Transducer Doctor Give Me The News - by Brad Wiegmann

[Slab]

It’s not if it’s going to happen but when. Sooner or later you are going to run into something with your forward facing transducer and the cable is going to break. New transducers aren’t cheap, however, there is an option besides purchasing a new transducer and that’s having the Transducer Doctor repair it.





Joey Cook aka Transducer Doctor (www.transducerdoctor.com or call 918-946-0362) began his journey over 25 years ago when he started doing marine electronic installs in boats. It wasn’t uncommon for Cook to have to repair angler’s transducer cable. Back before forward facing transducers it was repairing sonar cables for traditional 2D sonar, CHIRP, side or down imaging sonar.


As luck would have it during one tournament Cook was fishing one of the anglers fishing the same tournament damaged their cable. “I repaired the Live Scope cable and it worked,” Cook went on, “From that point forward I ended up that guy who fixed forward facing transducers and usually it was for other crappie tournament anglers, however, now it could be a tournament angler or just a weekend angler that needs his cable repaired.”


Posting on social media turned repairing sonar cable transducers into a full time job. Now Cook only has time to pre-fish or fish in tournaments due to the demand to fix cables and do installs. Marine electronic installers are in high demand especially ones that are experienced and proficient at installs. Cook noted that he does installs with Sundown Marine and occasionally at Car Toys Tulsa.


“One of the most common ways that a transducer cable is broken is a poor installation job on the trolling motor,” Cook continued, “You would be surprised at how many transducer cables are smashed or cut by trolling motors.”


The weirdest broken trolling motor Cook has fixed was when an angler was docking his boat and the transducer cable hooked a cleat on the boat dock, however, the boat moved quickly away from the dock and ripped the transducer cable right off the pole mount it had been attached to on the boat. Cook has also repaired transducer cables that had fish hooks stuck in them and stopped working properly.





Questions that anglers usually ask Cook is how long will it take to repair the transducer cable and will it show interference on the fishfinders screen after the repair? “Normally it takes 3 to 4 days to repair a transducer cable. Anglers will need to contact me first to get general information then the transducer will need to be shipped to me. From there, I will repair the cable and test it to make sure it’s working,” Cook went on, “Once I know it’s working I will contact them and they will pay for the repaired transducer then ship it back to the owner. If necessary I can even overnight the repaired transducer with the owner paying for shipping. Cost right now to repair a transducer cable is $225 and that includes shipping.”


Cook noted that every transducer cable repaired will work as it did before the cable was broken. “Each repaired cable in sealed water tight and shielded,” Cook continued, “There will be no additional interference meaning it works like it did before the cable was cut or smashed.”


Having someone fix your transducer cable is one way to fix a broken transducer cable, however, there is another and that’s to do it yourself. Repairing the cable by yourself will reduce the cost, but splicing a cut transducer cable requires skills that many of us don’t have. I found several DIY fishfinder cable repair guides on YouTube if you want to see how it’s done. For me, I’m going to let the Transducer Doctor repair it.

[SuperDave336]

Good article. Wasn’t to long ago someone was looking for someone that could repair a transducer cable. Good to know.