Equinox Good For Trashy Parks Or Not???

[Chase Goldman]

Thanks.  No, I did not write the Equinox book that is currently out there.  That is Clive Clynick.  I would need at least a year with Equinox before I could attempt something like that.  I am working on a several page "Introduction to the Equinox", though, that I will post here in the coming weeks when I think it is ready.

[Propjob]

Chase,  great information presented as well as all the others.  Thanks

[Dakotadetectors]

On 8/11/2018 at 4:23 PM, Chase Goldman said:

Actually, set up properly, the Equinox is the PERFECT tool for a trashy park, if you hope to snag keepers that would otherwise be masked by the trash, due to its high (and adjustable) recovery speed.  If you are not hearing the machine gun bursts of trash target then you are not going to hear the keepers either because the silence you would hear with slower detectors is just the recovery circuit playing catch up while you pass the coil over that keeper target.  Some suggestions:

First of all, you need to figure out what your objective is.  Grab all jewelry, nickels, clad, and silver.  Or just cherry pick the high conductors.  That will tell you what mode to use.  For example, if the trash is indeed modern (i.e., aluminum can slaw, pull tabs, freshness tops, twist tops, crown caps) then just try notch out everything below 20 and go for the clad and silver because you will be hard pressed to pick out the gold rings and nickels amongst all that mid-teen stuff without a trained ear (after awhile you can start to tell the difference between a nickel and a pull tab and a gold ring and a crown cap by tonal quality) and will just be digging it all.   Sure you will give up on gold and nickels, but you will lower the audio fatigue as you just listen for the the high conductors to ring out.  If you are just going to cherry pick high conductors, then keep it in Park 1.  Depending on the ferrous situation you might want to consider lowering the iron bias as that may exacerbate high conductor masking in iron, but that will also create more iron falsing.   Avoid the "2" Park/Field modes if there is a lot of modern mid-teen trash, those modes which are optimized for mid-conductors and you will just hit that trash harder.  

Key is DO NOT MODE HOP and DO NOT TONE HOP.  Pick an objective, pick a search mode and stick with it otherwise you will drive yourself insane.  The only time I will switch modes during a hunt is if I want to use an alternate mode to interrogate a specific target (i.e., see how the target sounds in Park 2 vs. Park 1 for example for a mid teen target.  Pick the tone setup that you are most comfortable with.  I prefer 50 tones because it gives me a lot more information about the target than just a visual number.  I think of TID number as a Black and White television - sure you get a single tone corresponding to that number in 50 tones but the audio "quality" not just tone gives you so much more information than a number.  Is the tone sharp or pinging with steep rising an falling edges (likely coin) or is it soft an long (freshness cap) or distorted (bent pull tab) or unstable and flutey (rusted crown cap).  Just a wealth of info - I call that Color TV!   5 tones gives you less audio fatigue but also less information, it is like having a TID display with 5 numbers on it.  You need to decide which is the best tone setup for you, learn it and stick with it.

Other strategies to consider to reduce fatigue:

• Consider lowering sensitivity.  If the park is really trashy, it is likely that keepers missed by other detectorists with slow machines are just sitting there at the same shallow trash depth.  No need to light up the machine with all that trash and ground noise as the higher conductive targets will be "visible" even with lower sensitivities.  Also, avoid the tendancy to lower reovery speed to compensate for the depth loss as that will likely just result in more ground noise plus you will lose a key performance attribute that enables you to separate the keepers from the trash.
• Consider hunting in single frequency (5 khz).  Tnsharpshooter and others have run some single frequency tests and have found that running single frequency at 5 khz really helps shallow high conductors pop out of the trash vs. multi IQ.   Give it a go and see what you think.  Be advised though, once you go single frequency - it doesn't really matter which mode you are in as the only thing that then differentiates the Park and Field modes are the different user settings.  It is the unique multi IQ profile (including the multifrequency weighting and target signal processing) that gives each of the Park/Field modes their unique personality.  You also lose some other "performance" enhancements that Multi IQ brings to the table like precise and forgiving ground balancing, no iron bias setting is available in single frequency mode, and of course, if you use the lower single frequency, you will be less optimized for mid conductive keeper targets too (besides the mid-conductive trash).  But that is what metal detecting is all about - managing and balancing the tradeoffs.
• Consider removing some of that trash.  Getting the trash out of the way will help uncover even deeper, older targets.  This takes a lot of time (and multiple visits), effort, and finesse.  You don't want to be digging up the entire park and destroying the landscape, but if you have a large beer can impeding your view, then by all means get it out of there.  Use pinpoint to interrogate probable trash targets to get an idea of depth and size of the trash and make a call as to whether it makes sense to get rid of it to see what else may be hiding there.

HTH  HH

Good Info

[staffydog33]

I'm in the UK and went to an extremely trashy park a few days ago.

Only had 30 mins cozI had to go pick up the missus.

I decided because i was limited in time, I would cherry pick, in a big way.

I only wanted shallow stuff, so i put it in Park 1, gain/sensitivity 10..yes,  TEN!

Also I said to myself i'm only gonna dig targets that give a 100% perfect repeatable sound, plus I would turn 90 degrees and end up doing a 360 and all 4 turns i would only dig if it was a banging repeatable sound.

Basically I dug 12 targets.

1 was a tiny bit of can slaw

The other 11 were ALL coins!!

Only old £1 coins, old 50p coin, and rest were modern 20p coins and 1p coin.

I'm blabbering on a bit now, BUT.....digging 12 targets and 11 were all coins is bl**dy good!

In my opinion, Is it "good" for Trashy parks?

NO - It is absolutely FANTASTIC in trashy parks.
 

I can only drool while I wait for my small Equinox coil to arrive and then it will be a SUPER fantastic!

I tell you what....this Equinox is an absolute killer machine...I use it on the beach...in the water, on the wet sand and dry sand...zero falsing and  on my permissions (800 acre farms etc) and i've used it in the river a couple of times.
 

Equinox In trashy parks = AWESOME

Beach...In sea, dry sand & wet sand = AWESOME

Farm fields/pasture = AWESOME

Only 2 river trips, but = AWESOME

Matt.

 

 

[Claude]

Good thread.  I discovered I could find plenty with low(15) sensitivity.  My first inclination was to crank it up.