A lot of mariners find it inevitable and necessary to install a pressure transducer on their boats. While most boaters use it to attach to fish finders and detect marine life in dark waters, some find the need to install the tool as a complement to a depth sounder so they will be able to gauge water depth from time to time. For small powerboats and such, it doesn’t really matter whether your pressure transducer is big or small. What is important is that the level of frequency and the cone angle of the transducer suits the depth of water that the mariner is to sail or fish on. There a lot of low-cost transducers in ample sizes that work efficiently with any small to medium-sized
leisure and fishing boats.
The Furuno 525T-PPD is a pressure transducer that’s ideal for boating because of its versatility. It’s a 600-watt transducer with dual frequency, 50 kHz and 200 kHz, and an eleven-degree beam angle. With such details, the equipment is great for using both in shallow and deep waters. It comes with a temperature sensor to be used for trolling motor or portable applications. It’s a 10-pin ducer that costs only $160. The Furuno 520-IHD is similar, still at 600-watts and with dual frequency as well, it’s got the in-hull shoot through style installation that makes it perfect for fiberglass or glass-reinforced plastic boats (GRP). It comes in a unique wet box and it’s easy and simple to install. This pressure transducer allows for a dead-rise offset of any beam angle between zero to twenty-two degrees. So it too can be used in deep and shallow waters. In fact it provides a wider coverage. This model costs $203 each.
A more up-to-date boat transducer is the Furuno SS Thru Hull To Suit DST-800 ($286). It’s a stainless steel unit with through-hull housing made to suit DST-100/800 sensor. Such multi-sensor that provides depth, speed, and temperature functions in a single through-hull fitting. Its housing contains digital signal processing that sends depth, speed, and temperature data to the chart plotter, radar screen, or digital multi-display. With this tool you need not secure a depth sounder anymore. More importantly, it’s fan-shaped beam can find the bottom of the ocean even when mounted or installed on dead-rise hulls or when heeled on sailboats.
