JW Fisher Side Scan Sonar

A side scan sonar is one of the most sought and effective tools for underwater searches. The reason; it can cover large areas quickly and “see” what’s on the bottom regardless of water visibility.  A JW Fisher side scan sonar finds things by sending out a sonar beam that sweeps over the bottom, reflects off any object laying on the bottom, and returns to the towfish.  The received signal is sent through the tow cable to a topside display.  The displayed image is a highly detailed two-dimensional picture of the ocean, lake, river bottom, and objects lying there.

The sonar beam is transmitted and received by transducers mounted on each side of the towfish. How the transducer is constructed determines the frequency of the sonar beam. Side scans with low-frequency transducers have excellent long-range capability but low resolution at shorter ranges. High-frequency systems have higher resolution but very short range. A dual-frequency side scan has high and low-frequency transducers in the same fish to give both systems’ best; long-range and highly detailed images at the shorter ranges.

JW Fisher Advantage

JW Fisher’s sonars represent a major price/performance breakthrough in low-cost side scan systems. Fishers offer three different frequency side scan systems;  the SSS-600K, the SSS-1200K and a dual-frequency system, the SSS-600/1200K.

• • The SSS-1200K has a very high resolution from 5m to 25m.
  • The SSS-600K has a high resolution from 10m to 75m.
  • The SSS-600/1200K Dual has both resolutions available.

The SSS-1200K system provides maximum resolution (detail). It can see anything the 600K can but in sharper detail.  The SSS-600K/1200K is an effective dual-frequency system.  The 600K locates the target, and the 1200K makes a close in a pass for a high-resolution image.

All of Fisher’s side scan sonars come with a 500-foot depth rated towfish, 150 feet of cable (Kevlar reinforced), a laptop computer, a GPS, and Fishers SONAR VIEW software. The computer displays a real-time color image of the ocean floor. The screen is split down with the middle, with the right side showing the ocean bottom on the right side of the vessel, and the left side of the screen shows the ocean bottom on the left side of the vessel.