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On Friday had about an hour and a 1/2 to kill between calls. The heat has been unbearable so I went to a local swimming hole And using my Excalibur with 8" coil had one of my best and shortest hunts ever. The bracelet and ring are 14K the little ring with this pink stone is silver the men's wedding band is junk.. Strick

A few more from last Sunday morning... heat drove me away i like the crossed flintlock pistols

I started this project 2 or 3 years ago (so long I can't remember). Spurred on by recent field experiences and also a recent thread on Equinox settings I've finally finished it. I don't know if it's a completely new idea. I call it a 'test-stand' as opposed to 'test garden' just to distinguish it from the standard test gardens many of you either already have or at least are familiar with. There are other similar variable depth test gardens out there (seen on YouTube). This one has the advantage of continuous depth capability. It also allows 3-d target orientation angle (similar to pitch, roll, yaw of airplane). It's based upon the 30-60-90 triangle (remember that from geometry/trigonometry class in high school?): Here is a sketch which shows how to implement this concept: Shown in the sketch, buried at an angle, is a PVC pipe. A test target can be slid into the pipe a distance 2*d which will result in it being located at depth d. I used two sections of pipe (ID = 1.57 in., OD = 1.90 in.), side-by-side to allow me to put neighboring targets in the ground with some option of how close the two targets are separated. Think of this as burying a double barrel (side-by-side) shotgun with the stock end deep in the ground. All you see are the ends of the two barrels. The concrete (bag of Kwicrete) locks the pipes in place. Here's a closeup of those extruding barrels: Besides the tape measure (units of inches) you also see a hand-graded scale at left which I'll explain shortly. Here is an overall view: The two PVC caps, attached together, are for keeping water, dirt, and varmints out of the pipes when not in use. You'll notice a 1.5 in. diameter wooden dowel rod inserted into one of the pipes. More detail on that shortly, but the target is inserted into the dowel near its end and then the dowel is slid into the pipe. Holes for locating pins (you can see one of those -- gray plastic -- inserted to register the intended depth) are 1 inch apart leading to a depth resolution of 1/2 inch. (Again, refer to the 30-60-90 diagram to understand the relationship between insertion length and actual depth into the ground -- a 2::1 ratio.) Next I show the business end of the dowel rod: The black foam fills the chamber and holds the target (in this case a silver dime) in place. The hole in the dowel is actually lined with a plastic film canister (remember those from 35 mm film days?) which has been modified to conform to the circular cross-section of the dowel and thus be able to fit into the pipe. The second slightly smaller) large hole was put in there originally for a second target but so far I haven't used it -- likely of limited value. You can see the registration holes. The first one has a red '2' (difficult to see) just above it; the next (representing 2.5" depth) isn't labeled; the third one has a '3'; etc. These represent the resultant depth of the target when a registration pin is put in that hole and then the rod slid into the pipe until the registration pin keeps the dowel from going deeper. Although the chamber packing material can be made up of many materials, I chose ethafoam (polyethylene foam) high quality packing material. You typically find this in higher end electronics packaging such as with desktop computers. More commonly it is white but in this case I used black. I initially cut plugs with hole saw (see next photo) and then trim with a pocket knife as needed to fit the pipe: Ok, so now you're still wondering what that specially graded (homemade 'yardstick') is for. Again, referring back to the 30-60-90 triangle drawing, the 3rd side of the triangle is also related to the depth. It is squareroot of 3 times the depth. (Squareroot of 3 = 1.73.) That yardstick will indicate how far downrange (along the ground surface) that the target is located. This helps when you get an iffy response on your detector and want to confirm or deny that the surface location of the target is consistent with its depth. The units written on the scale are associated with the depth of the target. You can see from the sketch above that the max depth is 15". The largest common US coin that will fit the chamber (with some force...) is a half dollar. I didn't keep track of the cost but it's probably $30 or so, mostly for the PVC pipe and caps and the dowel rods plus a bag of Sacrete. (I'm counting labor as free. 😁) OK, now that I (finally!) finished this test-stand it's time to get busy making measurements. I'll be posting those here on the forum as they become available.

I guess not to many Aussies are happy with the price increase.

My father was a roofer for many years and some of the guys who worked his crew were pretty rough. When I got out of the Marine Corps in 88, I worked for a roofing company in North Carolina for a year. Hot tar build up, rubber roofing and metal roofs. It was the hardest, hottest civilian job I ever did. The only good thing was the owner of the company was impressed with my "lets get it done" attitude and always on time and sober. I can't say that for the other guys and in fact 2 of them had their license taken away for to many DUI's. Heck, back in our young days we never thought much different at the time...just trying to make a paycheck to keep ourselves on the up side. Thanks for sharing your youth with us.

