Garmin's Black-Box and Spread Spectrum Technology

GARMIN has now commenced shipping of the two new black-box digital sonar solutions - the GSD 24 and GSD 26.

The GSD 24 has been redesigned from the ground up to provide, according to Garmin, dramatically improved target separation and bottom tracking for the recreational fishermen. The GSD 26 takes Garmin’s digital sonar offerings even further by adding Spread Spectrum technology and the ability to manually adjust transmission frequencies, making it ideal for serious deep-water sport fishing.

“We’ve listened carefully to the demanding needs of our sport fishing customers, and we’re confident that the new GSD 24 and 26 will meet and exceed their expectations,” said Ian Edwards, national sales manager Garmin Australasia.

“The redesign of our traditional sonar and new Spread Spectrum technology answers the growing needs of the sport fishing market.”

Garmin said it offers significantly better target definition, bottom contours and signal noise suppression at greater depths than traditional models, and gives the user faster screen updates and a more timely interpretation of what’s below for safer navigation and better fishing.

Instead of using a single frequency like traditional sonar, the GSD 26 uses Spread Spectrum technology to sweep each pulse through a range of frequencies to deliver shallow-water-like target separation at extremely deep depths. The GSD 26 is also capable of the most popular discreet pulsed frequencies, and fishermen can manually adjust frequencies on the GSD 26 – from a very low 25 kHz to a high of 210 kHz – making it easy to fine-tune the targeting of trophy-sized fish. 

Compatible with Airmar’s newest line of broadband transducers, the GSD 26 offers selectable transmit power from 300 to 3,000 watts and can scan as deep as 10,000 feet. In addition, the GSD 26’s dual-transceivers allow for simultaneous and independent dual transducer operation, which allows complete customisation for the serious sport fisherman.

For the recreational fisho, the entire sonar architecture of the GSD 24 has been redesigned to offer dramatically improved target separation and bottom tracking. A dual-frequency (50/200 kHz) system, the GSD 24’s transmit power is selectable – from 600W, 1kW, 2kW – with a wide choice of compatible 8-pin transducers.  The powerful GSD 24 can scan as deep as 5,000 feet, so whether it’s the big catch or potentially hazardous terrain or reef structures beneath your boat, you’ll see the imagery with exceptional clarity.  The GSD 24 also includes a field-installable connector kit so that existing Garmin GSD 22 customers who want to upgrade to the GSD 24 can do so using existing 6-pin transducer installations.

Each new Garmin sounder is compatible with the Garmin Marine Network for display on the latest Garmin GPSMAP 4000/5000 and 6000/7000 series chartplotters. The Recommended Retail Price for the GSD 24 is $749.00 and the RRP for the GSD 26 is $2199.00.