The Australian company of Greenwich Marine Electronics (GME) was started in 1959 by Ted Dunn as a two-way radio communications firm.
Early in GME’s history, the Australian company made marine emergency beacons for Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons (IPERBs). GME’s major export around the world from Australia is the IPERB.
GME sells a fishfinder that not only finds fish, but doubles as an electronic chart holder with a Global Positioning System (GPS). The internal GPS in this device sports a 16-channel receiver. It means that on a cold start-up where the location and time are unknown by your electronic device,
this GME fishfinder can look at 16 different satellites and therefore, start giving you data faster.
The high-resolution 5.6-inch, or 142 millimeter, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen comes with an adjustment for up to 10 different intensities of backlighting, so viewing your fishfinder well into the darkness of night is very possible. You can customize your GME fishfinder. Save up to six different combinations of complex screen maneuvers in the “favourites” section for future access.
Each GME fishfinder comes pre-loaded with world charts and maps. Using a handy SD card slot, you can easily load your favorite local marine charts. Two input and output National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) 0183 interfaces are installed on this device, and it’s NMEA 2000 compatible. That means most marine software can “talk” to your GME fishfinder.
GME has teamed up with Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen, to provide you with an optional set of C-MAP marine navigation charts and maps. Updated navigational aids come with C-MAP software, as do aerial photographs associated with your destinations and information under pop-ups on the charts.
Up to 10,000 waypoints can be saved in the GME fishfinder, along with as many as 100 routes, each possessing as large as 100 waypoints, each. You can also save up to 10 tracks of your fishing expeditions that include a huge total of 15,000 points.
Multiple screen options are available while viewing maps on your fishfinder, such as a horizontal split screen, a four-way split screen, a forward-looking view with a chart and a full-screen map.
Once you’re settled down to looking for fish, you have screen choices such as showing split sonic frequency results, locking to the bottom, or zooming in for a more detailed view.
The actual fishfinder portion of a GME unit is accommodated with digital sonar in the two frequencies of 50kHz and 200kHz. Using dual sound frequencies enables your unit to better locate and identify fish and schools of fish. The transponder that transmits these two sound frequencies also collects water temperature and speed measurements. It’s mounted on your boat’s transom.
There is not a vast wasteland of buttons on a GME fishfinder. Finding your way around the software is easy and instinctual. So, when you reach your fishing destination, you aren’t wasting your time trying to figure out the workings of your fishfinder. Instead, you’re fishing. Deep, shallow, zone and fish alarms are incorporated into the GME fishfinder’s software.
This GME fishfinder automatically obtains the correct settings to bring in images of the fish you’re seeking. At any time, you can take it off the auto mode in favor of manual operations. A GME fishfinder reaches depths as far as 600 meters, or 1,968 feet.
There are certainly larger fishfinders on the market with more robust marine electronics to purchase and put in your boat. But, sometimes an honest fishing enthusiast has to stop and question whether it’s more important to sink the boat with expensive electronic equipment, or to buy something practical. You can’t go wrong with GME.