One with an on/off button that only finds good stuff would suit me

I just fired up the Lobo and placed the coil to the ground, then it beeped or quacked as some would have it but I like the sound's my Lobo makes. I'm starting to understand it with every hour we spend together and I think we have begun a fine relationship with each other, for she rewarded me with my very best find ever. The target was positive as I waved the coil over the ground , so I then began to recover the item and I popped out this badge which was covered with a fair amount of soil. Just like most of the other badges that I find I just put them in the bag and carry on but then when I got home I couldn't find it and was worried I'd have to look for it again. Then my wife said here it is thank goodness she found it, so we cleaned it up with some water to take a closer look. This is where it get's interesting, I can see now that it's a R.A.F. Squadron Badge. So I look for the Squad number and it showed 518, then I thought I've heard of this Squadron somewhere before, then it hit me D-Day these guy's radioed Churchill directly from the plane confirming the weather was good enough for the landing of D-Day. I could not believe what I had in my hand, a Squadron Badge from the 518 Squadron. So I did some background work and found out that it's the real deal. Some insignias show the hand holding the key to the right but mine was facing to the left so I checked some more on this and it is supposed to face left. I do hope we have some WW II historians with us so they could give me some more information on what I have found. I also know there were 28 flights in the Squadron with 8 men crews so that's only 224 men in this squadron. I also found out that to this day, some of the where bouts' of couple of these guy's is still unknown one from Australia. Man this is real live history I have here, there's so much information on this Squadron and it's a great story too, so if you haven't heard about these guy's you should check it out for sure. Now if you are familiar with this story, please pass on what information you could supply me with. This must have a lot of historic value and speaking of value what would you think it would be worth to the right buyer? My question now is, should I have it restored or do we leave these kind of things alone? This is my best find ever and a day I'll never forget. I found some real live history about 70 Year old iconic world history. This is Great I Love My Lobo. B.T.W. My camera is Sh#*, so please excuse the photography and my other camera is also no, is a digital microscope and can only zoom out to 50X. http://www.oldnautibits.com/features/aerofeature5.php http://www.aniodhlann.org.uk/tag/518_squadron/ https://www.wikiwand.com/en/No._518_Squadron_RAF https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/raf-518-squadron-coastal-command-480919770

After having bought and used a Minelab Equinox 800 for more than 80 hours/ 1 year, I bought a Garrett AT Max as well. The AT Max is my favourite detector now. Don't get me wrong, the Equinox is a very very good detector in my opinion and I'm keeping it for sure. However I can not really get used to the "tight" vdi scale of -9 to 40. I prefer a vdi scale of 0 to 99. And the handle/straight-stem combination causes my arm (elbow/shoulder) to hurt some after even half an hour. No problems with the S-stems of my other two detectors. But most importantly (for me personally) the AT Max has something extra, that I have never experienced with another brand of detector, namely: FUN. It's hard to describe why or how, but just looking at it and using the AT Max gives me joy. And every time the Max connects immediately with the MS-3 headphones (or my Z-Lynk receiver for use with my XP backphones) and the wireless AT Z-Lynk pinpointer. BTW, this "FUN-factor" is not advertised by Garrett, but you get it nevertheless and for free. 😉 I think (and it's just my personal opinion, others may have a completely different opinion of course) the Equinox is more technically advanced and adjustable to personal preferences. More frequencies and also simultaneous frequencies will give me more confidence of being able to adjust everything to the "max" (with the Eqx instead of the Max 😀) while prospecting or searching around salt water. The Equinox has everything I want in a detector, but , since I bought the AT Max, I find myself taking out the AT Max to the fields and parks every time. On topic: Garrett AT Series That Good? : ( for me) YES! I suppose, now I'm a Garrett-fanboy, as well as an Equinox-fanboy. 😁

I kept the numbers 3,4,5,6, X ,7&8 specimens for many years before they went in the dolly pot but at least out came 26 ounces troy of gold . Unfortunately the gold price was on a peak but nothing like today price

Saw your article on 518 squadron and you mentioned an unknown from Australia could that have been my father second from the right as they lined up along their plane

