Mercury dealer, Hi Tech marine, in Wangara is the Main SIMRAD dealer here in Perth and will assist you getting the very best out of it.
They did for me,( as I bought my setup through them) and it works a treat, also have lowrance structure scan intergrated with it.
Please do check if your Airmar599 3KW Chirp is compatible with the broadband BSM2 Simrad system and go from there.
They are very helpful and are properly trained by Simrad.

I HAVE THE SAME SET UP and have used it for 2 years ,YES IT DOES WORK IN MORE THAN 200 METERS. Simrad has a video called bsm2 user guide on their web site ,under instructional learning aids, its a u tube clip and will help you a lot, it lists all the recommended settings depending on the variety of conditions you experience. THE BSM2 HAS BEEN A HAND FULL SINCE DAY 1. My experience has been to run it in one set frequency that corresponds to the depth you are in, at 100 meters don't try 200kh BUT GO FOR 50 kh this has yielded the best results. The 599 is the ultimate transducer for the unit. The bsm 2 has a wide range of tuning parameters and does not work properly out of the box, to find the right setting for your rig use the tips from the instructional u tube clip. If you still have problems get back to me. Don't forget support at Navico in the eastern states, I have spent many hours speaking with their tech people. The best is Matt Hooper who is in New Zealand. The development is ongoing and they have not developed it to its full potential nor have all bugs been sorted out but it will work in deep water, check out the website[ the hull truth ] ,lots of useful info on the unit posted by arbor who is a guru on the unit. The garmin unit is the easiest unit to use and it works strait out of the box, its been the simplest to set up. I have been using the furuno chirp since mid last year its the best of the lot, don't worry you will be able to get your unit going its just finding the right sweet spot within the tuning parameters.

 I did try  Hi Tech but got the feeling that because I didn't buy it from there  and the boat was in Freo they put it all in the "all too hard basket" and referred me to NZ which resulted in zero response.

Paul, thanks for the comprehensive reply, I've watched the video and will give 50 kHz a try. I've sent you a PM so please get in touch.

Cheers

Hey mate,

Im tipping that your Boston whaler has a cored hull (There is some sort of layer between fibreglass skins) and your in hull transducer cant get its signals through it or you've lost the fluid out of it. On our 255 conquest we had a pocket mount setup, its designed so the transducer sits in a 'pocket' so it sits flush with the hull and has a wet face - the transducer dosen't have to send its signals through the fibreglass and core. That was only 1kw but we could read 500m easy.

I've now got the same set up in my new boat running chip, I've got a PM265 with the new garmin glass helm's and I can sound 1000m no problems at all, It reads the bottom in 500m doing 24knots.

I would try checking to see if the wetbox is full of either glycol or radiator fluid first, if that looks good you might have to look at going either through hull or pocket mount type where the transducer sits in the water.

Cheers

Luke

radiator fluid (ethelene glycol) in the wet box

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol_poisoning

Sorry should have said "Antifreze" which is Propylene glycol.

 Your correct regarding the foam filled twin skin in a BW, on install they did cut through to the bottom layer and glassed a housing for the wet box so it's definitely not pinging through 2 skins persay. The wind didn't drop as forecasted yesterday so we didn't get past 40m where we bagged out anyhow!!

22 tango, I have a 235 conquest and looked at similar option to you, but ended up going wet faced 1 kw and furuno 587. Very happy with the result.

You have THE ultimate transducer, and it seems a shame you are getting much worse performance than my much cheaper setup mainly due to the poxy BSM-2 CHIRP. All I ever hear about chirp is ways to get around issues.

First thing I think you should do is check the 599 install. The 235 is different to a lot of cores boats, it has a specific location for a thru hull where the foam core has been removed at the factory and it has a double thickness of fibreglass. This is for thru hull trannies, NOT shoot thru like the 599. If you try and shoot thru, you will loose most of the performance as it's very thick and still has air pockets and inclusions......I know as I have drilled a huge hole thru mine for s thru hull. to mount a shoot they in a 235 (my mate has had it done) is a huge excercise and needs a lot of cutting to get down to the VERY outer thin hull skin.

Hook that 599 to a cheap Furuno 587 and I bet you will be amazed. Don't worry that it is a 1 kW unit, you will still get 90 percent of the benefit of the big transducer. FCV 295 would be even better again.

Just use your Simrad as a gps and backup sounder.

Feel free to pm me for more info on the transducer mounting if you want.

Get the BSM1/BSM2 set up correctly and it is by far the best unit.
If you never seen/worked with the Simrad gear you will NOT know the difference and cannot make an informed decision.
Sadly Chivers did NOT know how to set up nor match the correct Simrad gear and never did.
We have had this "discussion" on here before.
And Yes I DO electronics for work, Oil&Gas, and UNDERSTAND/ know how this system works.
That is the reason I got it
I am sure that you will get proper help from the Wangara mob.
A friend of mine played with my settings when he steered my boat and I fished at the back and it did not operate properly anymore until I retuned/reset it.

Fair call, it does appear a few guys on The hull thuth have got the BSM-2 to work with a lot of mucking about, but given he has one of THE BEST transducer going, it is likley the tranny install is the problem.

