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Using Air Tests To Gauge Detector Performance


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OK, so how do you test a detector against another detector?

I take two detectors into the field. I use detector A to locate a target. I check the target with detect B and note any differences in target response. I recover the target. I then find a target with detector B and check it with detector A, once again noting signal differences. I repeat this over and over, looking especially for weak targets that one detector can get and the other will not.

Yes, I do air tests. Yes, I bury test targets. Things can be learned doing that. But when I get serious about wanting to compare two detectors I believe only extensive cross testing of found targets has any true validity. Anything else is just crude simulations of varying value and unfortunately they can often mislead people not versed in detectors.

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for this newb, thread =meat. thanks

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why are you not writing a column for icmj magazine? 

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Steve, I disagree with you about the air tests.   Not bench testing, but the air test, which to me are different.

For me, an 'air test' is a quick judge of potential, while 'bench testing' is about understanding the feature set.

A air test will quickly tell me if the detector/coil combo is suited for what I want to use if for.  For instance, if I was looking for a coinshooter, I would want to know the distance it gets on a dime.  I don't want to get the air test from just one source either.  I'd want to see results from multiple sources.  If the dime test is poor, or, less than I deem acceptable, then I just saved some money from a buy and try for a coinshooter.  

I can pretty much tell how a detector should air test a dime just by the operating frequency and coil size, but if the air test is different than I am expecting that also tells me stuff about ground balance systems and design intent.

Coinshooters care about dime tests.    In fact, a US coinshooting should air test a quarter farther than it does a nickel.   You might think, well duh! but not many modern units will detect a quarter farther than a nickel anymore. 

Thats a dime.

Do prospectors air test?   Sure they do.  You just told us about the bic pin test.  Again, its just potential.  We all know the ground minerals are going to decrease depth, but at least the air test gave us a potential to work down from, both from a size perspective, as well as a distance perspective.

So, yes, I think air tests are a valid quick and dirty way to judge between units when looking for certain performance characteristics.

HH
Mike

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So, yes, I think air tests are a valid quick and dirty way to judge between units when looking for certain performance characteristics.

HH

Mike

I very much agree Mike. I am pretty sure I said just that but I guess I did not communicate it properly. My goal is simply to warn people that detector A getting an extra inch over detector B in an air test does not mean that is how it is going to work in the ground. And yet a great many people imply just that with air tests.
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Totally agree...

 

My goal is simply to warn people that detector A getting an extra inch over detector B in an air test does not mean that is how it is going to work in the ground.

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  • 1 month later...

Air tests are Very important when comparing 2 or more of the SAME detectors. Many years ago I was a silent partner(I signed all the bank notes LOL) in very busy firearms/detector/antiques business.We would have a couple dozen detectors on hand and I would air test them to pick MY detector. It was Common for 2 identical detectors to have 25/30% difference in air test depth---these were from one of Steve's favorite companies.

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Could you simulate bad ground by using bricks in an air test? Some of them tend to be loaded with iron minerals altho I don't know how to tell which ones? Cinders can make for pretty tough detecting too. My aunt  had a yard full from the burn barrel and it was next to impossible to detect there. Its kinda hard to ground test outdoors in mineralized ground at times but you could stack bricks for quick indoor mineralized air depth tests perhaps? Maybe even collect the black sands from gold dredging/ drywashing and make mineralized bricks...just a thought...

 

-Tom

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