A couple of days ago I had gotten a call back from Minelab about my Equinox shafts which are going to be replaced based upon the serial number of the unit. I have one of the first to be delivered in the States so I guess all are being replaced with a new set of shafts sent just because you call them. Good on you Minelab. They did this even without my registration being official. They completed it on this call. While I had a Minelab ear I asked about any coils coming out for the 7000. They know about the aftermarket coils and the buzz. They also take an official position of 'no comment' at this time. They have no official information about any coil in development but they know we all want one that is smaller. They have received many calls and questions about them. If we don't hear something in a couple of months some of us should show up at Bill Southern's outing and ask Minelab about the future of the 7000. https://nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/topic/34198-fall-outing-2019/#comments

I wish to thank everyone for their input on cleaning this coin, and I hope to make a decision on whether to clean or not to clean. I know that I should at least preserve the coin with something as to stop the buildup of the green patina on the coin. I really want to be able to place it in a frame and pass it down to 1 of my grand kids someday. I especially want to thank GB_Amateur for his help with the 800 last week in Casey, IL. I am almost ready to go to an old church that has never been touched before, and within a mile is an old mine that someone was getting small amounts of gold from. I will post more photos of my finds in the future. Thanks, Valen

Here is how I look at the GPZ-7000 and proper settings. I have 4 very educated and highly Successful Expert Field Staff members who are accomplished nugget hunters & all find more gold than most owners of the machine, including myself, that makes 5 of us. Each of us find plenty of gold and do better than most....but we all have a little difference in our Settings. Which one is right? Lunk has the most bass-ackwards Settings of any of my staff, but he finds the most pieces. Spencer seems to find more deeper and larger nuggets than the others of us. I try to split the difference and go for a "Happy Medium". JP's Settings are what gives him confidence and Success is Australia and I would never try to say he is wrong. His success is proven and he does it for a living. There is no 1 Setting that is the best for all kind of gold at all depths and all soils. I'll try JP's settings this fall at Rye Patch and if I feel it gives me an advantage...then you'll certainly see me change. But it will take much time to test over many undug nuggets of different sizes at different depths and soils to see if there is in fact a better or worse outcome. Either way, this thread adds flavor, opinions and options for us all to try. Good luck out there.

Many years ago I used to commercial fish in Alaska... early one morning I go out on the deck and I find my boss mashing something on the gunwale over the side of the boat...What the heck are you doing I asked ?..... Ummm I think I swallowed my gold tooth lol strick

only God and fortune tellers know what Minelab is thinking or why!

From back in May when i first found my little nugget patch. Some of the smaller pieces of gold in this spot would ring up to the iron side, but since almost every target in this spot is gold, it shows you that on small gold the probability indicator should be ignored. Some nice gold for only an hour or so spent detecting. Will have more videos to come, im slowly working through my backlog. Thanks for watching!

Anyone remember the old Popular Science ads? I thought this was a good classic to share. Even though this ad pre-dates me by 6yrs, it puts a smile to my face :)

Hey. The girl lost her wedding ring in my city. Posted by .. help !!! Hello, the wedding ring was lost, if someone found it, please return for a fee. Just helped .. Found it and gave it to the girl. found on the playground )))

Two of the best friends I have, they go every where with me.

I think the only thing I don't like about my AT Pro would be lack of light for the display that the AT Max has now and no All Metal Mode that is found on the Max and Gold machines and lastly can't adjust the iron audio tone and make it a bit quieter. I had purchased my Pro well before the MAX came out and was torn between the Pro and Gold units. Ended up with the Pro as it was usable at the beach in it's day. Run mine mostly in zero mode. Overall no regrets, Garrett makes some extremely durable machines. Be cool if someone came up with a collapsible shaft for hiking. Shaft system like that should work on the Ace series as well.

These ones are half the price and go just as deep

Congrats on the Indian!! Looks like you are getting along nicely with your 800 . Keep it up! Looking forward to seeing you get into the 1800's! 😁

Stick with it, I think most of us have gone through what you are going through now. Let us know how it goes

Lol THAT DID....i used to be a roofer too... hot tar and gravel...you should a seen those crews! Btw im still a pirate Gerry Strick

I don’t believe soaking in mineral oil will decrease the value IF you do not rub it or otherwise do anything to scratch or mar it in any way. In my experience since 1987, mineral oil does not change the color of any coin. I rarely sell my finds so if I’m wrong please feel free to correct me.

That's older than anything with a date I've found. Looks like progress!

