The Reg Wilson Gold Album

[mn90403]

Reg,

Well folks, I don't think we are quite 'over' unless we make another thread but I want to know more about these machines and coils.

The pictures you have shown us include Mr. Candy.  I don't feel I have the proper right to call him Bruce but I will for the sake of brevity.  

Bruce was right with you in the beginning and provided you with some prototypes.  Was he ever one to detect with you much?  I think we would all like a bit of his personality injected here and then perhaps we can understand better the model changes (based upon your use I would assume) and of course the coils.

Did anyone help Bruce with the coils?

Would he ever want to comment on this thread?

Mitchel

[Mop]

Reg, I personally will never tire of the tales you have shared, fantastic reads.

Keep them coming and consider it a prelude to a book

[Reg Wilson]

mn, interesting that you should ask about Bruce Candy, as he is probably one of the most talented and enigmatic people I have ever met.

I first met Bruce in the early eighties, when I was detecting in Wedderburn with a Garret Deepseeker. From memory he had produced with the early Minelab team what I would describe as a copy of the Whites Coinmaster, but perhaps a little smoother. From what I recall it was in a silver box about the same dimensions as a Whites with similar lay out and called a Gold Seeker, but I can't recall the designation number.  John Hider-Smith had tipped me off that this young bloke from South Africa was pretty cluey, and that Minelab were about to release a new machine designed for Australian conditions. ( able to handle high mineralization) American machines tended to struggle  in areas of high iron content, and the new Goldseeker 15000 would be able to handle this problem. The use of the double D coil was a major factor in the stability of this detector.

To get one of these machines, one had to pay a deposit and pre order it. I did so, and when it arrived was very happy with the results. I then appeared in various news papers and magazines showing the gold that the 15,000 had enabled me to find, and proclaiming what a great Australian made machine it was. During this period I met Bruce Candy and we became friends.

In 1987 Bruce contacted me and asked if I would be interested in testing a new machine he had developed that would automatically ground balance, and keep balanced while detecting. He called it 'ground tracking', and it was a major step in metal detector development. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity, and the Orange Roughie patch proved what a great detector the GT16000 was.

1988 saw me taking a trip around the world, and it was while in London that I happened upon  a newspaper article describing a new development in metal detecting called pulse induction. A chap named Foster and a company called Pulse Induction Technologies just south of London had developed a detector that would penetrate far deeper than the current VLF machines, and had been used to recover Celtic treasures. I phoned them and gathered as much information as I could.

As soon as I arrived back in Australia I jumped on a plane to Adelaide where I relayed what little information I had managed to collect on pulse induction to Bruce. I recall him saying that it would be a bit tricky getting it to work on gold as the 'halo' from gold may die too quickly for the coil to pick it up as it changed from transmit to receive. I told him that they were finding gold as treasure with it in England, so it must be possible. Bruce said" leave it with me, and I'll see what I can do". In 89 he came up with the prototype PI predecessor to the SD2000, and the 'unfair advantage' was born, and with it a whole new adventure for me.

Bruce was never really interested in prospecting, and I can't recall him ever swinging a coil. As a matter of fact, metal detectors were never his greatest passion. Hi Fi was of much greater interest, and he developed some incredible amplifiers from what I have been told. Once when I visited his home in the Adelaide hills he showed me his awesome collection of replica skulls of pre humans and their close relatives. Anthropology is a great passion of his, and his knowledge is exceptional. Maybe this relates to his South African heritage.

 Bruce Candy in an extremely unique human being.

[jrbeatty]

Mr and Mrs Candy (From the album) January 1991:

[Northeast]

That's an amazing insight Reg. Thanks 

[mn90403]

Reg and JR,

This is truly a multi-layered cake.  There are enough pieces for everyone to enjoy.

Thank you for adding some personality to those things that I swing with a Minelab name on them.

Mitchel

 

[Reg Wilson]

Orange Roughie patch Post Script 2

On the day that the Roughie was dug up a car drove very slowly past on the nearby  road. We were aware that the secret was out, and it was obvious we were being watched. Shortly after, we arrived one morning to discover a number of fresh detector holes that we had not dug. We had been 'moonlighted'. Checking these holes we discovered that although some were very shallow, only penetrating the top soil, others were deeper, going down through soil, gravel, to the clay beneath. These would most likely have yielded gold. From the position of the holes it was obvious that someone had closely observed us and knew exactly what area we were successfully detecting.

 To put a stop to this I hired a caravan (trailer) that day, and parked it on a section already detected and overlooking the area we were currently working. I then camped there, setting my alarm clock to ring every few hours, whereupon I would take a flash light and check the area. This was not an ideal way to get a good nights sleep, but it did work, and we had no further problems with poachers. I suspected that the car that drove slowly past was the culprit, and two years later I believed that this was confirmed.

I had just recently teamed up with John and Ian on the Pulse Induction prototype project, and we had only been in Dunolly for a few days when I recognized the suspect car pulling up outside the Railway hotel where we had booked in for what turned out to be a years stay. I had met the two brothers that alighted, and knew them only slightly. They were a pair of notorious 'moonlighters' from Ballarat. "G'day fellas", I said, "long time no see", and I invited them in for a beer. Over a cold one, and after a bit of small talk, I asked, "look, it's all water under the bridge now, but just how much did you blokes pinch out of Carr's Paddock?" They looked at each other and laughed. "Aha", I said, "so it was you buggers". One said, "well you're half right", we did go down to Rokewood with the intention of doing a bit of night time detecting. We parked our car right up near the old tip (rubbish dump) and walked all the way down Frenchman's creek , but just as we got to the paddock, a car came up the road, and as it went around the bend its lights swung out into the field, there was a guy out there with a detector, so we decided to give the whole thing a miss. "You didn't happen to see what sort of car that bloke had did you"?, I asked. "Well yeah", was the reply, "we returned via the bridge, and his car was parked down there in the bushes".

From their description, I knew that car quite well.

[Ashley100456]

sdfjl

[Ashley100456]

2 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

Orange Roughie patch Post Script 2

From their description, I knew that car quite well.

Ah !  .......... The Plot thickens !

Cheers

Ashley 

[Reg Wilson]

 Sorry Ashley, but I can't reveal the owner of that vehicle, but should they ever read this post, they will know that their nocturnal escapades did not remain a secret, and their Karma will catch up with them, although from what I have heard it probably already has.