Announcing The New Makro Racer 2!

[Ridge Runner]

HELP it's raining not just great detectors but super great detectors. We have a company that wants our business and like said they listen to us..

 I know dealing with the other half of this company Nokta they will make it right. Anything I say about Makro and Nokta will be all praise. They will always get the best referral one can give from me.

Chuck

 

PS Sometimes I need to proof read what I post. ( prize,praise )

[Trent King]

Great work adding the features that your customers were asking for.

I personally have stopped reading about all the new nokta/makro detectors. It seems like a new one comes out every month and it gets a bit boring trying to pick out the slight changes from earlier models.

So for those like me who couldnt be bothered trying to decipher the difference in all these, can you just tell us which are the current top model for relic hunters and which one for the prospectors?

[Steve Herschbach]

Relics are not my thing so I will pass on that. For prospecting in my opinion there is no "top" Nokta/Makro model as it depends on the ground mineralization and gold size/shape/composition as to which machine might be best. The lower frequency units tend to be smoother/better behaved overall and perhaps a better choice for all around VLF prospecting, but the Gold Racer has the edge for tiny gold. Weight/balance issues also matter. In general the FORS models will balance better for people wanting to run the big coils. The Racers tend to favor smaller coils. For a lot of people looking at the Nokta/Makro machines I would advise the FORS Gold Plus at 19 kHz as a very good all around prospecting machine. Some relic hunters do think well of it also. That said, the 56 kHz Gold Racer is my choice for my particular applications and preferences.

[Lanny]

This new Makro Racer 2 looks very interesting and intriguing!

It's wonderfully refreshing to see a company that actually requests and then follows through to design the changes their users see as necessary! Why do so few other companies just not get this?

For instance, what's stopping Minelab from making a significantly lighter premier gold detecting machine (not talking about their VLF's of course), and what's stopping them from including some top-shelf iron discrimination and target ID as well? Is it the technology that won't allow it or do they think people prefer heavier machines? I admit I don't know everything about it by a long shot, that's why I'm asking.

All the best,

Lanny

[Steve Herschbach]

And now we have a report from Keith Southern

[PhaseTech]

At a lower frequency than the Racer Gold and slightly lower than the Fors Gold +, with the 11x7 coil that I love so much on the CoRe, one would think this Racer 2 (now with iSat) will have a kick ass deep seeking all-metal mode for larger targets. 

Looks like they addressed my few niggles about the original Racer and then some! 

1. Same slick coil as the CoRe

2. Ability to save settings

3. iSat

4. Ability to notch is a welcome addition, perfect for modern parks when you want to knock out any pesky items

5. I really dig the colour scheme, gives it a more pro look in my opinion. 

6. Adjustable tone break

Very very cool, thanks Makro for listening and delivering.

[Steve Herschbach]

I always preferred the CoRe 11" x 7" coil to the one on the original Racer, very happy to see that. I always made it clear that the original Racer just did not grab my interest all that much, it was the Gold Racer that I was waiting for and the Racer was just a preview for me. Now the Racer 2 is more up my alley when it comes to general purpose detectors. Before, looking at say a Racer and the new MX Sport feature list, the Racer just seemed too limiting. The Racer 2 not only closes the gap but exceeds in some ways. The three bins that can be adjusted in both size and sound frequency along with the volume of the lowest tone reminds me a bit of the bin adjustments on the CTX.

Consider all this is coming from a company none of us had heard of less than two years ago. Pretty amazing. They have literally done more in that time frame than Tesoro has done in the last ten years, and that is no exaggeration.

[Steve Herschbach]

OK, the tone options here are really great. In short, when in three tone mode you can choose where the tone shifts occur on the 0 - 99 scale. For instance, you can make 0 -25 tone one, 26 - 70 tone two, and 71 - 99 tone three. You choose the ranges depending on what you want to focus on. For jewelry hunting, I may want the second zone to go from just above small foil, say maybe about 15, all the way up to just below zinc penny at about 65.

Once I decide where I want the tone shifts to occur, I can now set each of these three tones to produce any tone I want, from 100 hz to 700 hz. It does not have to be low, med, high if you would rather focus on the mid range and make it low, high, med instead.

Finally, the zone one range has its own volume control. This would normally be set up as the ferrous range and so you can lower the volume in this range to make the normal barrage of targets more pleasant to listen to.

Now, many people people like to hunt with tones only and avoid blocking anything out. However, never say never as notch discrimination can offer up neat tricks. Especially when you have this degree of fine control - every single target number from 0 - 99 can be independently set to accept or reject. An old White's trick is to realize that most trash targets when you have a 0-99 id range do not produce a single tight target number. Good targets like a coin or a ring will have a tight target id, but trash will jump around or deliver a spread of numbers. You can use this to good effect by selectively blocking only a single id number in likely trash ranges. This will have the effect of causing likely trash items to break up but not be completely eliminated. In other words, you can make trashy items sound trashier!

You can of course just block whole areas. If in total coin cherry pick mode, eliminate all targets below the nickel range, leave a nice ten id range open for nickels (have to account for target drift due to ground conditions/depth, which you can tune with time as you learn responses). Block out the range above nickel up to zinc penny, or if you hate them like I do block them also, but be aware Indian Head pennies read in the zinc penny range.

You could set the first tone break above nickel and the second tone break above zinc penny. Block below nickel and from nickel to zinc as described above. Now have nickels be a low tone, zinc pennies a medium tone, and all other coins a high tone.

Starting to get the picture? There is some pretty powerful capability here. Me, being the crazy guy I am might block all the ferrous and all the targets from zinc penny on up (I am not coin hunting). This mid zone is the "gold jewelry zone". Some rings will go as high as zinc penny but I am not digging all the zinc pennies to get them. Now set the tone breaks to low tone for foil (small rings) med tone for nickels (med size rings) and high tone above nickel to zinc (big rings). I might also open up just the quarter zone to pay for gas money.

Now you know one of my favorite jewelry hunting target schemes!

[vanursepaul]

Nice read.... lots of good info Steve.. trying to absorb your

logic....

[Ridge Runner]

In all fairness I had to bring the Makro Racer 2 back up to the top .This detector may not be waterproof but it has so much going for it.

  Oh I like a detector being waterproof but I know I'm not going be out in the rain detecting. Yes some it will fit the bill for them but I already have one that is waterproof.

 Here is another detector that will run all week plus the weekend too. We have come a long way baby as one could say. My first BFO detector had three tubes and you had to have the power to run it.

 What I see in this detector and another will not be the price. it's going to be more on what fits your needs and maybe what's easy just  to turn on without putting a strain on the brain. They have keep it simple if that's what you want.  

 I think they need to have a buy one and get one free.HaHa We could all get together and in this way we could have both in the end.

  Chuck

PS Not one has called me to do testing for them. Oh well !