Poor Bob's Interference Problems

[CNY Tim]

Bob a new comer to ice fishing this season purchased a brand new FL-18 because the local Gander was sold out of all the LX series flashers. Today was Bob's baptism to ice fishing and he was very excited and pumped to be going with two hardcore fishers on his first trip. They fished a crappie lake which has a nice trough in 28' of water with a hump nearby it. We have been doing well there all season never getting skunked and always catching fish. Today was just one of those days where the crappies were very finicky. So the boys drilled there holes and were getting set-up. Craig and Rob both have MarCum LX-3's and of course Bob had his brand new FL-18. Moral of the story was Bob could not fish anywhere near Craig or Rob because of the interference he was picking up from the MarCum's and the boys did everything trying to help him but the end result was frustration on Bob's part nothing worked short of having both MarCum's turned off. At the end of the day I get this phone call from Craig and to make a long story short Bob's new vex is going back to Gander tomorrow and he's buying a MarCum LX-3. Moral of the story if you fish with guys that use a certain unit go with that unit if not your asking for problems.

[Braley]

I own an upgraded LX3, and take exception to your story. I have fished along side with Vexilar 18's and had no problems with either unit. This has been done with multiple different Vexilars and they all seemed to operate just fine. With one unit I did have to switch on my interferance button to the first setting, but that was to clear up my clutter on my Marcum. It's a great story, but not my experience.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Brayley- I too own both an LX-5 and LX-3 and a FL-18. I have 3 becuase I often times bring one as a back up and borrow another to a friend. Often times you do not get the problems that he is talking about. Like you I have fished quite a few times with the LX-5 and the FL-18 right next to each other without any problems. However, there are some bottom contents or something that makes it impossible to use the FL-18 and the LX-3 or 5 near them.

[Gissert]

I have had interferance problems with vex/vex and vex/marcum combinations, and I have seen the interferance go both ways.

More often than not when I've seen that, there is a sharp break we are fishing on, or good size rocks. That creates some interesting angles in the signal return that can project out quite a ways from the transmitting transducer. Sometimes raising or lowering the transducer will help - I mostly try and have mine not quite to the bottom of the hole. I will go to 9 degrees on the transducer, and that helps sometimes.

I have seen much less interferance over flat bottoms. Almost all interferance problems have been on sharp break and/or rocks and boulders.

[BIG DS]

The interference problem seems to go both ways. If you have a couple of Vex' down the hole and one Marcum, the Marcum will have a lot of problems. The easiest way to minimize the interference is to adjust the IR one unit at a time. Hit the button and count to 5. If it doesn't get better, try again. Don't flip through the channels like a tv remote or you will never find the happy spot. Start with the Marcums, get one adjusted and then try the Vex. I you can't seem to get it, then you may have to got to the 9 degree ducer on the Vex. A dual beam FL-18 would be the ticket in this situation. Good luck.

[tashit]

That's how I do it, I adjust my LX-3 and then my buddy adjusts his FL-18. We do them at separate times (not both fiddling with IR at the same time) and we've always gotten them to work. I have never had two Marcums with a Vex at the same time in the same house so I can't comment on that. I have had my LX-3, a buddy's FL-18 and a Lowance Ice Machine all within 20-25 ft of each other (in separate houses) with no problems.

[icefishingdude]

I own a LX-3, never had an interference problem with it...everybody who fishes around me seems to though. The marcum seems to be the least bothered by interference, vex's can tune some out, but the machine usually isnt showing you its clearest image, and the lowrance is terrible, at least the older ones where....could use it, but more interference that anything else....I just dont see a reason to fish with anything besides a marcum, they work great in all conditions.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Deitz plopped his LX5 transducer in the hole next to my Lowrance X67c without a problem a few weeks ago

[CNY Tim]

Ralph hey the Lowrance X67C was the unit those Canadians were using when they won the Simcoe Trap Attack but you won't here about that on some web sites. SSSSShhh!!! They don't want the word to get out that Vexilar didn't win one...

I don't know if it makes much difference in my initial story but Bob had purchased the FL8SE and not the FL-18.