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World Bored With High Frequency Detectors?


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I don't think the world is bored with high frequency detectors - actually quite the opposite! VLF sales remain strong here, and a few of my customers have even added one to their arsenal next to their PI (maybe not so much GPZ users). It wasn't that long ago that many prospectors here were quick to say "Don't waste your time with a VLF, just save up and get a PI". I see this attitude slowly changing to something along the lines of "If you can't afford a PI, get yourself a good high freq VLF, and hit the mullock heaps and you will get gold. When you get a bit more experience and funds, get yourself a PI to complement your VLF" 

This is a big change in attitude and I think the reason is partly due to the SDC. The SDC proved that there was and still is A LOT of small bits still lying around the goldfields, and users have quickly discovered that in certain soils, the Gold Monster, Gold Racer,  and now the Gold Kruzer are quite capable of pinging what a lot of people have started calling "SDC Gold" or simply Fly Shit. 

The other reason more are getting into them is the light weight. Sure, VLFs have always been pretty light, but if you compare a Eureka Gold (discontinued not that long ago) to say a Gold Kruzer, things have come a long way! I speak to potential customers every other day who have bad shoulders, bad backs or other injuries where they have hired one of the bigger machines and just can't handle them. 

And lastly, and perhaps more importantly, they work! If people weren't finding gold with these units, they'd slowly get forgotten, and be called toys. Recent units definitely have improved. While the base circuitry in a VLF is the same, little tweaks here and there can make big differences. 

 

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28 minutes ago, PhaseTech said:

I don't think the world is bored with high frequency detectors - actually quite the opposite! VLF sales remain strong here, and a few of my customers have even added one to their arsenal next to their PI (maybe not so much GPZ users). It wasn't that long ago that many prospectors here were quick to say "Don't waste your time with a VLF, just save up and get a PI". I see this attitude slowly changing to something along the lines of "If you can't afford a PI, get yourself a good high freq VLF, and hit the mullock heaps and you will get gold. When you get a bit more experience and funds, get yourself a PI to complement your VLF" 

This is a big change in attitude and I think the reason is partly due to the SDC. The SDC proved that there was and still is A LOT of small bits still lying around the goldfields, and users have quickly discovered that in certain soils, the Gold Monster, Gold Racer,  and now the Gold Kruzer are quite capable of pinging what a lot of people have started calling "SDC Gold" or simply Fly Shit. 

The other reason more are getting into them is the light weight. Sure, VLFs have always been pretty light, but if you compare a Eureka Gold (discontinued not that long ago) to say a Gold Kruzer, things have come a long way! I speak to potential customers every other day who have bad shoulders, bad backs or other injuries where they have hired one of the bigger machines and just can't handle them. 

And lastly, and perhaps more importantly, they work! If people weren't finding gold with these units, they'd slowly get forgotten, and be called toys. Recent units definitely have improved. While the base circuitry in a VLF is the same, little tweaks here and there can make big differences. 

 

I have been telling them over there for the past 4 years that every good prospector should own a good VLF, It just makes good sense, when the Dirt is shallow and bedrock or the junk is thick and fast then there is not substitute for a good VLF. I have soils here that are murder but I always try a VLF just for a quiet life and no wasted time digging junk targets,

There is just no point in using a PI if the ground is low to medium High mineralization, and the chances are the VLF's and LF's will see smaller bits anyway,

A lot of Aussie's get tunnel visioned when it comes to ML PI machines, They are the best no doubt but sometimes have too much power can work against you, But people in Aus are changing their minds because ML have bought out an LF machine they are now prepared to except the fact that VLF's work which is crazy because they have been doing things the hard way all these years because they just won't listen,

Regardless of the brands In skilled hands a VLF is a very powerful tool when deployed in the right environment and with the new Coil technology from the past 5 or 10 years even big Coils can hit real small Gold down to about 0.02 grams on surface Gold using VLF's and with LF's they can be even smaller.

The hardest part about buying a VLF is choosing which one with so many fine offerings available it could drive a person crazy.

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3 hours ago, phrunt said:

has anyone on the forum bought one yet? It does seem good but it's only a winner if its selling ? I for one would like one.

 

 

I received this email from White's a couple of days ago. Quote:"

GOLDMASTER 24k AVAILABILITY

Thanks for your patience as we launch the Goldmaster 24k. We had larger than expected pre-orders as well as some part-availability issues, so we are running about one week behind on launch. 

White's Electronics will begin shipping Goldmaster 24k's starting late the week of August 6th. We apologize for the delay.

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On 8/7/2018 at 7:09 PM, phrunt said:

has anyone on the forum bought one yet? It does seem good but it's only a winner if its selling ? I for one would like one.

