could add a Monitor to the bow and use the Video Out Port and display on a second screen. I personally use 2 Side Imaging Units one mounted on Trolling Motor and other at Console with Transom Mount Transducer.

Here's an example of my mounting:



Humminbird you can get XMNavWeather on the graph. Here's an Example:



Humminbird you can display all 3 Sonars Side Imaging, Down Imaging and 2D Sonar on the same screen. Multi Screen are neat but you also get alot of data and makes it harder to focus on the details in each. It's a nice tool to learn with but I use the 3 Favorite HotKeys on my Humminbirds to page between my favorite views more often than the 3 Split screen.

[-Bryan-]

My Lowrance is set up similar to Dougs Bird's except I don't have the structure scan on the TM.  But I also have two units, an HDS-8 on the console (I can run 4 screens on this one but it is a lot of data to look at) and I have an HDS-7 on the bow.  My units are networked (ethernet) and I can use all the transducers on the networ at either head unit (I can use the transom or TM transducer on either but only have the one Structure Scan transducer).  With the RAM mounts (just like in Dougs pic) I can turn the HDS-8 around if I wanted, but the HDS-7 gives me the data I need up front.  Hope this helped...I am new with the technology and learn a ton from Doug so regardless of the brand, the theories are pretty much right on.