All I was saying on the Furuno is that if he went non CHIRP (and Furno are the best of the lot in my experience and opinion), I guarantee it would work well straight away in auto, no mucking about, no tweeking parameters, no squinting........

Talk of having to run CHIRP in fixed frequency tends to suggest the CHIRP technology has a ways to go yet. I have no doubt it will be better than pulse sounder technology, I just dont think the technology and firmware is developed enough just yet.

John,
These systems are, due to their wide options and choices, tempremental/finicky to set up by the average fisherman due to unfamiliarity with this 'complex' system.
But once you get the understanding of how it works, you are away.
And yes 200KHz in shallow water stops the system, switch it back to 50 and away it goes.
screen shot from this morning

Furuno is a good product and does tick almost all boxes for the recreational fishing boaty.

Errrrrrrrrrrrr

Sorry but you are posting a pic of the "best fishfinding tech available to the rec fisho" absolutely killing it , in 3 meters of water at less than a knot in perfect conditions.  Doubt that'll blow anyones hair back.

Please post some pics of it in actual action.   Genuinely interested to see what it can do from the wrecks out, and picking up flat coral and such.

You've had it a while now and should be well up with dialling it in. Show the money shots

 Agreed with grazyee probably not the best pic you could have posted ,any of the brand name units could display a " demo" screen shot very similar .. 

Unless there is something missing in the picture ??? It doesn't show anymore info or fish definition than other units .

I also too am definatly interested in the lastest tech but at present it doesn't seem to be winning a big audience .. 

Cheers fishfish 

Errrrr.,,, sorry, this post is about getting a simrad system to work.
Picture has got nothing to do with how good or how bad.
Secondly, I will show you SFA!
Just a shot that I took today while I was on the water and had a quick cool down swim.
2 dinghies who broke down out on the ocean, engine trouble, were in need of help to be towed back to the marina which interrupted my fishing plans for the day well and truly.
So I went for a swim.

The BSM-2 has given the most greif when it comes to chirp, I know guys that cant get over 500m with it using the same transducer as mine, that was the main reason I went to the new 8000 series garmins.

Garmin had the 599 hooked up to its GSD 26 on some workboat, they got to over 17000 feet and it was still reading.

If you have done the latest software update I would be looking at the way transducer was installed, you should not be able to find water so deep you can't read the bottom. 

 I have to say I've never seen such a controversial piece of boat kit. All I want to do is fish and I've paid top dollar that I should be able to do it with ease and the best of results, not spend half of my time at the helm playing with buttons and nobs. I've had Lowrances my whole boating career and seeing Simrad & Lowrance the same banner I took it for granted re ease of use. The Simrad product obviously hasn't adopted the Lowrance "straight out of the box" strategy. Looks like I'm paying the price for being an early adopter. I was well informed when I made the purchase and am amazed at how much Simrad polished this t#%d when they realeased it into the market place. It's shameful that they put so much fluff on it and I dare say will (or are) pay the price now for trying to rush it to the recreational market with chirp technology. I learnt in business school Value = Price + Service/Delivery+ Quality

If Value = a max of 30  I give the following scores

Price 5/10. Was priced high and I expected to get what I paid for.

Service/Delivery 4/10. Everything was late in being delivered to me a couple of years ago when purchased and the service has been nothing short of lousy. For the money I've paid I should not have to jump up and down, all my requests have fallen on deaf ears!! Not one notification from Navico to myself personally stating, "we've sold you a problem product here sorry, but rest assured, we're here to work you through it!!

Quality 3/10. The results speak for themselves. If you look at the results of the post(and previous posts) the only people that have given the BSM2 the thumbs up are gurus in their field, they're ultra keen for marine electronics, probably slightly more than fishing. Please guys do not take offence to this, it's just an observation.

Who are you kidding Navico, seriously do you want to sell this product to Fisherman or Marine Electronic Gurus? I certainly know the broader market, the question is do you? This product should have been frozen before you continued to deceive the market place insinuating the ease of it's capabilities. Not once did I see or hear any marketing stating "this is a unit for the marine electronic technically apt"

John F I'm running 2 x NSE 12's of which I had my dash slightly enlarged for the 2 to neatly occupy so I'm praying a result can be achieved with what Ive got.

Thanks for the contributions all. Navico, I certainly hope your suffering regarding this product is proportional to what I myself have endured. With social media being as powerful as it is these days, hopefully you'll consider seriously the tact you adopt next time before you go to market.

Thanks again for listening

WOW! two 12 inch screens in the 235 dash, thats serious! I totally understand why you dont want to chnage.

I would certainly start with checking the tranducer install. I would pull the tranny out (simple, a few nuts on top of the wet box) and try and see how far down they cut into the inner hull and see if you can determine the hull thickness it is shooting thru. The Whaler outer hull skin, which is OK to shoot thru, is a fair bit less than an inch thick I think. I would check up if I was you to ensure you are only shooting through the outer skin and not any extra material they have put in for the thru hull mounting box (called a putty box). 

Once the tranny install is confirmed as OK or once fixed, to keep the Simrad head multifunction unit as a sounder, I would probably go back to a tone pulse sounder module (BSM-1 I think). With that tranny, you should get much better results without having to stuff about. 

I would love to see the install of the twin 12 inch units in the dash, would be great if you could post a photo or send me a PM.

Cheers

John