Garmin ClearVü
Sounder technology has been at the forefront of some of the marine-electronics industry’s boldest innovations in recent years. The advent of CHIRP imagery and improved side- and forward-looking sonar technologies has helped to present a more comprehensive view of the briny depths than older-generation equipment offered. If your fishing program could use a boost, Simrad‘s SonarHub or Garmin‘s ClearVü technology could be an ideal upgrade.
SonarHub packs a CHIRP fish finder and Simrad’s proprietary StructureScan HD technology into a compact black-box module that’s plug-and-play compatible with Simrad’s NSS Sport, NSE Expert and NSO Offshore lines of MFDs. As with all CHIRP fish finders, the SonarHub ($599) simultaneously broadcasts over a wide sweep of frequencies, rather than the two discrete frequencies (one high and one low) that are used by traditional-technology fish finders, to deliver high-definition, under-the-keel imagery.
Simrad’s StructureScan HD technology uses CHIRP to provide side-scanning range and resolution, while its DownScan Imaging feature uses CHIRP to depict everything below your yacht’s transducer.
Garmin, meanwhile, sells its new DownVü and SideVü scanning sonar technologies in a number of -interesting packages, including the stand-alone GCV 10 black box sonar module, and as an incorporated feature on some now–generation fish finders. The black box GCV 10 ($599.99) uses CHIRP technology to provide proprietary DownVü and SideVü sonar imagery to compatible Garmin echoMAP and GPSMAP series plotters/sonars, and DownVü is available as a bundled feature on some Garmin Echo-series fish finders. Additionally, owners who already have certain current-generation GPSMAP plotters can download DownVü as a software update.
Both Simrad’s SonarHub and Garmin’s ClearVü sonar technology yield high–definition underwater panoramic imagery that was primarily created to help anglers demystify fish-finding, but both technologies can also be extremely useful to navigators, depending on the topographical complexity of their local cruising grounds.
Click here to see more products from Garmin.
Click here to see more products from Simrad.
