Got a HDS 5 and im getting bad or false on my sonar when traveling showing fish and structure.When trying to hold ground and im backing up it doesn't even read?i have it on auto sensitivity

Lowrance HDS touch how to use the overlay function ...

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH3AeC-jmo0
Oct 2, 2012 - Uploaded by Walleye 101 TV Lowrance HDS touch how to use the overlay function. Walleye 101 TV ... how you fish. GPS & Sonar instructional DVD on allLowrance Units at:

If you turn on the "fish I.D. mode" in your sonar options then you will be able to turn on the fish alarm as well. Lowrance HDS 5x Gen2 Fishfinder
This a link to a pic file for your owners manual.
Go to page 67 to, see how to access and enable/disable alarms for your unit.

Water depth should show automatically on your sonar page.
if it does not then either you have selected "stop sonar" under your sonar options or you have opted to turn off the depth displayou so the numbers don't show up.
if you areally viewing your GPS or split screen sonar/GPS page, sometimes the depth display is not visible on these pages unless you specifically instruct the unit to display it.
Lowrance HDS 5 Gen2 Fishfinder GPS Chartplotter
Here is a link to Lowrance where you can download a pic version of the operators manual.
Go to page 11 "overlay data" this will give you a step by step of how to add data or readouts to different screens.

read the book that came with it you got to understand how it works and know how to set your unit before you can understand how it works and what you need to do to make it work and to get to what settings you want ..a fish finder is like a computer you got to program it to your likings .. I have a hd 10 structure scan on mine .. .now that's a nightmare to set but the book tells you everything you need to do and how to do it and how to get what your looking for and how to get to it

ooooooooook click menu button twice go to functions scroll down to structure scan see if the circle beside it is high lighted if not click on it to turn it on do this to both units

Hi, press pages, then use the arrow up key to select sonar only page(it will show in upper left of screen the page you have selected.) Then press enter. Hope this helps, regards Phil.

well if the side scanner is a stern mount. Then opposite side would be best and scanning away from other transducer. Too much wattage and they will mix signals and give you two blank screens. You can mount together but run one at a time. Aloha

Hi there.

Ok in WIDE beam mode the cone extends out 45 degrees from the transducer. This covers a fair area, but is best used only in shallow waters as the beam may not have enough power to penetrate deeper waters effectively. 30ft should be fine for WIDE mode however. Using a bit of trigonometry, the beam would extend to a diameter of 60 feet from the center point of the transducer on the sea/river floor.

The beam is a direct beam... It is not a rotational beam from the transducer... i.e. it does not rotate like a radar beam but shoots downward in the cone arc constantly. Imagine a torch being turned on and off very rapidly... The light shoots straight out from the torch in its own cone shape. This is essentially what the transducer does when it shoots out a signal every millisecond or so.

The image you see on the screen is the result of the hole cone of signals, however, the strongest sonar returns occur near the center of the beam. Weaker returns are shown which are located towards the outer edges of the sonar cone where the signal power is less. So if a fish passes right on the edge of the beam, it will only show up as maybe 1 pixel on the sounder screen as it is a weak return on the edge of the sonar cone, whereas if that fish passes under the center of the beam, it will show a larger, more continuous or arched shaped return as the fish moves from the outside of the beam, through the center of the beam, and out to the other edge of the beam under the boat.

Regarding the flasher... I would advise not to use this. It does work by showing a continuous top and bottom reading which displays as constant flashes around the circle readout. Anything it picks up in the beam will show as flashes in between the top and bottom readings. Using the display is far better and with practice allows you to better identify fish and bottom structure readings. Flashers were earlier forms of sonar readouts. Some older folk still like them but I believe the normal display is better for finding and identifying fish and can show structure shape as well (the flasher mode really cannot).

Hope that helps!

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