Another old Flasher - Heathkit Fish Spotter

[fishinpreacher]

Hi folks, I was just wondering what, if anything, any you might be able to tell me about this old sonar unit I picked up. It is a Heathkit Fish Spotter flasher type unit. It looks literally like it just came out of the box As you can see it still has the original tags and owners book with it. I got if for $20.00 bucks and an old closed face rod and reel combo from a gentleman on Craig's list.

My hope is that I can use it as a backup or guest unit, or use this while my kids use my Marcum. My questions are pretty basic...

1) Do you think I will have to do anything special to use it as an ice fishing flasher, or is it going to be as simple as dropping the transducer down the hole and adjusting the range and sensitivity?

2) How much will it be affected by another flasher operating nearby (like with in the same two man flip over)?

[fishinpreacher]

Is no one familiar wit this unit?

Any in put would be appreciated.

[wired]

Theres only one way to know for sure. I think it's going to eat small batteries.

[eriksat1]

I would save it as a collector item. It may have some value the good shape it is in.

[Nam 69]

what eriksat1 said, good wall hanger and a conversation piece

[hunts2long]

At one time (maybe late '60's, early '70's) you could buy those as a kit you built. Very much like the Green Box...I would have it sitting on a shelf. Not too many of those around anymore....hunts2long

[gearheart]

I built one of those back in the dark ages.  For what was available back then it was pretty impressive. Runs on 12 volts, a pair of 6 volt lantern batteries.  Easy to convert it to run off a lead acid battery.  Try it out. it will let you know if you're fishing or just washing bait, how deep the water is, what the bottom is like. Narrow line is hard bottom wide line is soft bottom.  Broken up lines is sloping bottom with rocks or maybe fish.  Don't crank up the gain any higher than what it takes to see your bait.  If you see a line separate from the bottom and move towards your bait, that is a fish coming in from the side for a look.  If the lines merge and become a brighter heavier line then you are undergoing a "close inspection".   Be ready for a bite.  It has a narrow transducer angle and should work ok on the ice.

[gearheart]

Answer to your second question is it will probably go nuts if you light up another sonar  unit in the vicinity unless the transducer frequency is different enough as not to register.  Noise reduction was not invented in its day.

[77tech]

preacher,  I think I still have one tucked away in the garage some place.  I don't know how long they offered that kit but I think I got mine about 79 or 80.  It was designed to take two 6 volt lattern batteries in series so you can run it on a 12 volt gel cell if you want to rig up some kind of adapter.   I can tell you that you won't be able to just hang the transducer down the hole by the cord as the cord is to stiff and it won't shoot straight down.  Did you get the bracket that holds the transducer.  There was a plastic bracket the transducer could snap into.  The bracket was screwed to a piece of hardwood that had a slot in it.  Then there were two thumb screws that went through the slot and attached to a couple of rubber suction cups so you could attach it to the transom of your boat.  In the picture I see you have the operator manual and the potentiometer adjustment tool.  Do you also have the assembly instructions?  I know there were some instructions for calibration in the assembly instructions.  Looking at your pictures it has a 60 and 240 foot scales.  Been so long since I used mine I didn't remember that.  As I recall if you switch to the 240 foot scale it slows the motor down to accomplish the change of scale.  I tried to use mine on the ice a number of years ago but was never able to see my jig with it but maybe I didn't have it shooting perfectly vertical. 

[77tech]

Pulled the book out of my files.  This unit has a 200KHz frequency transducer with a 30 degree cone angle.  The sounding is 40 times per second on the 60 foot scale.  It also lists noise reduction as being fixed at 500 microseconds integration time.  The pulse width is .8 milliseconds on the 60 foot scale. The power requirements are 225 milliamps at 12VDC and it is interesting to note the signal at the transducer is 200 volts peak to peak of course remember that is for only 800 microseconds (.8 milliseconds). 

[fishinpreacher]

Thanks guys for your responses. Gearheart, thats sot of what I figured, i guess i'll just have to see how much it's affected by my marcum.

77tech, I did not get bracket for the transducer, however I can surley rig something up if I decide to use it. I do not have the assembly instructions, however there is a section in the owners manuel about using this unit on the ice. I was just curious if anybody on this site had any experience using them to ice fish.

Thanks again for the input fellas! I'll probably give it a try, but if it doesn't work out for 20 bucks I'm not out too much, and like several of you said it will make a cool wall hanger and conversation piece.