Makro Racer First Impression / Gold Racer Preview

[jasong]

Any gauge on how the target ID accuracy is at depth compared to an F75 or similar? 

 

Looking forward to seeing the Gold Racer review, I'm looking for a detector to cherry pick ultra trashy sites for nuggets as well as have the versatility to do some abandoned homestead and old yard coin hunting and adding these two to the radar.

[Steve Herschbach]

Any gauge on how the target ID accuracy is at depth compared to an F75 or similar? 

The mid freaks are all in the same ballpark. If you want accuracy at depth look at Explorer/E-TRAC/CTX 3030

[~LARGO~]

Hi Steve,

 

All I can say is, this machine is HIGH SPEED!

 

I really do like the backlit screen, and the headlight is really unique!  I am curious about the

on/off control for the flashlight, and the backlight, are they separate or do they have to be used all at the same time?  Perhaps I missed that in my reading.

 

Thank you again, for your great insight to these new machines.  I think they should be a real hit,

BUT the only concern is the turn around time for repairs, when needed.   Will there be a U.S. repair location?  To have to send a dicey machine to Turkey or wherever would be problematic I would think, but as all other things about this company, they have pretty much covered all the bases, let's say...

 

Gary/Largo

[Steve Herschbach]

The screen and adjustment buttons are lit and have five levels of adjustment plus the off setting. 00-01-02-03-04-05

The LED flashlight is a totally separate item, either on or off.

From the Makro Racer Owners Manual:

[tvanwho]

I have no idea what Ground Phase means, can somebody please explain? Something to do with the amount of black sand in the dirt? I've always heard you may want to set up a highbanker or drywasher where a LOT of ground minerals/black sand are present? Is that true and how do you find these spots? Is there a Ground Grab on this detector?

 

-Tom

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Tom,

It is the ground balance number. Ground phase is the target id of the ground, telling you what kind of ferrous material average the detector is being set to tune out. It is a ground rejection number. It can mean magnetite or hematite or maghemite but usually is a mix of these minerals. The ground phase or ground balance number does not tell you how mineralized the ground is but people constantly quote it as such.

From the Makro Racer Owners Manual page 15:

"Ground balance value provides information about the ground you are searching on. Some typical ground types are as follows:

Wet salt water or wet alkali soils 0-25

Wet salt water and wet alkali soils covered with dry layers 25-50

Regular, low-quality soils 50-70

Highly magnetic soils, magnetite or maghemite and similar highly mineralized soils, black sand 70-90"

The Mineral % pie chart tells you how mineralized the ground is. Owners Manual page 21:

"The Magnetic Mineralization Indicator consists of 8 levels. The indicator is shown empty at low mineral levels during search and at start up. In areas where the magnetic mineral level is high, the indicator level increases according to the intensity. This measurement can be summarized as the level of magnetic property and intensity of the ground. Simply, if you are working in an area which contains intense and magnetized minerals, the level will be high. If you are working on a less intense ground, the level will be low.

This measurement is important from two aspects. First, on grounds with high magnetic mineralization, search depth is low and users should be aware of this fact. Second, magnetic mineralization is a property which is particularly seen with mineralized rocks and this measurement plays an important role for the device to eliminate the false signals produced by these rocks."

Yes, there is a ground grab, which is nothing more than push button ground balance.

You may want to look at the link to the owners manual I provided. People avoid owners manuals but they are a form of treasure hunting in and of themselves. Also read Gold Prospecting with a VLF Metal Detector by Dave Johnson which directly addresses your questions.

[Reno Chris]

It would be nice if they made the Gold Racer to operate at around 30 Khz.

Its a niche that is not well filled by anything on the market - There are higher Khz machines, there are plenty of lower.

Make it hot on smaller gold and with the lower Khz (as compared to the really high Khz machines), maybe not quite as sensitive to ground noise, not quite as sensitive to to the tiniest gold but it could be a very good machine and if made in the form of the racer which is good ergonomically, I think could be real successful.

[Steve Herschbach]

I agree Chris. There have been only few detectors that ran around 30 kHz. The Minelab XT 17000 ran at 6.4 & 32 kHz but was a fairly low gain detector. The Minelab American Goldstriker was 32 kHz only. The ill fated Fisher Gold Strike ran at 30 kHz and actually was a good detector as far as detecting stuff, just too weird in how it went about doing it.

[Reno Chris]

The older machines did not employ more modern high gain, low noise circuits. I think there were some serious quality control issues with the Gold Strike - I've heard stories of machines that were fine and others that had a horrible lack of sensitivity. It was made in those last chaotic years before FTP took over the company.

A state of the art modern Induction Balance (VLF type) machine with 30 Khz might be really good.

[colluvium]

Detech Gold Catcher VLF operates at 28 Khz. There are some videos of this recently introduced machine on YouTube but few are in English.