If you clean it ....it will show badly as be worthless except to complete a set maybe. Most collectors would give you more as is. If you clean it wrong it could turn fakish red and almost brittle looking. Leave as is and put a touch of mineral OIL on it. Which is a goo preserver on any copper.

Previous thread with links to even more previous threads... Best Methods For Cleaning Unrecognizable Coins

If you really want to clean it, get a small glass container with a lid (something like a baby food jar) and soak it in mineral oil (available at any drug store). Do not rub the coin. Gently swirl the oil every two or three weeks and change when it gets cloudy. Plan on soaking it for at least 8 weeks. I have some coins I have soaked for 6 months. This stops any further deterioration and leave a nice patina on pennies.

Agree, do not clean it.

No, Jeff, you got it right the first time. It is thousands. 😢 Add another vote for the green patina. My IH's usually have scale which is much more detracting but so far I haven't figured out a good way to get that off. ('Good way' means still maintaining a natural color and no scratches!) Another project for the upcoming winter. Nice find, Valen, and thanks for the pic!

You can try using a pink eraser on it but your Indian is already about as good as its ever going to get. I like them green myself. Nice find! Bryan

Most modern bottle crown caps (not the screw on caps) are made of zinc or tin coated steel. What the composition of the steel is I don't know as far as alloys. Then there are the ones that have aluminum foil coatings and of course the ones that have corroded and rusted. So, lots of different surfaces exposed to the Nox multi frequencies and who knows how many different metals mixed together and oxidizing that react differently to the Nox. Coronas drive me crazy since they rarely give much of a ferrous response in my mineralized area. If you are able to get bottle caps to sound scratchy on your Nox consistently you are lucky and maybe you can use that characteristic sound as a "tell" for caps in your area. Jeff

Shipping is a rip off here in the US, that much is a given. We have to deal with high shipping costs within the country and even from state to state. Big companies like FedEx getting richer with every package. I use a Mars Pinpointer and must say it is the best pinpointer I've ever owned. There are some really hungry companies not in the USA that are making a quality product (like the MarsMD pinpointer mentioned). While I would prefer to buy and use things made in my own country that is getting harder to do. Quality has decreased horribly, the price has risen and "Made in the USA" doesn't mean what it once did. This isn't just concerning metal detectors. Feels like to me it is that big companies here could care less about what they are making anymore. Their goal is to get richer and spend less on the products to get there. It's a shame we built one of the longest operational spacecraft here in the US back in the 70's (The Voyager 2) but today we struggle to make the simplest of things and have them last for a reasonable amount of time. The problems are clear- greed, complacency, arrogance, and laziness. Not a doubt in my mind that Whites and Garrett could make some really groundbreaking detectors if they truly wanted to but there is nothing yet pushing them hard enough to do so. Will they wake from their slumber and realize it is 2019 now, and people have changed. I remember when I was young time and again I was told that you could tell if something was good or not by seeing how it "felt". The heavier the better was the old-timers thought process. But once you get older, start having some pains due to accidents or injuries that solid product becomes a real pain literally to enjoy using. Even XP lowered their prices. And hey, they created a really innovative product. Competition keeps manufacturers honest, even if it is delayed honesty. Not picking on XP here, they make a nice product. Who would have ever thought such a light detector could be so strong and actually work. But they got it right, and I don't know if anyone else can quite match what they've done. At least they relented on price. No such sign of that from a lot of the others. The thing or things a person enjoys is the beauty in us all because it is different for every person. All I know is that I want something that works and if I take care of it doesn't fall apart in my hands or cease to work after a day. If I must pay more, let me know it is worth it and stand behind it.

