posted 08-25-2005 11:04 AM ET (US)            

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No info, but I've been drooling over it. Note that max depth
for the SS is 100', and the SS doesn't image the area under
the boat.

Chuck

posted 08-26-2005 08:40 PM ET (US)            

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For information about the HUMMINBIRD 987 see:

http://www.humminbird.com/products.asp?ID=512

I do not see anything about a Boston Whaler boat which would prevent this SONAR device from operating. I assume it uses a transom mounted transducer.

posted 09-30-2005 02:29 PM ET (US)            

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Anybody ever find out any more about this unit?

I did google up someone who had one on Lake Lanier and liked
it.

I'm interested in the 60-100' range in salt water.

Chuck

posted 10-03-2005 02:57 PM ET (US)            

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Thanks, ;-(

There's a big difference between 80' and 100' for diving:
bottom time on air is 40 minutes vs. 20 minutes, and the
area I really wanted to search is about 70-110'.

And BTW, I'm not interested in fish, just structure.

Chuck

posted 10-13-2005 11:13 PM ET (US)            

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Side-scan SONAR images can be quite amazing. When this image was published of the EDMUND FITZGERALD some people thought it was a photograph taken by a diver:

http://www.marinesonic.com/SonarImages/EFG.html

posted 11-03-2005 12:31 AM ET (US)            

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Your description of it says it wouldn't meet my needs. There's
not a lot in Monterey in less than 60', and the specific area
I'm interested in is 70-100+.

What I really need to do is see one, on structure I know and
dive.

Chuck

posted 11-13-2005 10:12 AM ET (US)            

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hey guys I am new here but I am an owner of a 987c
I currantly have myine mounted on my 16ft zodak with a 50hp outboard.
I took it out in the columbia river and played with the buttons and knobs:)
I know nothing about the bottom of the river here the boat launch was close.
the water runs about 4mph with lots of boils miny whirlpools ect.
the water is about 40 feet deep.
it was easy to get the 987 to start producing images right away.
the Humminbird sight shows sidescans with a 100-150 range to the side of the boat this does give very good performance.
for what ever range you choose you set a window of time for each ping(each line on the scan)
I think max range is like 350feet to the side of the boat
now dont quote me on this but I think that is a round trip of about 1/8 of a second or only 8lines per second.
also at that range the angle that the sonar strikes the bottom is very low giving a weeker return, and the signal strength will also be weeker from shear distance, the beems reaching out to 350ft to each side of the boat makes it very very sensitive to any minor changes in heading,
and lastly the beem will also spread out a 1 degree angle extended out to 350(it is accually further than that to the bottom) will be in the multi foot range at least.
Ith looks like I have painted a pretty crudy picture but that is not the case at all.
most side scan sonars rin 6-10,000 and they use a towed fish to overcome the problems I have just talked about.
as far as scanning under the boat the sonar sincs out a ping then starts drawing a line on the screen this line starts at the transducer and goes down through the water(so if you have a setting of 100 feet to the side then the water will extend halfway accrost your scan)then it hits the bottom and starts to draw a profile of the bottom tell it gets to 100feet then starts over it is all based on time not distance.
for scanning deeper water the limitation is the way information is displayed lets say that your using the 150 foot setting and your scanning a flat bottom of 100feet deep what you will get is a scan of the bottom only 50 feet wide that starts 100 feet to the side of your boat and extends to 150 feet some people may not feel that is usefull I say BAH!
it is simply the best sidescan sonar for the price.

