Marcum--First Time Out

[BigJohnnyIce]

Just wanted to say that I used the Marcum LX-3 for the first time this past week on Silver, and all I can say is:

AWESOME!!

The thin line display combined with a noticible improvement in target seperation as compared to my FL-18 put a huge smile on my face. Plus, it ran so quiet!!! Could actually talk to people next to me without yelling!

Made in the beautiful USA to boot!! Thanks CNY Tim!!

[rogue kid]

Big John: Glad to hear that you like it. Tim has always promoted the Marcum even if others don't like it. I always say, just keep spreading the MARCUM love. The crispness and targert sep is great. Got rid of a ol fl8 this year and bought my son a new LX3. He was a smiling at christmas.Enjoy fishing with Timmy whether it be the fall walleye slam or on the ice. He is very honest and tells you the way it is or should be.lol. He is a true positive image to the sport of ice fishing.Looking forward to meeting you.Glad to see that you give Timmy a lesson on Silver Lake Great job.He needs one now and then. Happy New Year.

[BigJohnnyIce]

RK,

Don't know if I gave Tim a lesson or not, he was too busy changing jigs all the time.... .

Just kidding.......yeah you are right on the money when you you said that the crispness is great. Man, I even knew when one of my four spikes fell off my jig. Now that is target ID.

Tim mentioned to me about hitting Fair Haven bay sometime. Maybe we can meet there. In fact, maybe all of us here on this forum can meet there.

[CNY Tim]

Greg you don't know how I limped in off of Silver. It felt like I put my Arctic Spurs in the back of my partner as he carried me off the ice. I found myself totally dumbfounded. Now I know what I need to take the stress off my partner. And by Jesus I am gonna get to be as good as he is if it kills me. I appreciate the knowledge that my partner bestowed to me and feel priveleged to say the least. Years of his personal system taught to me in a matter of hours on the ice. I felt like I was in kindergarten trying to do calculous. I'll be alot better the next trip I promise! Looking forward to Sunday!

[CNY Tim]

I'm feeling alot of LX-3 love here man. I think I need a hug...LOL

Fair Haven sight fishing bluegills and happy crappie sounds like a plan for me too. Anyways did very well in there...

[Dark Cloud]

BigJohny - Used my new lx-3 a half dozen times this year and am very pleased also.

Keep your eye on Timmy, he will work harder than anyone to be top dog. I still spank him most times we fish but I think im giveing him too much info and hes catching up quick...

[CNY Tim]

Jay - Oh come on!!! That's what friends are for right? Everyone needs a good spanking every now and then... New lake anywhere and your going to go through the arsenal especially for perch. Yeah my kiester is slightly sore but I gain more knowledge by listening and learning, and yes although pain stakingly to you both at times asking questions. :^)

I'm just lucky to have a bunch of great shanty guys to pool from. Great ice heads with a lot more experience than I....

Yep I have great teachers you two included and I owe alot to you guys and the ice shanty gang. What a gang!

I'm pleased none of you guys want your 18's back I am

[BigJohnnyIce]

Dark Cloud,

I hear you about Tim working hard out on the ice. We were about 15 feet from each other most of the day on Silver, and I could hear him tying on different jigs every few minutes. I could smell the mono burning from all of the knots!! Had to move because the smell of burning mono makes me sick...

I love the Marcum and can't wait to use it again. Used it twice this year and I don't miss my FL-18 at all. Ask Tim about the slight mod I did to the hood on it. Just a slight improvement to an otherwise flawless device.

[gman2002]

fellas i just gotta tell ya that i got a knock on marcums customer service !! i got my lx3 a couple of weeks ago and i love the unit but i wrote in a thread that the dcs after about an hour reads 20-30 %. it seems to run fine but that kinda pschycs me out. well i e mailed marcum and they wrote back and told me to put the dcs meter and wall charger in a box and send it to them. well i wrote back and asked what about in the mean time with no charger, the guy says any charger will work and we'll let u know how much it costs to fix them. well i'm thinking what the hell, why not just send me a new one and when i get it i'll send u the old one, i mean what if i didn't have another charger !!. well this guy wouldn't bend so i told him i'd just bring it back and get a new vex , he just pis***ed me off. i would'nt cuz i love the unit . but what the hell!!!!

[BigJohnnyIce]

gman2002:

I had the same experience with my Marcum when I first used it. After about a couple of hours of using it, the dcs said 40%, and I was like, man, I still have 6 hours to fish and it will be dead by then. But, rest assured, CNY Tim explained to me that this is normal. The battery is under load, and getting a reading under 60% when it us running is OK. When I took it off the ice that day, it was reading 30% when it was running, then when I was loading my truck up to go, the battery read 80%.

It sounds like everything was alright with the Marcum.

[gman2002]

yeah your right it still seems to run for a long time, its just that they got me kinda hot about how they wanted to do things at the tech support!!!!

