Vexilar/Marcum Interference

Okay, Can somebody verify for me that they have successfuly fished a Vexilar FL-20 and and Marcum LX-5 in a flip over house with no interference issues. I have done it myself once but have heard and read multiple posts that they will not work beside each other even with interference rejection. I just want to make sure my instance wasn’t a fluke or something. I always tell people they work together but just need some IR tweaking sometimes. Thanks for the information.

Not a fluke whatsoever. Completely possible. That myth needs to die.

I’ll be at the MarCum booth at the Saint Paul ice show and I’ll have atleast 50 people say that dirty lie to me

I agree with Matt, they can be fished side by side.
With both parties working together you can clean up the screens.

Oh! and welcome to the site!

So you you’ve got a Fl 20 and an LX5 for instance. With the proper gain set and tuning of the Lx5’s interference rejection, you could can fish them out of the SAME hole. but boy that would certainly be a mess

One time we were ice fishing with two fl20s and an lx-5. seemed like the 20 and lx-5 were fine, but when I fired up my 20, everything went to heck. I tell you we had to sit a half mile across the pond to get the screens to work. This could’ve been a fluke and I certainly am not blaming it on one brand or another, it was just something that did happen.

Steve:

I see this most often in hard-side shacks where guys are literally 3 feet from one another. Deep water aggravates the effect even further, as it’s usually caused by cone-angles being in the same space.

Just like in Ghostbusters, Ray, don’t cross the beams. You’re basically having sonar signals from each unit picking up sent signals from both units, creating some confusion.

One way to correct that is to narrow up your sonar beam on the LX-5 so they’re less likely to touch. Then, tell your buddy with the Vex to upgrade to a standard switchable ducer in the LX-5 he should be getting to make it even better.

In deep, rocky water, with lots of echoes, you’ll need to work together to get the interference tuned out.

Joel

The most difficult time you’ll ever have adjusting is over rocks.

setting 2 sonars over rocks is like being in a tin shed in a hail storm for the receivers. Signals bouncing everywhere!

In that situation Gain adjustment is key. The gain does not adjust power output. The gain adjusts the window of what your transducer receives. By turning the gain down, you will not receive weaker pings that have bounced all over creation

There are some rare instances in which it’s nearly impossible to reject interference between unit A,B or C and the only place I’ve ever ran into this in on Burntside Lake up in Ely. It makes you scratch your head when the nearest person to you is like 100yrds away and you are getting odd returns. But then you realize it’s 60-70ft deep and hard rock bottom.

So if you do the trig and figure out how wide your cone is, plus you have signals bouncing all over the place because of the rock, it gets hard to control.

In 99% of the cases you just hit the narrow beam and you are good to go.

Admittedly there will be times when you have to futz with the interference rejection between the units to get them to play nicely, but it usually doesn’t take long to get the right channels figured out. You usually don’t have to mess with the LX-5’s very much and this comes in handy sometimes when you are not buddies with the guy in the house 10ft next to you, or heck even when you are

Joel, you’re right. We were fishing in 30+ feet of water. This winter I’ll make sure to check that out. Thanks for the advice

The key to making multiple units work is to adjust one unit at a time. if evryone is hitting their IR at the same time it defeats the purpose.

Okay, so now that you have settled that issue. How does anyone know how to adjust a grumpy old man that is half color blind so that it doesn’t interfere with the use of a Vexilar. I bought my dad a Marcum, and we have no problem fishing in the same shack interference wise. The only problem is “I can’t see my jig on there” and “This thing isn’t working” interference from the old man. Gotta love fishing with Dad though. COME ON ICE!!!

We where running five units last winter on the Chetek Chain just fine. We where in 3 flip up shacks and seem to tune them in just fine. Water wasn’t more than 15 feet deep though.

My buddy runs his 20 next to my LX all the time, He does have to adjust when I turn mine on though, I seldome have to touch mine.

Welcome to IDO
I run my XL-5 along side my dads FL-20 a few times each winter. We make them work each and every time

Ron

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Oh! and welcome to the site!

So you you’ve got a Fl 20 and an LX5 for instance. With the proper gain set and tuning of the Lx5’s interference rejection, you could can fish them out of the SAME hole. but boy that would certainly be a mess

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BIG mess- that dumb hunk of foam Vex puts on their units would get in the way even worse than it normally does

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BIG mess- that dumb hunk of foam Vex puts on their units would get in the way even worse than it normally does

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There are some people that really like that bobber in their hole. Once again I’ll have people ask me at the show if MarCum makes a float for their transducers

Love fishing with my dad and his FL18. Bobber down, has to pull that transducer out or else it will get tangled in that styrofoam. My LX2- leave ‘ducer in the hole, no worries, baby!!

I’m really used to using an fl-18 before I got my lx-5, so im probably one of those guys who would ask you for a float. A lot of the times I would have the vex sitting far enough away from a hole where the marcum arm would not reach, maybe due to the snow piled up, or because of the floor in my small clam. I also liked the float because I would be worried about the cable just hanging on the edge of the ice and maybe getting cut or ripped. I’ll have to see how it works out this year, since i have only used the lx-5 once or twice at the end of last season… probably will end up not being an issue.

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I’m really used to using an fl-18 before I got my lx-5, so im probably one of those guys who would ask you for a float. A lot of the times I would have the vex sitting far enough away from a hole where the marcum arm would not reach, maybe due to the snow piled up, or because of the floor in my small clam. I also liked the float because I would be worried about the cable just hanging on the edge of the ice and maybe getting cut or ripped. I’ll have to see how it works out this year, since i have only used the lx-5 once or twice at the end of last season… probably will end up not being an issue.

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Since the transducer self-levels all you need to do to get the head unit further away from the hole is to let out more cable. And as for harming / cutting the transducer cable through this type of use… it won’t be an issue as the sheath around the transducer wire is some tough stuff. Short of hitting it with an auger blade I’m not sure how you’d damage one through normal usage.

But, as you said, it is simply a matter of what you’re accustomed to using. After a couple times on the ice without one… you forget you ever had one.

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And as for harming / cutting the transducer cable through this type of use… it won’t be an issue as the sheath around the transducer wire is some tough stuff. Short of hitting it with an auger blade I’m not sure how you’d damage one through normal usage.

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James, YOU of all people should know that “normal usage” is a relative term. Relative to you, this means you should be able to back over it with truck, throw it off the snowmobile, stab it with a fork, burn it on the muffler, and bite it.
“normal use”,……good grief