Transom mount, some say that the lower unit blocks one of the side beems or reduces the performance on that side so plan on scanning mainly on one side this gives better performance, the screen size is constant weather your looking 200feet to the left only or weather your looking 200 feet to both sides if you want to see the details use one side.
plan on hitting a target from more than one direction this.
the images it saves are bitmaps in the 1.2 meg range.
and it saves a whole screen shot data fields and all.
I hope this is helpfull I am very happy with my 987 and I do plan to do some extensive deep water testing to see what she will do.
I would like to find a sight where people could upload there images.
it is my goal to scan the shoreline of a local lake then take a map of the lake and place little boxes on it representing the area of the scans and link them to images and maybe photos.
brad

posted 11-17-2005 11:46 PM ET (US)            

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sorry about the spelling it was a late night.
I did a little test.
on the river in 55feet of water i ret the sidescan at 360 feet(max range) I could see bottom returns pretty good to 180 feet and weeker ones to 200 feet this is using the 455Khz side scan.
the math works out that a beam traveling out to 200feet to a depth of 55feet is accually traveling 207.4246851 feet :)

a setting of 150 feet with a depth of 150 feet would work out to 212 I think this represents near max performance for the 455Khz freq.
the 200Khs may have a bit more punch.

posted 12-03-2005 10:36 PM ET (US)            

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here are a few 987 sidescans for you to lok at
the site is very simple I'll work on that.
enjoy brad

http://webpages.charter.net/bhamptonkc7mrp/

posted 12-03-2005 11:08 PM ET (US)            

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http://webpages.charter.net/bhamptonkc7mrp/

Chuck

posted 12-06-2005 07:43 AM ET (US)            

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Brad,

I may have to take this offline but, the slots where the chart chips go can also be used to store images? What exactly do I need to buy to do this, and how to you get the unit to store specific images when you want it to? I am completely in the dark on this one so any help would be appreciated. Thanks - Steve

posted 12-06-2005 01:40 PM ET (US)            

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No Problem,
assuming you have an SD chip installed, I use slot #2 the bottom one for capture.you need to have it set up for advances user which is the right most pull down menu.

then one of the advanced options is screen capture you want that on.

now when ever you see something on your screen you want to save just hit button MARK it takes about 10 seconds to save the screen and what you see on the screen is what you get,
I like to have the Position, course, depth, speed as my data fields.
the position and course helps place the scan in the real world when you look at it later.
also if you place your curser over an object in your scan the 987 will calkulate the gps location of that object a very nice option.
I sent Humminbird some feed backI have seen people complain that the white background of the chart plotter was to bright for night use even the dim function was not enough and I ask a question on how the 987 uses its SD slots I ask if you could have say a 256meg in slot 1 and a 512meg in slot 2 if it would use all the storage and lastly I ask avout a software update that would have an auto save function that would trigger a screen capture every xx seconds and got back very helpfull reply.

Brad,
Thanks for the feedback.

#1. For the chartplotter and fishfinder you can select between white, blue or black background. Black will help dim the screen for night time viewing. You make this adjustment by pressing the power button quickly one time. It will bring up two menus ( light and background). In the background menu you can set it to either white, black or blue. Again I believe the black setting will help for nighttime. You can also go into the light menu and adjust the backlight brightness to dim the screen further, if necessary, for night time viewing.

#2. If I understand #2 correctly you are looking for a features to allow you to create a continuous scrolling capture like sonar recording. At this time we aren’t able to do this. I have used a 256 SD card with no problems. I haven’t tried a 512 but I think it would work fine. The unit will not switch between the two different cards. You would need to use up one and then install the other.

Thanks again and let me know if you have any questions.
brad

posted 03-10-2006 08:54 PM ET (US)            

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987 GPS/bottom sounder. I have not worked to much with the built in GPS on the 987. The [digital chart cartography] available [for] central Washington is very poor, so it is not much more than a plotter for me.

The bottom sounder looks to be first rate. Color. Maximum depth like 2500 feet. So far I have only used it to 200 feet fresh water, and it seems to work ok.

The maximum depth on side scan. On the 466-kHz side scan, the beam travels out at a 45° angle. If the bottom is 100-feet down it will not strike the bottom until it is also 100 feet to the side of the boat. If you have the side scan range set at 100 feet all you will see is the water.