[CNY Tim]

gman2002 - Man I am sorry to hear that. I know of only one DCS issue that came up and MarCum responded and fedexed one in two days same thing when a buddy of mine got one damaged during shipment MarCum shipped a new one out to him in two days. Seems like most of the problems I have seen have been battery related. Not from the factory but charging habits and not tending to them in the off season. Your battery is just like your dog you have to feed it from time to time.

[gman2002]

tim just wanted to tell ya that after charging my lx over night it only registered 10 %. so i brought it back to gander mountain and returned it for a new one.they said yhey've been getting alot back for the same reason and the marcum rep told them they got a bad batch! but no prob the new one seems to be fine. i did have to go to 3 stores before i found one that had one, they were all sold out, so what does that tell you, there were sure alot of vex's on the shelf though!! and i see your takeing some heat on that other ice fishing site, well scr**w' em , bunch of knuckleheads anyway , i'll be a marcum user for ever probably. thanks for all the info. tell big johnny ice - cool name !! gman

[CNY Tim]

gman2002 - The new LX-3's we have received out east have worked excellent, so far so good. I have a buddy that were trying to decipher if it's a battery or DCS that's acting up and that was on a LX-3 from last winter. What he noticed after charging to 100% when he takes the charger off with the unit not running it's draining down on the DCS within seconds in the off position 90% to 80% and so forth down. Were gonna try a new battery first and see what happens. I'll let you know...

Every product maverick takes a little heat when you start out with a new unproven anything. I found out the hard way on one site. Not everyone want's to hear the truth and maybe I was a little overzealous stating the facts but I stand by the LX-3 and it's ability to dominate the FL-18 in zoom operations. If there's a price to pay for telling the truth then so be it...

It's kinda like the Nils/Strikemaster auger debate I have known for a long time that the Nils are a super hand auger. Alot of guys are switching over to them now and loving it. Same thing goes with the guys switching from the FL-8 and FL-18 to the LX-3. I had an original first year MarCum LX-3 and for two straight seasons I fished the heck out of it and now it's delivering for a friend of mine in North Dakota and in it's third season and he loves it. Warranty expired and still doing the job. I guess time will tell but I feel MarCum has a heck of a product here in the LX-3 and will be in the sonar game for a while. I have a new LXi hand held and so far I am pleased with that. It's my first hand held so I don't have anything to compare it too. It's light weight, easy to operate, has a large LCD readout which identifies depth and locates fish without cutting a hole. Granted I could do the same with my LX-3 but having that lightweight device makes it a whole lot easier looking for depth and locating fish.

Hey look no unit's perfect and every now and then you'll get a hiccup from anything electronically but with the MarCums engineering advancements and design of the LX-3 it's simply the best right now. The Gander out here only has one LX-3 left on the shelf and that was last weekend and I noticed a ton of vexes still on the shelves. Words getting out...

[fishnfil]

Been reading all these stories about the DCS. I to noticed that my MARCUM was acting funny. When I finished fishing on Sat it still read 100%. I did not charge it that night and when I started fishing sunday I notice it began to fall quite rapidly. I was down to 20% but it still worked fine. When I got home I looked again it it was at 60%. I think there is certainly something wrong. If anyone has a suggestion about the cause let me know. Tim, should I be sending it back for a new one?.

[CNY Tim]

Phil - No matter what the DCS says, charge it up the night before every trip. No matter if your trip is 3 hours or 8 hours. Here's why... After fishing all day today my unit under load was down to 20% after I got home from fishing 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. the charger LED red 90%? Even though it read 90% I recharged it and under full charge mode it started at 50% and worked it's way back up to 100% after about 2.5 hours. The DCS will read much differently from an under load cold battery than at rest warmed battery. Nothing is wrong with it, that's just the way they work. Remember Phil you have auto-shutoff on that unit you can leave the DCS plugged in all week if you want. The batteries are only under warranty for 90 days so feed it after every trip.

[fishnfil]

Tim, I hear ya. When I read the manual it states that I should be getting a accurate read of the power left right out there on the ice. Mine is not doing that. How would you know that your battery is way down while on the ice. I must say I am a little confused but you are the GURU and I trust ya.

[CNY Tim]

I read that too and your right it doesn't make any sense. I remember one time I fished the unit down to 0% and that was on one of those 14 hour fishing trips after a two hour trip I got home and the unit warmed in the car and at rest was at 40%. The unit worked fine at 0% for those last two hours???

What it should say in the manual is the DCS at 70 degrees will give you exactly what your using while your fishing. You put that puppy directly on the ice and once the cold works it's way in to the battery it seems like the DCS display drops quick while running it. As long as the auto shutoff works on the DCS I'm happy.

I have never completely drained my battery so I don't know how it would act up. If it's like the FL-8 the screen will not be as bright and you might have to crank the gain a litte more to see your jig.

