A plain depth sounder aimed horizontally?

[Externet]

Hi all. My first post after years of lurking and enjoying this site.

What image to expect if a plain echosounder transducer is aimed as a single-side side scan? Would it yield a poorman's bottom profile, or would it be simply unuseable as a side scan imager ?
Could a narrow angle transducer show something, how bad would it be ?
Has anyone tried ?

[Alec Collyer]

Sadly this won't work as the beam of a "normal" fishfinder transducer is up to 45 degrees. A side scan beam is normally a fraction of a degree. however, not all is lost, if you trawl around the internet you can find info on combining multiple transducers into a phased array, it's something of a black art, best conducted at the correct phase of the moon with incantations and dancing.

Also, have you thought about how you display the image ? you could read the signal it into a PC via the sound card, and write a program to display it.

Or rather more realistically save up your Xmas and Birthday money and buy a fab Humminbird !
www.humminbird.com

Cheers, Alec (UK)