Fishing Two Humminbird Units in the Same House

[JacobMHD]

I fished with my Ice 45 next to another 45 this weekend out of the same house on LOW. I was quite suprised by the interference created between the two. Every couple of seconds the screen would blow up with intereference and since the interference was rotating around the screen, the first couple times it happened I thought a three red bar fish was coming up off the bottom to attack my jig. Very frustrating. We played with the noise reduction all weekend but ultimately we had to deal with it. I really liked the unit otherwise. Does anybody have any experiences fishing with two birds next to each other? How did you make it work?

For what it's worth I do have an email in to HUmminbird with the same concern. I will gladly post their answer once I receive it from them. I sent the email on Monday and according to their auto response email, I should have an answer before the end of the week.

[lovebigbluegills]

I had the same problem with a 45 and 55 this past weekend. I would love to hear what you find out from Humminbird.

[lovebigbluegills]

Jacob,

Did you try one on wide and the other on narrow beam? I didn't try that this past weekend.

Down toward the bottom of the page on the HSOforum is the number I called and the gal mentioned trying on on wide and the other on narrow beam. Here's the number--800 633 1468

[bigbad401]

I believe the narrow beam and the wide beam run off of different frequencies, so that should help with the interference problems. Even still, changing the IR should get rid of most interference.

[JacobMHD]

We did try the narrow/wide beam, but we were in an 8x8' fishing in 34' of water so I could see three different jigs on my screen at one time and it was tough to distinguish which one the fish was at.

The interference really made me wish I had gotten a vex, even though I feel that the birds are overall a better unit. My reasoning, if your screen is full of interference, none of the features of the ICE 45 do you any good.

[lovebigbluegills]

I agree 100%. I am very happy with how the Humminbirds work next to Vexilars and Marcums, but you would think that they would've figured out how to make them work next to each other. Any word back from Humminbird yet?

[JacobMHD]

Their response.......

"Thank you for contacting Humminbird. We appreciate your interest in our products.

It would be recommended to have one of the units adjusted for Wide and one for Narrow beam which should eliminate both units from operating on the same frequency. If this still causes interference it may be necessary to send the units in for service/inspection.

If we can assist you further on this subject or any other Humminbird related questions please feel free email us again or contact our Customer Resource Center at 1-800-633-1468 to speak with a Customer Service Representative. Our hours are Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Wednesday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Good Boating and Fishing!"

[harvey lee]

I have run a 35 and a 55 with next to no issues and cleaned up what I needed too.

I have also fished with 2 Ice 55 units with next to no issues also.

My LX5 and the Ice 55 play well together also.

At times with all the different units I have to run one on narrow bean and I make sure my transducers are no lower than the bottom of the hole.

Maybe I have been lucky but it does work for me with the units I have run.

[JacobMHD]

We ran both narrow and wide beam seperately and I had my transducer above level with the bottom of my hole. Gain was set at a level just strong to see the jig. No matter what we did we still had a swirling band of interference. Mine was spinng counter clockwise, the other unit was spinning clockwise. The band was any where from two to three inches wide. I will try fishing with another unit to see if it is a problem specific to the two units in question or not.

[JacobMHD]

They responded again this monring.

"Thank you for contacting Humminbird. We appreciate your interest in our products. If you run both on narrow or wide beams then they would be running at the same frequency and this may cause interference between the units when they are ran along side one another. When you change the units from the narrow to the wide beam you change the frequency the units are operating on. The wide beam is 240 khz and the narrow beam is 455 khz.

If we can assist you further on this subject or any other Humminbird related questions please feel free email us again or contact our Customer Resource Center at 1-800-633-1468 to speak with a Customer Service Representative. Our hours are Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Wednesday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Good Boating and Fishing!"

Apparently they only have one answer, run one unit on wide beam and the other on narrow. I guess we are either having a fluke experience, or they do not know how to eliminate the problem. It does suprise me that in both responses they do not even mention the noise settings of either unit.

[harvey lee]

I did once this winter have an issue with the Ice 55 lake trout fishing in 60ft of water. We were on a huge breakline full of rocks and it gave me a headache.

I then got my MarCum LX5 and it did the exact same thing. I thought both my transducers were bad on both units as I could not get the interference out. Moved 5' and all issues were gone. Wierd bottom content I guess.

It could have been the area you were in, I don't know that for sure but it was an issue I had with both of my units.

Thats the only issue I have personally ran into.

I would try again what they suggested with both units with a full charge and if still does not work, I would call the CS line again.

[JacobMHD]

We were fishing on Lake of the Woods over a three day period. Three different depths and two different bottom types, hard bottom and soft bottom. We basically had the same interference at every location. We will be going up again in two weeks and we will try it again.

[BHofmann]

Me and a friend fished LOTW in about 30 fow. One would run narrow beam and the other wide and we had no problems. Both units were about 5-6 ft apart. Both 55s

[JacobMHD]

Do you feel running wide beam at that depth was a disadvantage? Maybe I am making too big of a deal out of this?

[BHofmann]

No i don't think so. I usually ran mine on narrow beam and then I would turn on my zoom.

[KTapper]

I had the same problem I had a 35 and my buddy a 45. We fish together all the time and it got so bad that we both dumped our humminbirds for Vexlar FL-20's problem solved!

My 35 would just get some interferance with his but his 45 was doing the exact same thing that you described. Remember they don't interfear with any flasher except their own.