On a flat bottom, [a depth sounding of] 160-feet is the greatest I have tried the side scan<. I had it set on 360-left-right. You lose a bit scanning such a large area with a small screen. The 262 did provide much better punch, but I am looking at 200-feet being the maximum you get a useable return off a flat bottom. There were no targets. I expect they would show up better.

I am using a transom clamp-type mount where there is a clamp at the top end and a transducer mount at the bottom. This fixture is 36 inches down from the top of the transom. This allows me to transplant the system from boat to boat, including friends that are going trolling for the day (uber sidescan speed) and the police boat.
brad

posted 05-16-2006 05:42 AM ET (US)            

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A buddy of mine has one of these and can't read the hotspot maps, any ideas? Could it be a software upgrade already? I know in my LOWRANCE or a friend's unit wouldn't recognize the HotSpot map/chip until the firmware was updated.

Any ideas?
Thanx in advance!
Pat

posted 05-17-2006 04:31 AM ET (US)            

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I am itching to buy one but cannot figure out even after reading the manual if it has a built in or provided GPS reciever/antenna with the unit? The manual says it supports Navionics Hot Maps and Navionics Gold maps.

I am beginning to think you have to hook it up to a stand alone GPS such as a Sport Track Magelleon or similar to get the GPS and cartography function and use the navionics maps. Is this correct?

posted 05-26-2006 11:41 PM ET (US)            

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Just received my 987 a couple weeks ago. I've been out a couple times since I got it installed it works great and I love it. Works great so far.

I will also mention the outfit I got it from due to the exceptional service I got from them Scuba Steve's Marine Outlet http://www.scubasteve.biz. The prices were as good or better than anywhere else I found. What they did better than anyone else was communicated answered my emails promptly and even returned my phone call. I knew I could trust them the way they handled customer service. Had the unit overnight for only $15.00 on a yellow DHL truck.

posted 05-27-2006 01:48 PM ET (US)            

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Dave, have you used it in saltwater and at what depths.

My main use would be scouting dive locations in saltwater between 60 and 100 feet. Of course it would also be used for fishing duty and other such things.

How does the Navigation functions work especially with the chart chips?

Also, several emails to Humminbird were never answered---not a good sign.

posted 07-22-2006 12:30 PM ET (US)            

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All of the extendable transom mounts I have found are about 28-inches long and most boats have a 20-inch transom so that will get your transducer 8-inches below the boat, which buries the transducer in the water nicely but you arestill blocked on one side by the outboard. Some people find only scanning one side fustrating, in effect getting only 50-percent of the total capability of the unit.

I purchased a store-bought [mount?], used the hardware from the top and bottom of the unit, used a length of 1x2-inch square aluminum tubing instead, and it is long enough to reach below the outboard. This works great and allows me to transplant the side scan system from boat to boat.

posted 08-12-2006 03:38 PM ET (US)            

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I finally took my boat out on the Columbia River. The weather has been nice here in Washington and the boat ramps have been a mad house. I launch and recover my boat solo so I need a bit of room. I hate the rat race.

I had a sheriff friend tell me about drifting down river and nearly getting stuffed into a hand rail of an old concrete stairs that ended up in the river. So I set out to find them [using SONAR and the Humminbird 987]. I set up a massive search area that ran along one shore of the river, and pounded the bottom. I was about 100 ft from shore and had the [side-scan SONAR] looking 150 feet both ways. I did not spot anything at first glance so I will have to look much closer at the scans to see if I can pick anything out.
brad

posted 08-15-2006 01:58 PM ET (US)            

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bhampton, are you getting returns on both sides?

I am increasingly impressed with this unit. No, it will never replace a high dollar towed side scan but for a multi purpose navigation, sonar and side scan unit with map card capabilities and wide and clear screen, how can you beat it?

posted 08-21-2006 06:25 PM ET (US)            

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Has anyone used a thru hull for the Humminbird 981 or 987?The thru hall is plastic... does that present a problem?

I am intrested in what the salt water performance of the unit is in various modes of operation in salt water. What is the maximum depth the machine reads bottom and fish as a depht finder?...Thanks