Anyone have experience with the Lowrance LMS 522??

[Waterfoul]

I have the opportunity to purchase a very lightly used unit from a friend (I've fished in his boat and used this unit a little bit) at a GREAT price.  My questions for anyone who's used one is about the GPS reception and what chips you have used.  I'm told that if you tilt them too much the internal antenna units can lose signal.  Also, I have the Navionics gold chip... on my H2Oc handheld I can only zoom down to 1/8th of a mile.  That's a LONG ways on the water.  Will the 522 zoom in closer?  I believe it will... but I'm not sure.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mike

[Slipkey]

I'm told that if you tilt them too much the internal antenna units can lose signal.  Also, I have the Navionics gold chip... on my H2Oc handheld I can only zoom down to 1/8th of a mile.  That's a LONG ways on the water.  Will the 522 zoom in closer?  I believe it will... but I'm not sure.

Mike, you have heard right on the tilt angle, though much of that depends on where you mount the unit.  More likely that you will loose partial signal and some accuracy by tilting the unit up than lose signal completely.

Unfortunately you're not going to get any more zoom with the Gold chip than you currently have.  That's a limitation of the chip - not the unit.  Your best bet would be to upgrade to one of the Premium chips (the '08 ones should be out fairly soon).   The level of zoom depends to a degree on the body of water, but on Lake Erie's West basin, my Navionics Premium '07 zooms down to 1/32 of a mile I believe. 

On some of the "HD" lakes included in that chip, you can zoom as far as 1/64.

Sorry for the delay on getting back to you on this.  My bad.

[Waterfoul]

But the funny thing is, when I bring my chip into West Marine and plug it into the LMS527 we have on display it will zoom in to 1/64th of a mile.  Now that I look at the chip it is a Navionics Premium East chip.  So why won't my H2Oc zoom in closer than 1/8th of a mile?  Seems odd to me.  I know the 527 uses the same GPS program as the 522, but why would the hand held refuse to zoom in further? 

Anway, I'm pretty sure I will be spending our government "rebate" check on buying the 522 from my friend.

[Slipkey]

Hmm.  I may be wrong about the chip then.   I've had the same problem with my X19 and X26 with my Gold chip - maxed out at 1/8.   

Which lake map are you zooming into?    My dad has an H20c and he had some problems with my HotMaps Gold chip when he tried testing it out after he bought it.  He was going to buy the Premium chip, anyway, which zoomed to 1/32 fine.   It may be a combination of the two.   If the 522c will zoom in to 1/32 that sounds like a nice solution.

[Waterfoul]

I tried several lakes at the store on the 527... Muskegon which is in HD, and Reeds in GR which isn't in HD.  Both lakes zoomed down to 1/64th on the 527.  Neither will zoom closer than 1/8th on the handheld.

Seems weird to me, really wierd.

[motocross269]

Hey Waterfoul...One advantage I could see with the 522 over the 520 is that you could easily convert it to use for ice fishing and still have GPS capabilities without carrying around an antennae...
I don't think you can link-up the 522 with an LCX with external reciever though...One of the gurus could probably chime in on this..

[Waterfoul]

I don't ice fish so it's not an issue.  But the unit I have an opportunity to buy is a 522 internal antenae model.