Interpreting The Advantage's Display - Interphase Advantage User Manual

Cable
Display
Transducer
Housing
Ceramic Element
Acoustic Beam
Echo
Fish
Bottom
Hard Bottom
Softer Bottom
Interpreting the
Advantage's Display
The Advantage provides a display which shows acoustic
echo returns from the underwater area below the vessel.
It transmits a pulse of electrical energy to a ceramic
element in the transducer which converts it into a sound
(acoustic) pulse. The Advantage then waits a defined
period of time (depending on the range selected) to
receive any return echoes. As the energy from this
acoustic beam strikes underwater objects or the bottom, a
small portion of the energy is reflected as an echo back to
the transducer. When the echo is received at the
transducer, it's converted into a small electrical signal and
processed for display on the Advantage's LCD.
The depth of the water, surface clutter, boat speed, bottom
composition, water temperature and many other factors
Bottom
will contribute to the Advantage's LCD picture quality.
With use, you will become familiar with these various
effects and understand how to adjust the Advantage's
output power, sensitivity and frequency to get the
optimum underwater view.
Chart View (Depth)
The screen display at left is typical of the type of picture
you will see when using your Advantage In the upper
left corner of the display, the digital depth at 103 feet is
indicated. In the upper right, the surface water
temperature and boat speed are shown. In this picture, the
Bottom Hardness feature is turned on (shaded area on
bottom) and it indicates that the boat has just passed over
an area of hard bottom and is now over a softer bottom.
(The width of the shaded area indicates the relative
hardness of the bottom - the wider the shaded area the
harder the bottom).
Above the bottom there are several small isolated echoes
from submerged objects - probably fish. At the far right
of the picture, you can also see the thick vertical bar just
below the boat icon. This indicates that the shallow alarm
has been set at approximately 75 feet. If the bottom or
any large target passes beneath the boat at a depth of less
than 75 feet, the shallow alarm will sound.
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