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Teknetics Patriot = Fisher F70 At Great Price!


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Teknetics has officially released the new Patriot model, and it looks all but certain this is a rebranded Fisher F70-11DD. Here are the controls/displays side by side:

Teknetics Patriot and Fisher F70 controls and display compared
Teknetics Patriot and Fisher F70 controls and display compared

Teknetics Patriot Specifications

Standard Coil - 11-inch Open Frame Bi-Axial™
Waterproof Coil - Yes
Batteries - 4x AA (not included)
Battery Indicator - Yes
Battery Life - 20-25 hrs.
Pinpoint Mode - Yes
Target ID - Yes
Audio - 8 audio tone options
Volume Control - Yes
Discrimination Adjustment - Yes
Sensitivity - Adjustable
Operating Frequency - 13 kHz
Depth Indicator - Yes, 4-segment
Weight - 2.9lbs (1.3 kg)
Length - Length 43.5” to 52.5” (110 cm to 133 cm)
Headphone Jack - Yes
Ground Balance - Yes
Backlight - No

Same screen, right down to the Fisher "wings"! The thing is the F70-11DD currently goes for $679 and the Patriot is currently on sale for only $399 with free shipping. Rumor has it the F70 itself is being discontinued.

The F70 is a very powerful and underrated detector, overlooked by many because of the top-of-the-line Fisher F75. Dave Johnson is the metal detector engineer guru behind many of the great metal detectors we use. He frequents some forums under the name of woof! and here is what he has to say in a post on TreasureNet:

"The F70 was the product of a mission-- to come up with a less expensive adaptation of the F75, while incorporating things we had learned meanwhile. Without "dumbing it down". Because the F70 was advertised for a lot less money than the F75, marketing dept. didn't quite dare to say how good the damn thing really was. Some of the secret sauce we put into the F70 eventually made its way into later revisions of the F75 group of machines, as well as into the Teknetics "Fratbros" series and most other new beeps introduced after the F70. 

As the top of the Fisher lineup, the F75 including its revisions got all the attention. That's how the F70 became a "sleeper". Guys like Mudpuppy will never have to wonder if they should have gotten an F75 instead.

This is the same sort of explanation I just posted in "another forum" about the approx. $200 category. If you get a Eurotek Pro, you never have to wonder if you should have gotten something else. Get anything else, and you'll wonder if you should have gotten a Eurotek Pro instead. F70 owners never have to wonder if they should "upgrade" to an F75. (emphasis added)

--Dave J."

The bottom line is the new Teknetics Patriot looks to be a lot of detector for only $399 and well worth a hard look by those wanting great all around performance at an incredibly low price. While not quite as hot on small gold as a Fisher Gold Bug Pro or Teknetics G2 at 19 kHz, the Patriot at 13 kHz I have no doubt can perform reasonably well at nugget detecting in addition to coin, relic, and jewelry detecting. My 13 kHz F75 put a lot of gold in my pocket.

Teknetics Patriot metal detector
Teknetics Patriot metal detector

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On 4/1/2017 at 10:25 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

While not quite as hot on small gold as a Fisher Gold Bug Pro or Teknetics G2 at 19 kHz the Patriot at 13 kHz I have no doubt can perform reasonably well at nugget detecting....

Here is a statement from the F70 manual:

The Autotune mode is more sensitive and offers better feel than the Discrimination mode, and is used to find all metal objects present in the ground. The search coil must be in motion for objects to be detected. This is a single filter search mode similar to the “fast autotune”, “SAT”, or “P4” mode found in other detectors you might already be familiar with.

And here is a quote from Dave Johnson on the Fisher website:

Most VLF prospecting is done in an all-metals mode which may be variously described as "single-filter", "first derivative", "autotune", or by trademarked names.

I was under the impression that First Texas held off the single filter all-metal feature from the F70 so it wouldn't compete with their more expensive T2/F75 models, but it looks like I was wrong.  If that's the case, and if the Patriot is just an F70 in modern dress, then the Patriot should do as well as the T2/F75 while prospecting, with possible exception of the "Limited" editions which have extra sensitivity with their "Boost Mode" option.  Am I reaching the right conclusion?

 

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On 4/2/2017 at 5:31 AM, GB_Amateur said:

Am I reaching the right conclusion?

I think so. More from the F70 manual referring to the autotune (threshold based all metal) mode:

SPEED

There are two speed selections, DEFAULT and SLOW:

dE = default. dE provides the best target separation.

SL = slow. SL provides more sensitivity to deep targets. SL is more likely to result in noisy detector operation at high sensitivity levels.

That quote from Dave Johnson is all but saying the F70 is just a feature limited F75 that is every bit as powerful as an F75. "F70 owners never have to wonder if they should "upgrade" to an F75."

From Gold Prospecting with a VLF Metal Detector by Dave Johnson, Chief Designer, First Texas Products & Fisher Research Labs, March 2010 edition, page 19:

"First Texas Products – Fisher Research Labs “gold machines” Made in El Paso, Texas, USA

As of Jan 2010, we manufacture the following single-frequency VLF metal detectors suitable for gold prospecting. They’re listed in order of operating frequency.

Gold Bug II: 71 kHz, gold prospecting only, high performance. Manual ground balance only.

“new” Gold Bug: 19 kHz, gold prospecting and general purpose, high performance. Manual and “grab” ground balance.

F75 & T2: 13 kHz, general purpose and gold prospecting, high performance. Manual and “grab” ground balance.

F70: 13 kHz, general purpose and gold prospecting, high performance. “Grab” ground balance only."

Much like the basic Gold Bug lacks the manual ground balance of the Gold Bug Pro, the F70 lacks the manual ground balance of the F75. The basic Gold Bug and F70 are "ground grab" only.

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