While I am glad to see this detector is nearing release I'm really wondering how many bugs will be in the initial offering units. In the grand scheme of things we really do not know how long they have worked on this but surely it has not been much time. How about some positives on this detector so far? Waterproof to a reasonable depth Looks strongly built Backlit display Non-complicated operation Wireless audio capable (although not many details on that, do they mean their proprietary headphones or more generic compatibility like the Equinox has?) Notch Capable It's very reasonably priced Now let's get on down to more technical stuff. It's single frequency with minor shifting to reduce interference it says. However, just how good is the shielding inside of this detector? How about the coil construction-is it worth having or is it a really cheaply made coil that will be weak in the field and pick up a lot of noise from the environment? These things matter a lot. We live in a world full of radio waves and electrical noise. To me personally what detector makers should be working on now is a better way to filter out interference. There was some discussion on how this detector will process signals. Will it be a faster processing unit or slow as a tick. While no one is expecting a high end detector at this price it would be truly annoying if this Simplex is a very slow swinging type detector, and unable to process at a speed which a lot of detectors do today. Again, will this detector be using the cheapest components available with higher variation (think resistors and such, 5% vs 10% vs more,etc.) The most important thing though is how will they service the customer after the sale. Will they ask you to send it in and keep it a couple months to repair it. We just don't know at this point. While I realize Dilek does a wonderful job one person can only do so much. I'm not knocking Nokta/Makro or the Simplex. However what they do not have is the money and service presence a lot of older detector companies have. With any new product there WILL BE problems, and a bad release can tarnish a lot of people's memories for a very long time. I remember when I bought my first detector and got back into detector after a decade of being away from the hobby. It was a Makro Multi Kruzer. I truly regret buying it because it was a lemon. And at that point and waiting quite a few days for a response concerning the problems they wanted pictures and video of the problem. By then I had already sucked it up and taken a loss, trading the machine off. So yes, I have seen the bad side of their units. When it did work a short amount of time before it got worse the target ID was very erratic, and the machine itself was very susceptible to interference. It never would ground balance, among the other problems. Long story short, I'm not against trying another Nokta/Makro product but I would not be willing to spend a lot on a higher end model they offer until the company matures a bit more and has a higher service and repair presence with documented and maintained customer happiness after repairs. While we have already seen the demise of Tesoro, many others in this thread have thrown rocks at White's, Garrett, and First Texas/Teknetics/Fisher in an almost wishful way for them to fold up. If they do fold up, what will we have then? I will tell you what- Far worse prices and even less innovation and competition. Nokta/Makro is doing us all a service by being competitive, and I will give them that. But are they Sprinters or marathoners? Those other companies mentioned above that are still in business are marathoners. They've been around a good while, especially Garrett and White's. Notice I'm not mentioning Minelab? I'm not because their arrogance and price gouging is well documented. Do they make good stuff- yes they sometimes do but charge us a lot of money for it and in the past their service sucked. It's better now but let's see how long they will maintain that. Something is for certain, If there was less competition Minelab would go right back to how it was a short time ago, charging outrageous amounts of money for their product. And White's? Yeah I agree their stuff is overpriced too. After some time out in the market, and after a fair amount of reports come back YES I would be willing to try the Simplex out.

My door bell is probably what the house came with in 1968. It let's me know when someone is there. What else does it need to do? It's always easier to add flashy bells and whistles than it is to functionally improve performance. My compound bow is 6 years old. The company has released 2 to 4 new models every year since it was made but none of them are functionally any improvement over the one I have, just a bunch of hype. Metal detectors detect metal. EM field science is pretty set and settled. It's much harder to functionally improve metal detectors. I dont even expect the simplex to do it. They are just taking lots of useful known specs and making them much more affordable. If it detects no better than a similer frequency machine from 10 or 20 years ago but is waterproof, has TID, and a simple to use notch function at a fraction of the price I'm happy. I really have no idea where I'm going with this and thought about deleting it. But after pecking it out with my one finger typing I dont really want to do that either. All I really wanted to say is my door bell is 50 years old and I couldn't care less.😀

Steve, my "mega performance" comment was solely directed to the Shadow, being a direct quote from their original TCD advertising. Like yourself, I prefer to take a "wait and see" attitude regarding manufacturer or dealer performance claims.

I have read every post in this topic twice, and although some good points have been made, frankly, friends, there has been a great deal of highly optimistic speculation made about yet-unseen detectors, as well as strongly-held opinions about "which detector manufacturer is going out of business next." Perhaps the most highly promoted "soon to be released" mega-performance metal detector was the Troy Custom Detectors Shadow X-7. For nearly a year numerous detectorists, claiming to be using prototypes, hyped that this machine would ramp TCD to the top, and put all other manufacturers out of business. Public opinion about this unseen machine was hugely favorable. So I got one. A total waste of money. The initial reviews by totally disillusioned users killed it before 200 units were produced. TCD folded. So, let's wait for actual user reviews on the Simplex before passing judgment. Furthermore, only time will tell which metal detector manufacturers will survive this ever-changing business environment. Here in Yucca Valley in the last few weeks numerous national chain stores have folded: Sizzler, JC Penny, Quizno's, Rainbow, Food For Less (Kroger), Payless Shoes, etc. In the business world, few things are certain anymore. HH Jim

Paul; You have to be careful when messing with electricity South of the equator. They use CA electricity instead of AC electricity. I have been told they keep their beer in the oven and bake beans in the refrigerator and the light switches must be installed up side down. Keep all this in mind when charging your detector batteries. Please take notes on tips a and tricks with the 2300 for Sourdough Scott.

