Humminbird 515, 500 series manual Understanding Sonar History, Real Time Sonar RTS Window

Understanding Sonar History

It is important to understand the significance of the display. The display does NOT show a literal 3-dimensional representation of what is under the water. Each vertical band of data received by the control head and plotted on the display represents something that was detected by a sonar return at a particular time. As both the boat and the targets (fish) may be moving, the returns are only showing a particular segment of time when objects were detected, not exactly where those objects are in relation to other objects shown on the display.

Real Time Sonar (RTS®) Window

A Real Time Sonar (RTS®) Window appears on the right side of the display in the Sonar View only. The RTS® Window always updates at the fastest rate possible for depth conditions and shows only the returns from the bottom, structure and fish that are within the transducer beam. The RTS® Window plots the depth and intensity of a sonar return (see Sonar Menu - RTS® Window).

The Narrow RTS® Window indicates the sonar intensity through the use of grayscale. The grayscale used matches the bottom view grayscale setting used in the sonar history window (i.e. Inverse, Structure ID®, WhiteLine®, Bottom Black). The depth of the sonar return is indicated by the vertical placement of the return on the display depth scale.

The Wide RTS® Window indicates the sonar intensity through the use of a bar graph. The length of the plotted return provides an indication of whether the return is weak or strong. The depth of the sonar return is indicated by the vertical placement of the return on the display depth scale. The Wide RTS® Window does not make use of grayscale.

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