Is my SI transducer going pffft?

[swardrn]

Hey guys my SI on my helix 10 mega is acting up. Up untill my last 2 trips out it has been crystal clear now Im not even finding the bottom at times. The setup has not changed or moved. Connections clean and secure. Plenty of power going to unit. Water was dirty but not even muddy. Changing the settings does nothing to improve the picture. Down imaging and 2d are clean and factory reset doesnt help. Thoughts?

[Royt]

I'm having the saving issue here in VA. I poised this same question on a different form and several other Helix Mega users are having the same issue. Everyone seems to belive that the fuzzy, washed out SI images are due to the large amount of pollen that has fallen and now mixed into the water. I've always had crystal clear SI images until about 2 weeks ago. Now if I'm in water 20 foot or deeper the image is very washed out no matter how you adjust it. I really prefer using the blue color pallet but had to change to one of the really bright ones. In shallow water I can adjust the unit somewhat but it starts getting dark at a 50 foot rangel but still too hot right outside the water column. The water column itself remains fuzzy. I have a Helix 10 Gen 1 on the bow of my boat and it is the same. A friend of my has an 1199 with the same issue but not as bad. My 2d image is still very good, DI is a little clouded but can be adjusted to be ok. I've done reset defaults like you and really tried to fine tune my adjustments with limited improvement. I hope someone has a good answer instead of having to wait several weeks for the pollen count to diminish. I love my MEGA but not so much right now.

[swardrn]

Ecellent I had not thought of the pollen but I bet its the issue cause everything here is GREEN

[Wayne P.]

When you see that "layer" in the water column, change to 455 kHz to see it that clears it up. The MEGA frequency is very sensitive and concentrated. Late last Summer/early Fall the thermocline was so concentrated that the MEGA frequency could not "see" through it if the sensitivity setting was high enough to show the bottom.

[Wallace]

I’m here on the coast of va Have a helix 10 mega it’s doing the same. As posted prior it’s the water. Change to a lower frequency . The backs of the creek arms are the worst and I’m seeing it in the di too a bit . I would imagine the water goes through the same process in the spring as it does in the fall turnover.

[swardrn]

Gotcha so a combination of thermocline along with pollen is screwing with the return from the mega si

[Wayne P.]

Gotcha so a combination of thermocline along with pollen is screwing with the return from the mega si

I can be one or the other or both or heavy stain to muddy water.

The past three days on Smith Mt. Lake, it was high winds mixing in air that was causing sonar clarity issues.

A few years ago in early Spring, high winds caused this cloudy image using 360: