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Finally after 13 days with the AQ, I struck gold. 2 grams of 18K to be exact. A nice little Hamas. The only hallmark is an 88 inside a circle but it test 18K with my tester. It also reads a solid 13 on my Equinox. With my beaches basically sanded in and unfavorable tides, I have just been hitting the high tide line with a bit of dry also mainly just getting used to the AQ. It is like a combination of my TDI Pro and Dual Field. Very quiet and stable too. My first hunt produced a silver ring as also did my second hunt. My third hunt gave me two silver earrings. The past couple of hunts was primarily junk with no precious metals. Today I just took my wife to her favorite beach and of course when she was ready to go we had a rising tide with strong wave action. LOL Thanks for looking! Joe

TVR this a machine with unique operating characteristics. I fell into trying to run the juice way up and didn't find that it gave much of an advantage. It did make for a more confounded and jumpy signal that was harder to interpret. As well, where there was current or the "wrong" depth of water, the sound offs were harder to deal with. I would suggest getting the hang of the AQ down at preset or even lower. I would also suggest staying off the very low Delay settings--to better hear the pins and micros. Listen to the "sides" of your responses--this is what will keep you off the rusted bits . As with a lot of pulse machines--the "ears" will be easier to learn at low Gain levels. This is a rare example of a machine that does not need to be "turned up." Good Luck, clive

Hunted mostly in tone mode. Set up reject with a small paper clip. Delay 7.5, Reject 6, ATS 7, Sensitivity 7, Threshold 4, Volume max. I did not play much with ATS. I am in brackish water in a pretty well protected environment so the water was flat. Did have a boat go by and the AQ was not affected by the 6 inch or so wake that washed over with the detector fully submerged and coil on the bottom. The threshold did have a little bit of warble from the boat. Changing freq did not seem to help. When the guy shut the engine down at his dock, the little bit of warble went away. I'm thinking his ignition system is transmitting the noise. I was surprised how quiet the AQ is in the water. I could run any delay. If sensitivity was higher than 7 there was some sounding on coil movement that was reduced when sweep was slowed to a crawl, but at 7 it was pretty quiet. As for the sounding when the connector dips in and out of the water; it does, but not any where near as bad as I had imagined from watching and listening to a couple of the posted videos. Would I pay more for a stainless connector with a reduction in the effect? Sure, but after actually experiencing it, I am kind of ambivalent about it. It retunes quicker than I would need if I were in waves that were at the connector level, so if I have a little cut close to shore on an ocean trip, I could deal with a wave hit at the connector and hunt between waves. How much the higher salinity at the ocean would change how it acts? Not sure. Coil does have a little float to it. Not bad, but would be nice to have it not float. I gave up with back pain at almost exactly 3 hours of running the AQ; battery was still going. The edge of the coil does help with pinpointing. I hit a few old pull tabs that were deep and took several scoops to dig out. Also got some small sinkers that were several scoopers. Moving the scoop close to see a tone break is kind of tricky. There is a very narrow window between getting a target tone break and the scoop being a greatly overwhelming influence. It is going to take some practice and some more ear learning. Overall, I'm very happy with the AQ so far. Most of the targets are right in the range I'm looking for. Even got one small ring, although it is a junk eaten up copper one.

Look like a goooooood machine hopefully tomorrow i ll be on the beach with it RR

Interesting question,must admit i am lucky that in all the decades that i have been detecting i have only found nails and rubbish,in my mind its always best to keep everything low profile that way you dont have any issues 😉

There’s that smile! Great running into you....Happy Hunting!

Some good winds starting Thursday...Get ready. Cancel that...Still not doing what it should ...Maybe the weekend.

Glad you hit gold!! Nice silver finds too. When the beaches are stingy you have to go all metal or you will fall asleep waiting for the next target. 😄

Check out all the great finds with Garrett metal detectors! https://www.garrett.com/sites/default/files/pdf/2020-09/3500089-Searcher-Sept-2020.pdf

Almost done this season but may get in a few more hunts. My 3rd and best season detecting for gold. Gold is from Montana and Idaho from 5 different locations. Total count was 436 pieces, 119 with the SDC and 317 with the Monster. SDC got the 3 big ones and also the bulk of the total weight. Big nugget weighed 3.55ozt, then 25+gram, and 12 gram (3 nugget pic). SDC also found me my 1st "pocket" where I'd had a 20 piece day with 14 coming out of a 6" wide x 8" deep hole...THAT was FUN!!! Total weight (so far) is 7.66ozt. Nuggets came from public, private and permission ground. The Monster still amazes me and the addition of the SDC really helped make this season by far my best. Thanks to everybody on the forum for all the info/stories etc. and to Steve for hosting and maintaining the site!!!!