[CNYFrank]

I experienced the same thing and think it is most likely a battery thing. On my second year now. I am going to experiment with a layer of foam on the bottom of the battery and see if the "extra" insulation has any effect. Unit always works as advertised. Sometimes too many goodies can be worrisome.

[CNY Tim]

gman2002 - That buddy I had with what he thought was a DCS problem was battery related and I had the battery from MarCum in 2 days. I just shipped it off to him and he will have it Friday. This can all be avoided if you remember to charge your unit during the off season. Top it off every 30 days or so it only takes a few minutes and your battery will thank you when you take it out first ice next season.

When I get off the ice I generally wait an hour to get the battery up to room temperature and then I put the charger on and disconnect it in the morning. Remember if your fishing a week apart or so disconnect one of the terminals so there's no draw on it all... The DCS will eat micro amps if left hooked up. I am on my 3rd season on that 9 amp. helios battery not bad for 24.95 and it has a couple more amps than the standard MarCum 7 amp. battery. I run a HT Sonar light off mine too and having those extra two amps gives me plenty of power to fish early befor efirst light and into the night.

I guess that's why the batteries are only warranteed for 90 days, charging habits.

[trapperdirk]

Oh Yeah I just got my Marcum LX-3 as well and wish to thank CNY TIM of being instrumental in this . His informative posts that I read on the Marcum LX-3 and showing me that this alternative to Vex was in my own mind even a superior product . I can't wait to get this baby out this weekend .

Canada and this ol Trapper thanks you again Tim for your professional manner and help in bringing this about .

TD

[CNY Tim]

Hello there Dirk I wish I could be out there with you on that first trip out to give you the once over which takes a bout 10 min. Were snowed in pretty good here I can just hope the bigger lakes got some of the big winds yesterday and took some of the 9" of snow off of the 6" we already had on the ice. May go north on Saturday I am waiting on reports from George he's gotta guy checking a lake out.

Enjoy the LX-3 bud and you will see like many others before that what I was spewing wasn't hype. The LX-3's target separation and zoom kicks the competitions butt!

[CNY Tim]

Dirk - The testings is in and MarCum LX-5 stands alone at the top! Aren't you glad you run a MarCum

MarCum Technologies LX5 VS: Vexilar FL20

Receiver sensitivity :

Receiver sensitivity is the measurement of a sonar receiver’s ability to detect an input signal. This measurement tells just how small of a return signal the unit is able to pick up and display. The LX5’s receiver is more sensitive.

Measurement:

LX5- 24uV

FL20- 40uV

Receiver Gain:

Receiver gain is a measurement of the total system gain or amplification. Typically the more gain a receiver has the smaller signal it will be able to detect.

The LX5 receiver has more gain.

Measurement:

LX5- 89.77db

FL20- 70.89db

Receiver distortion:

Receiver distortion is a measurement of the sonar receiver to filter, amplify, detect, and display a return signal. A receiver with less distortion will give a more accurate display. The LX5 has less distortion.

Measurement:

LX5- less than 1%

FL20- more than 40%

Transmitter power:

Transmit power is a measurement of the output power into the transducer. This is usually defined in Watts peak to peak or Watts RMS. In the sonar world more power means a better return signal with less noise and less filtering. The LX5 has more power.

Measurement:

LX5- more than 2000 Wp-p or 300 Wrms

FL20- more than 400 Wp-p or 50Wrms

Conclusions: The LX5 surpasses the FL20 in every sonar measurement that was made. With these measurements it becomes clear that the LX5 is a superior product in respect to its receiver/transmitter design. These measurements were made on off the shelf units using an industry standard tester.

What this means to the ice fisherman is that with the LX5 you will get a clearer, less distorted picture of what’s below the transducer. We at MarCum believe that these measurements reflect what LX5 users have been seeing on the ice. The MarCum Technologies LX5 is truly the best and this can be backed up and verified by scientific measurements.

[Fishingking]

Theres no suprise that the Marcum Lx-5 is a better unit. I have been using my Lx-5 this Fall jigging bluegills from the boat. Whenever my one buddy goes with me he gets too use my fl-18 and let me tell you I cant even tell what the heck is going on down there when I look at the Fl-18 now compared too the lx-5

[BigJohnnyIce]

Tim,

More reason to sell your FL-18 on HSOList LOL....

Wait till you use the narrow beam in heavy weeds this winter. Most guys like to use the wide beam in shallow, but not me.

In the shallow weeds when you can't sight fish (lets say 8-12 FOW) the narrow beam works wonders because you can 'see' your jigs while keeping the gain low enough to get jig location feedback. I fished last winter with a great fisherman next to me (8 feet away without an LX-5) and I was pounding the big gills while he wasn't doing much of anything. My success compared to his can be solely related to the narrow beam which focused in my area of fishing, and I could finess the gills into biting. It was awesome!!!