Anchor Alarm on a Lowrance Mark 4 DSI

I just upgraded my FF/Depth Sounder to a Mark 4 - DSI GPS/Fishfinder combo (Same as the Elite-4 DSI, but with a grayscale screen instead of full color. Got a screaming deal on it; Reduced from $199 to $150, and Lowrance offering a $30 cash rebate on the unit, for a final cost of $120). I have the unit installed but have not tested it on water yet. One nice feature I saw was an anchor alarm. I can see how to set the alarm, but I don't understand how it determines where you are anchored. Does it automatically assume you are at anchor when you set the alarm, or is the anchor alarm a setting that is always on and you designate some set waypoint as your anchor point?

As an aside, I keep reading online about how bad the manual is for the lower end Lowrance units. No kidding! This unit is replacing an Eagle Cuda 242 Wal-mart special (which I believe was also made by Lowrance), and that unit at least had a fairly comprehensive owners manual. With all the functionality I have seen on the Mark-4, you would think that the manual would be an inch thick with an explanation of what all the settings are instead of the 17 pages that mostly talk about Elite-5 DSI!

Thanks for any reply or insight as to the anchor alarm function and any other tips or tricks for this unit

Rgds

Eric

Re: Anchor Alarm on a Lowrance Mark 4 DSI

The Typical Anchor Alarm remembers where you are at the moment the alarm is set.

Drop the Anchor and set the alarm, Then back off and set the anchor in the bottom.
A Radius of 1.5 to 2 time the Rode would be a good value to prevent nuisance alarms as you swung on the anchor.

If you set the Alarm after setting the anchor and settling downstream, 3x the length of the Rode wound be a good value.
If you have 100ft of line out, and you swing to the other side of the circle you will be 200 ft away but still firmly anchored.
If you get over 300 ft away you are dragging the anchor.

The GPS will need to remain ON all the time for the alarm to function.

Re: Anchor Alarm on a Lowrance Mark 4 DSI

UncleWillie said:

The Typical Anchor Alarm remembers where you are at the moment the alarm is set.

Drop the Anchor and set the alarm, Then back off and set the anchor in the bottom.
A Radius of 1.5 to 2 time the Rode would be a good value to prevent nuisance alarms as you swung on the anchor.

If you set the Alarm after setting the anchor and settling downstream, 3x the length of the Rode wound be a good value.
If you have 100ft of line out, and you swing to the other side of the circle you will be 200 ft away but still firmly anchored.
If you get over 300 ft away you are dragging the anchor.

The GPS will need to remain ON all the time for the alarm to function.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Uncle Willie. Worked as advertised. The only "gotcha" was that you do have to turn off the alarm when you leave your anchorage. I set the alarm to make sure I wasn't dragging. After lunch we went tubing so I pulled the anchor. Of course the alarm went off as soon as I moved far enough away. I shut off the alarm, but did not cancel it. When I went back to pick up another group of folks, I guess I wandered back into the anchor alarm area, so when I moved off again, the alarm went off again.

On a side note, damn the Lowrance menus are convoluted!

Rgds