 

A new product selling well isn't a sign of how good it actually is, okay maybe a little, it just means the company has done their marketing homework. ☺️ What is truly a sign of a good product is how well it is selling 1 or 2 or even 3 years after release - that is the true stamp of approval....or not? 

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Long term popularity is certainly the best measure. However we are now entering a phase where detectors are being discontinued within a few years of release and replaced by new models. The days of a company sitting pat on a model for ten years and more would appear to be over.

 

steve-herschbach-high-frequency-metal-detectors-tested-reviewed-med.jpg

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I don't like short term machines, for a simple reason if it is built right and up to the task then the only reason to change would be out of boredom, The GB II is a first class example of that, It still has all new comers whooped when it comes to specks and is still very much a world beater.

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Just now, phrunt said:

I don't agree there, The GB2 could be improved a lot, auto ground balance/tracking being one thing, people using it seem to spend a lot of time pumping their coil.  I like innovation, I wouldn't care if my detectors were outdated every two years, as long as the new model has actual improvements not just a rehash with a new paint job or supplied with a different coil like seems to so often happen.  For those who don't want to buy new detectors all the time, they can still use their older one, it doesn't stop working when the new one comes out.

I really hope we are in an age where new innovative models come out regularly caused by fierce competition as long as the manufacturers don't hold out improvements so they can trickle them out in new models rather than lumping them all in one model.

Well looking at as an observer from the out side looking in, Back when the MXT,GMT and the GB II were made field testers and engineers us to work hard together and would not release the machine until it was All it could be, but around 2010 that all changed and machines have been released when near enough is good enough and if there is any problems they will put it right at the Owners inconvenience As we have seen this a lot in the past couple of years with some machines going back 3-4-and 5 times, that sours on lookers and drives people away, And although these 3 machines are old tech they can still run with the pack.

The trouble with machines that are phased out within 2 years means that if there is a problem they won't work on a fix for everyone but they will fix individual machines as they go wrong, They came up with the Idea of the MXT in Late 1998 when work first started and it was released in mid 2002, people wonder why they are so good well that's what you get when the best Engineers and Prospectors combine resources and work together for over 3 and a 1/2 years to make sure it's all it can be, And 16 years later they are still good,

The future of VLFs will not make any huge leaps but instead of major depth increases what we will see is smarter detectors that can unravel the ground noise and allow the machine to send and receive its signals hopefully in the same sort of ranges as they Air test because If they could only get that signal to go in the ground and return a signal then they would match a PI 90% of the time,

I would say that the VLF technology has not reached it's peak but I would say it is in a state of confusion where it has stalled and if they can unravel the Gremlin that stops a VLF from putting it's power in to the ground then the person/company who does that will make billions,  We don't need better coils or more power, what we need is the power we have but be able to get it in the ground in all conditions not just mild to medium high soils, Do that and you would have a GPZ with the Disc of the MXT and you would be unstoppable.

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1 minute ago, phrunt said:

Awesome reply Auminesweeper!   Thanks for that. I think we are going to have some exciting times ahead, the fact new contenders have appeared from Europe to ramp things up may help also, the more brains working on the challenges you speak of can only be good.  Even all the new TV Shows on detecting will help in an unintended way like Aussie Gold hunters and The Detectorists, they boost sales, more sales = more money for the detector companies which in turn "should" be spent on more R&D.

 

Thanks,  I came to thinking/wishing they would sort out the ground issues when I was testing my coils and someone posted about how far their machine could air test a coke can, Well the coke cans over here are smaller at 330mils and when I did his test I Dare not publish my results because it would of started a war, even more so when I used my favourite coil, But I thought if I could get that depth then I would need a JCB and leave the pick at home, As it is I have a coil that can see Cans at up to 3 feet and maybe a bit more in the ground but it Air Tests at ridiculous distances, I have always thought if I loose 70% of that distance in the ground then I am still going to be digging 2 or 3 feet holes on a coke can,  Perish the thought ?.

Good ground balancing is one thing and the MXT has the best GB ever made but that is only a small part of the story because as we know the ground minerals can just destroy a detectors depth, but regardless of the GB system until a detector can wipe out those mineral then we are not going to see any improvements in depth, Because they have the same effect as Headlights in the Fog and when it gets too bad we have to turn down the gain so it can see, A bit like switching from High beam to low beam in the fog,

We have detectors with multi frequencies that can ID a coin in a bucket of Nails with maga sweep speed and even faster separation speeds yet we still don't have a VLF that can see through the Mineral Soup that we face on a daily bases. We have everything but the Ability to see whats down there.

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