harvey lee Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 I had a good conversation with the Vex guy yesterday. Here is what I got from it:Marcum uses a much less sensitive receiver in the transducer which will require more output power to get a reading. This does 2 things: shortens the life of the transducer and creates alot of feedback on more sensitive transducers in the area. He claims that increasing power in the new Vex will solve nothing. I'm no expert on this but this is what I was told. If one were to talk with a MarCum rep, you may learn that what Vex states is not always the total truth in regards to who uses what.I had a conservation with MarCum about this and what they told me was not exactly what Vexilar is saying about their product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvey lee Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 Don,t forget to check out the Bird units also. They offer some nice units for the ice fisherman along with the open water fisherman.I would guess that Humminbird is going to become a much larger player in the ice areana. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott K Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 Last year I got to see the Humminbird at work, they sure are easy to look at. This year, the new Bird is going to be on my toy wish list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbad401 Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 I love my Bird. Yes it is very nice to look and very good performers!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHINGURU Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 ok so i'm sitting over 50ft of water right now with with the zoom on bottom.....some fish keep coming through at 25ft off bottom....when using a marcum or bird what do i have to do with the unit to quick go zoom on those fish? or can i stay zoomed on the whole water column or a big chunk of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbad401 Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 With the Bird just use the dial and move the zoom the part of the water column that you want. Move it up and down as you please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravP Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 ok so i'm sitting over 50ft of water right now with with the zoom on bottom.....some fish keep coming through at 25ft off bottom....when using a marcum or bird what do i have to do with the unit to quick go zoom on those fish? or can i stay zoomed on the whole water column or a big chunk of it? You just press the zoom arrow up or down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJH Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Super easy with the bird, just turn your dial up or down and the zoom moves accordingly. Plus, it highlights on the depth gauge where you are zooming, so you can always tell in a split second. Also, you can always see the entire water column, so you never miss anything.Also, I have the 55, and having the 6 colors basically let's me tell how strong the signal is easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHINGURU Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 wow what a chore ....sounds real tough to turn the dial or tap the button up or down lol...people try to make it sound like adjustable zoom is such a pain to use.i only get the bottom 6ft zoom on the fl-18 and my buddy with his fl-18 only gets the bottom 12ft if i remember correctly...most of the time thats all you'll ever need but the situation i'm talking about adjustable zoom is key.so how about interference with the birds? i've heard you marcum guys say there is no interference with your units....if i spend big bucks on a new flasher and the thing is full of interference i'm gonna want to smash it on the ice my first trip lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Carlson Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 All ice sonars units at one time or another will experience cross talk, or "interference", if you fish near another angler with a sonar unit on the ice. It's inevitable, but manageable with adjustments.Do not confuse ID clutter for interference, many do...totally different problem and solution. One is changing the frequency band slightly on the processor to best tune to your signal return and ignore competing sonar return signals "IR", the other.."Gain", has to do with calibration of your sensitivity to targets to eliminate unwanted target return signals from your display by means of minute gain adjustments.It's how well one may adjust for it that separates them, and what may be subsequently sacrificed in true target ID performance in the process, if anything at all, while making the required adjustments to the IR function.Case and point: To illustrate this I once put a FL-20, a Marcum LX-3, and a Bird 55 in the same hole...turned them on..let them rip...as I expected all heck broke loose right..sure was colorful but all of them were completely useless at first....but with few simple adjustments to the IR and gain on each unit all worked and played together happily ever after...so the moral of the story is...it's manageable once you fallow the directions and tune them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewski Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 If one were to talk with a MarCum rep, you may learn that what Vex states is not always the total truth in regards to who uses what.I had a conservation with MarCum about this and what they told me was not exactly what Vexilar is saying about their product. No matter what sales rep you talk to, they are always gonna try to hype up their product, with once in a while talking down about the competition.I believe the breaking down of the transducer crystals because of too much power is true though. Some buddies of mine that have had marcums eventually gave up on them because of all the transducer problems, most of which were due to the transducer losing signal strength which had them always turning up the gain (this was no doubt due to the crystal breaking down) to get a signal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassislife Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 This is hot news for flashers this year.... Not too sure if Marcum will even have sales reps any longer. Just found out Nature Vision (owner of Marcum) just Closed its doors as of last Friday.Looks like Vex and the bird for this year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swags_7 Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I wonder if you could catch a Swordfish with one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJH Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 Fishin Guru, to answer your question. With my HB Ice 55 I routinely fish next to friends with different sonar than me - Marcum, Vex, and even a Lowrace Ice Machine. If you adjust things properly, as Ed mentioned above, you should be able to fish next to anybody. EX: on Winnie last year, we had all four brands fishing out of the same perm, and nobody had any interference problems. Did one or two of us have to fine tune our units some - yes. But it was minimal and easily managed. So as long as you learn to operate and adjust your machine properly, no matter the brand, you should be able work it out. And yes, the zoom is that easy on the Bird. Everything is easy to use with it, which is one of the major reasons I chose it. I'd rather be fishing than monkeying around with it. And the adjustable zoom is great when you are in 20ft of water and the crappies are suspending somewhere in the middle.Bassislife - where did you find that out about Naturevision? There HSOforum is still up and functioning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Carlson Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 This is hot news for flashers this year.... Not too sure if Marcum will even have sales reps any longer. Just found out Nature Vision (owner of Marcum) just Closed its doors as of last Friday.Looks like Vex and the bird for this year! Hummmm.....I wonder who bought them out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marine_man Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 wow.. here's the press release:August 14, 2009 4:34 PM EDTBRAINERD, Minn., Aug. 14, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nature Vision, Inc. (Pink Sheets: NRVN), announces the signing of a Share Purchase Agreement with Swordfish Financial, Inc. (SFI), a Texas Corporation, whereby NRVN will issue SFI 10,987,417 shares of restricted common stock in return for a $3,500,000 promissory note from SFI.The present operations of Nature Vision will be scaled back immediately and the name of the Company will be changed to Swordfish Financial, Inc. marine_man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chode2235 Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 Originally Posted By: bassislifeThis is hot news for flashers this year.... Not too sure if Marcum will even have sales reps any longer. Just found out Nature Vision (owner of Marcum) just Closed its doors as of last Friday.Looks like Vex and the bird for this year! Hummmm.....I wonder who bought them out? Or are they pulling a Genmar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassislife Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 Bassislife - where did you find that out about Naturevision? There HSOforum is still up and functioning. Inside information! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJH Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I guess we'll have to wait for more info before we really know what the outcome will be...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHINGURU Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 lol didn't i start this thread and wasn't it quite a bit more pages? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trapperdirk Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 It would be sad to see the Marcum brand go down in this way especially after the buy out recently by Nature Vision . Marcum tech led the way and innovated much to raise the bar beyond anything that came before or to date . Nobody should take pleasure in Marcum being swallowed up by Nature Vision just for Nature Vision now going bankrupt or being swallowed up too .I feel it is a loss for all if this is true ..TD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Carlson Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Swordfish will likely try to recoup as much capital as it can, they sell off chunks of acquisitions for whatever profit they can, that is what they do.If.. a savvy investor steps in to buy the Marcum division, that is it's best hope right now. It may be just as likely that a competitor will buy it up, just to make it go away, that is common practice too.We will have to wait and see how it shakes out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassislife Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 lol didn't i start this thread and wasn't it quite a bit more pages? LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJH Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Has anybody heard anything else on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHINGURU Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 i must make some pretty dang good threads!!someone should just tell vexilar to make a unit with adjustable zoom so i can buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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