Interference between FL-20 and FL-8

[Cove]

I have a Vexilar FL-20 which I love. My son-in-law has a FL-8. When we try to fish side by side in a fish house, say 3-4 feet apart, I get enough interference to really distract things despite pressing the interference rejection button on the FL-20.

One of us ends up turning off their sonar. Any ideas I have not thought of? Is there another top notch sonar that would get along better with these machines?

[SnipeZilla]

it'd be the same since they all operate at the same frequency. I've found it really bad sometimes and other times i havent had any interference at all when i'm sitting 2 feet away from another vexilar.

[crappie todd]

I just purchased a FL-20 last night. so no opportunity to use it until this weeknend. But the advertisment is that interference should be absolutly minimal.

I think I will call Vexilar today and ask them about the interference issue and see what they recommend.

[polarsusd81]

I learned a week ago that most flashers have either 4, 7, or 11 levels for interference reduction. I believe the FL-20 has 11. What you need to do is have your son turn on the FL-8, then you turn on your FL-20. You should see some pretty bad interference, with the FL-20, you should cycle through your IR levels slowly to see at what level the interference is gone. If your son hit his IR button at the same time you do, it will mess up both units, so only one at a time do it. You should then be able to fish next to eachother with both units going and not have a problem. Also, since you have the option and you are so close, switch to your 9 degree cone, which will also reduce the interference.

Tom

[Powerstroke]

polarsus is dead on. Even the FL-8 has interference rejection. If you push the Gain button in, it turns the IR on/off. Then if you press the orange IR button it will cycle through different frequencies.

Like he said try only one unit at a time. I've fished two vex's in the same Otter house as well as a Vex and a Marcum side by side. It takes a little tinkering, ubt you will both find an interference-free screen.

[iffwalleyes]

You really want to complicate things put 3 in the same house. There will always be someone unhappy. Over the past few years as I have switched from Vex to Marcum it is better. Marcums seem to be able to cancel out the vex singal better. Now we run 2 marcums and 1 vex in the same house and everyone is pretty happy. But with all of them it takes a combination of turning IR on or off and cycling through different levels of IR.

[eyewarrior]

I have found out if you operate each unit on a different scale, interference is also reduced.

[fish_on]

everyone i fish with has vex's....we have very minimal interference as we cycle through the IR...like posts above you should not get very much if you just take your time and cycle one at a time

[randyfaas]

Obvious but worth mentioning:

- make sure that the gain on both units is turned down as low as possible and still see your bait.

[Cove]

Thanks to all for the comments.

One thing I do not understand is the comments on the FL-20 having "11" Interference Rejection (IR) settings. I have read instructions and seems like you are supposed to push in the knob to access IR. Nothing seems to cycle through IR-1, IR-2 etc.

I did have my son in law leave his FL 8 alone while I punched my Fl-20 IR knob a bunch of times but not much difference.

I do appreciate the recommendation of having the gain set as low as possible on both machines. Will also experiment with using different settings on each e.g. 0-30 v 0-60. Will mess around s ome more and see what can happen.

[Surface Tension]

The suggestions above are good ones.

Bottom content and depth make a difference.

Hard bottom and deeper water will increase that stray signal.

Change to a narrower cone angle(if you have that option).

Turn the gain down.

If possible increase the distance between the sounders.

Experiment with transducer depths-below the ice or above the ice.

Adjust one sounder at a time.

Try different depth settings. Then, (this won't reduce the interference) use your zoom to increase viewing screen size.

Lay your transducer against the hole in a way that it isn't pointed straight down. Get it pointed away from the other sounder.

[rockman]

Just out of curiosity, is your son's vexilar a FL-8,or an FL-8 SLT? The slt has the interference reducer function, but the older FL-8 does not.My first vex was the FL-8,and the slt came out less than a year after I got the first one. The FL-8 did not have IR,so I sold it and got an slt.The older Hondex and Micronar FL-8's did not have IR, because it had not been developed yet, or had not been added to the flashers as of that time.

[slipperybob]

When there's mulitple flasher together....I found that making sure everyone has their transducer below the ice does the best for reducing stray signals as making sure the transducer is not touching ice and clear of obstruction like slush sticking to the side of the hole. It does make jigging in the same hole difficult.

The person who's got their tranducer just below the water surface may get the clearer readout but is often the culprit who's sending stray signals to everyone else. Don't know if there's any actual fact to that or how ice defract the signal.

[Cove]

These are very interesting comments. I will check with my son-in-law to see which FL-8 he has and will run through all these suggestions next time we fish. And, will post results in this thread.

Still wondering if I need to push in my IR knob repeatedly to cycle through all 10 or 11 settings. I guess it is easy enough to try it, and I have, but maybe I need to do some of the other things suggested and also try "cycling through IR settings".

[Dave]

 Originally Posted By: Cove

Still wondering if I need to push in my IR knob repeatedly to cycle through all 10 or 11 settings. I guess it is easy enough to try it, and I have, but maybe I need to do some of the other things suggested and also try "cycling through IR settings".

Yes, you do need to push it repeatably to step through the IR steps.

[Cove]

Folks, an update on the question I posed to start this thread.

I went out fishing with my son-in-law and his FL-8. Tried all the things I learned here. It became clearer than I had interference, yes, but my sonar was not working well. I could not pick out my jig like I could when I first got the FL-20.

So, I would have to turn up the gain. Even then I could not always see my jig well even in "just" 25-28 feet of water and the interference would, of course, be worse at higher gain.

So, I sent my FL-20 in to Vexilar on MOnday afternoon by UPS. Got it back Thursday! That alone was impressive. "Pat", from Vexilar said the transducer was not hanging straight and replaced it. Because it was not straight I was not getting the optimal echo hence the gain problems, interference etc. He also "readjusted sensitivity". Not sure what that means.

Anyway, I am anxious to try it out and will let you know how goes. Hopefully with the FL-20 in top form, using all the suggestions for IR, I will see some real improvement.