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Where Did My Signal Go?


LipCa

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The other day I was out with my ATX digging quartz/gold specimens. I had just dug a small piece when I got a really nice signal a couple of feet away. I took 3 or 4 inches out and it was still there. I took another 3 or 4 inches out. Good signal still there and I know it's gold now. At about 12 or 13 inches down, I see gold in the bottom of the hole. Still a good signal.
Now, the hole is too narrow to stick the coil in so signal has always at ground level.

Time for a beer break until my boys can work their way down the hill to run their GB2's over the hole and see the specimen still in place.
They're almost here so I get up and run my coil over the hole just to hear it again. Just a whisper!!
It was a great signal a bit ago.... What happened??

BTW, it was a piece a few grains shy of a half an ounce with about three quarters of it gold.

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Score!! Can't wait to see a photo!

 

How something in place as found in the ground signals is very complex. It is the sum total of everything the detector sees, the ground, the target, the surrounding electrical interference - everything. Disturb any portion of that, and the signal can change. PI detectors are notorious for working on in ground signals better than disturbed ground signals. A lot of it has to do with the magnetic alignment of the soil particles which is disturbed when you dig. I know ground in California that was not bad initially "lit up" the moment I disturbed it.

 

This is why the only serious testing I do takes place in the field on found targets. Find something, then compare detectors on it, then dig it up. Anything else is just rough simulations at best.

 

Good to hear the ATX is earning its keep.

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I guess that is like digging up something with a VLF and still hearing something in the hole for a while. 

 

yep...  in the last week the ATX has about paid for it's self.

 

Will post a picture as soon as I can get my wife to snap it...

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Hi LipCa… this subject was on my mind while in the northland hunting silver this past autumn. Steve provides a very good description of the conditions that produce this common occurrence. With innumerable small silver samples dug each season, we experience this phenomenon repeatedly. 

 

It is nothing unusual to read about hobbyists claiming that nuggets in the ground react with a stronger signal to their PI units than those same nuggets produce once disturbed, brought to the surface, or occasionally even waved across the coil. Sometimes it is claimed that no air test signal can be had on a piece that obviously responded with a signal when in the ground. From my experience with PI units I have no doubt these variable accounts are factual. 

 

A commonplace scenario here is that a decent size piece is anticipated based on the signal strength, only to dig it and find that a perfectly good signal was produced by a high character, spongy, or small silver ore whose surface signal has lost considerable strength or nearly vanished. Occasionally the signal is lost altogether… requiring my Propointer to locate such targets.  

 

Jim.

 

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