Our Challenge Expressed In Numbers

[ColonelDan]

In my signature, I wrote that our challenge is : Big Beach, Little Coil, Tiny Targets.

Just as an amusing exercise, I thought I'd see what that looks like in terms of square inches.

1 square mile of beach = 4,014,490,000 square inches

Standard 11 inch coil = 95 square inches

a good target = 1 square inch...maybe

Given that reality, I think it's amazing we find what we do! Of course you can reduce that beach area with careful beach reading skills but you get the point!

Big Beach, Little Coil, Tiny Targets.😁

[Chase Goldman]

Great illustration, Dan.

Coil coverage, not detector performance or site conditions, is what I believe keeps a majority of the targets buried in the sand or dirt.  Coil coverage falls in the detectorist skill category.  Anyone can hear beeps or read numbers,  tweaking a machine can only help so much, but if you can't read the beach or site clues (eroded cuts, low spots, areas of likely commerce, where do folks take off their flip-flops and drop stuff?, where is the towel line and low tide line?, where would someone build a house (high ground)?, where would they gather for social activities, water, or meals?), keep your coil low and level when swinging, and adequately cover the beach with a logical coverage scheme, then it really does come down to chance.  Folks are usually not patient enough to cover every inch of ground in a disciplined manner (me included) and often over-estimate the ground they have actually covered with their coils.  Analogous to the golf saying "Never up, never in" , you can't detect or recover the target you don't get your coil over.  That is why I just shake my head when folks say they keep the 6" coil on "all the time" or use it in fields and beaches.  Sure you can do that, and it makes sense if all you detect is cellar holes, bed o' nails sites, or other constrained situations. But if you want to ensure overlapping swing coverage that means you are tiptoeing along at most at 1/2 the speed you would use to search with the 11" coil and with about 1ft less sweep width.  That translate to a lot less ground that can be covered in a given period of time.  Time = targets and the more time you waste having to cover ground or interrogating targets means (rather than just digging those iffy signals) is that much less time for recovering targets or leaving more to chance if you decide to forego coil coverage for speed.

[ColonelDan]

Even if you shrink the size of the beach to 300 ft wide by 1 mile long ( normal for Daytona, Cocoa and St Pete) you're still looking at 19,008,000 sq inches.

Now let's say through effective beach reading skills you focus on the towel line, wet sand and shallow surf.  And let's say that reduces your actual search area by 50%.  You're still looking at 9,504,000 square inches compared to the 95 sq inches in your 11" coil and you're still searching for that elusive 1 sq inch target!  😝

Pretty daunting eh?  😁

[Ridge Runner]

In my opinion that’s what makes the Dual Field Coil on the TDI SL so great. But what do I know? haha

 Chuck 

[GB_Amateur]

On 10/12/2019 at 8:07 AM, ColonelDan said:

Given that reality, I think it's amazing we find what we do!

My interpretation of your calculation is a bit different.  I would say:  "Given what we do find, there's sure a lot of treasure out there!"  And it follows that we'll never get it all, so keep looking.

 

[ColonelDan]

49 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

My interpretation of your calculation is a bit different.  I would say:  "Given what we do find, there's sure a lot of treasure out there!"  And it follows that we'll never get it all, so keep looking.

 

I totally agree!

[Ridge Runner]

We not going to find anything sitting around here talking about it.

 Chuck 

[ЖукЗолотой]

On 10/12/2019 at 3:07 PM, ColonelDan said:

In my signature, I wrote that our challenge is : Big Beach, Little Coil, Tiny Targets.

Just as an amusing exercise, I thought I'd see what that looks like in terms of square inches.

1 square mile of beach = 4,014,490,000 square inches

Standard 11 inch coil = 95 square inches

a good target = 1 square inch...maybe

Given that reality, I think it's amazing we find what we do! Of course you can reduce that beach area with careful beach reading skills but you get the point!

Big Beach, Little Coil, Tiny Targets.😁

I welcome!
There are beaches equipped with wave barrier facilities. I do not know if there is such in your location but in Russia in Sochi almost all beaches are such. The distance from the shore to the wave cut is a search collection of jewelry. During the storm, the wave enters the shore by only 3 meters and a small part of the jewelry ends up on this edge near the shore. Aluminium does not get into the tank behind the wave cut with a bonus.
Where there are no wave barrier structures there everything is very bad. The wave comes to shore for tens of meters.
Something pulls off the shore, something throws away and so many times. Concrete barriers under water pass along the edge of the boon and they are not visible, they do not project to the surface.
Looking for or diving is now only where there are wave cuts.
In the photo of alluminium from the shore where there are no wave barrier structures. Only 3 hours! It 's worse in the water!
Good luck under the reel. With respect.

ps: A, yes.. everything to the fact that if you look for where there are structures protective from waves, the search area is significantly reduced.

[Mike Hillis]

That is exactly why we have to hone our site reading skills to readily locate the hot spots and put our focus there.  its counter productive to try and hunt the whole thing.

HH
Mike