You wrote that in the past tense. I don't believe it for a second!

Well, maybe. Does hanging out with you (and your motley crew of instructors) in the Nevada desert count??

Today I met up with a very nice person from this forum who took his time to check out my unit and give me some much needed directions. The detector is not a problem it just has someone who doesn't understands it yet. Yes I admit that I am not the smartest person when it comes to this, because I really have not tried it. What I am learning from this forum and it's members will help me learn this detector and make me better with it. I wish to thank everyone who has taken so much of their time for their insights and help.

There are homes in the Bay area 1 bedroom 2 bath selling for a million dollars lol True strick

Another odd move. Considering SDC's are $3730 in Australia, that means they are only $2534 USD if we bought from overseas. Not sure why they would raise the price even more here in USD, it should be going the opposite direction with currency exchange rates. Shouldn't it? Not to mention the margin between invoice and MSRP is huge, $50 would seem to make very little difference in that light.

I can understand the Monster maybe, but the SDC I would have thought was due for a price decrease after all this time, like to $2999. Sales must be going stronger than I might have guessed if they figure it needs a price increase. Interesting. Gold Monster 1000 Price Now: $799 Coming Price: $849 SDC 2300 Price Now: $3,750 Coming Price: $3,799 Rob Allison mentioned earlier the GPX 4500 is also being discontinued and that current stock would probably be the last.

Yes! My wife and I are close. This is my 29th year as a public middle school teacher and my wife's 31st as a second grade teacher. If CA goes ahead and makes it law that kids can't be suspended for defiance I may not make to #30.

After having looked at this whole thread, Ive seen 2 glaring gaps in the posts, and from my own perspective they need to be said. I watched a good coil technician build a 10" GPZ coil way back in 2017. He deconstructed a 14" ML coil, worked out the parameters, made a patch block (not a lead, coz he was only doing bench testing at the time) and built 4 prototypes of varying merit until he built one that worked really well and was field tested extensively. THIS TOOK HIM 2 WEEKS......one man. On a technical standpoint, there is zero excuse for ML NOT to be able to build numerous designs OR give the task to either of the major coil players in Oz OR at least another 4 guys who are known to be top notch coil technicians. Indeed, both of the big players are logically rumored to have made several GPZ coil prototypes in the past couple years for just such a time. Again, NO EXCUSES. OK, 1st statement made. 2nd statement, and another really obvious one, a large coil selection SELLS DETECTORS. The more variable and adaptable a detector is, the more likely it is to be sold. At this stage in the GPZ's life-span anyone with a logical view of the detector industry should glaringly see that leftover warehouse/floor stock of GPZ's would sell better with more coil selection. With the GPZ about to be replaced, this would be an obvious time for ML to 'allow' coils to be made. I wish I could afford to buy a GPZ just so I could join in now.....

I’ve done nothing ever but defend the engineers at all the companies. They are the good guys in my book. In my mind at least I figure they get as frustrated as any of us by decisions they see being made up the corporate ladder. I say that as a guy that has sat on a corporate board for decades and still does. Maximizing shareholder value does not always coincide with customer interests. Anyone that thinks it’s all about the customer does not know how a corporation really works. Ah well, just a grumpy old codger having one last go at trying to rattle a companies cage. It is a habit developed over a couple decades of trying to advocate for the consumer side of things. It’s a little hard letting go but I had my day and scored a few wins and need to be content with that. It will be interesting to see where the industry goes from here. The technology is entering a great new phase of rapid innovation and prices finally coming down so all is well. We have more and better choices than ever, and the next ten years are going to be amazing from a technology standpoint. Minelab will no doubt drive most of that but we can always hope somebody rises to the challenge and surprises with something out of left field. I won’t hold my breath though. The U.S. manufacturers in particular continue to disappoint. It’s kind of sad that I feel like I have to hang my hopes on an upstart company from Turkey offering Minelab any serious competition. I read a lot of philosophy these days. Here is a favorite I am working on..... “You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

dear all, many thanks for your suggestions and comments. The new cable fixed the problem instantly. Everything is back to "normal".............