I'd be interested to hear what Nenad or Pat have to say about what the SP01 filter is doing. Info is slim in their literature. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but it appears to me to be doing something like either lowering/filtering the threshold/volume/volume limit or using some type of audio smoothing to "brighten" up the target signals. What I'm wondering is if backing off the threshold or using low smoothing to achieve the SP01 filter effect within the GPZ itself allows one to crank the volume and volume limit up higher without experiencing the distortion reported or needing to use a 3rd party module. I have run low thresholds and low smoothing since day 1 for the most part, potentially why I don't see a need for an SP01 myself? Question: does everyone here relying on an SP01 to clean up or brighten the audio with the filter function run more or less JP's recommended settings with a high threshold (let's say 22+) and no audio smoothing? What I'm curious about is if these settings are just introducing a lot of noise that people are eliminating with the SP01 rather than the onboard GPZ controls because it's considered bad form to do so with the latter, but not the former. That would also create a situation where it's better to run the GPZ at lower volume and then boost it with a module, if the sheer amount of noise is overwhelming the audio processor in the GPZ at any except low amplification. Running a thold too high will mask smaller signals with noise, giving the impression they need to be amplified when the actual sound level may be audible if the noise floor was simply just reduced with the onboard GPZ processing, and the volume stayed the same. The volume could then be raised for those with hearing damage too. The volume limit can also be raised along with the volume, especially when you've cleaned up the amount of noise. I'm curious what people have their volume limit set to as well. I don't have an SP01 to test or I'd try to answer my own questions here.

That is very good news for early Apex purchases as I assume there may be bug fixes or tweaks down the road as the machine is widely used in the wild. The AT Pro can only be updated by the factory which is too bad because the latest firmware is a substantial improvement over older models.

I also rely on the SPo1. Cranking the volume up straight from the GPZ, for me, brings with it "messy" audio (the best I can describe it from an incredibly "lay" perspective). When I use either the B&Z - which I used for a decade - or now with the SPo1 specifically, I can keep a lower "less messy" audio volume on the 7000 yet raise and brighten the volume of signals (using the #1 setting). Obviously this is tragically untechnical, but I know what I hear, and using the SPo1, my signals stand out and are crisper. I should add that I have hearing loss in both ears, with one worse than the other, and perhaps what the enhancer is able to do has a more marked effect on my hearing than someone with normal hearing.

At 77 y.o. my steam turned to luke warm water long ago. Now just thinking about anything strenuous hurts.

On the GPZ the target volume and threshold volume need to be set/adjusted based on ground conditions and target response in the area you are hunting. I like the additional option of audio boosting without changing any of these parameters. Like a functionally independent volume control without interfering with how the GPZ processes the audio signal based on it's internal volume/threshold setting. Regarding the filtering option, which is a separate topic and not related to the audio boosting function of the SP01, I like the setting "1" which IMHO makes the target signal somehow cripser (regardless of GPZ settings). I am sure Nenad can comment about the specific reasons why that is. You are right, for the SDC it is a total game changer. But I, personally, find the filter function useful for the GPZ as well. But everybody is different.

Oops. Never even seen (let along smelled) whale oil. Sorry that I led you down this path. The good news is that you've got a story that will be told for generations. Someday you'll look back and laugh (but not when your wife is within hearing distance!). The ICMJ Prospecting and Mining Journal has a monthly column of humorous & embarrassing stories submitted by readers. If yours was about prospecting it would be the best one ever. It's surely in the running for best story ever posted to this forum. (That probably doesn't make you feel better.) Is it too early to look on the bright side? The condition of that 2-cent piece is amazing. Hopefully the oil isn't absorbed deeply into it. And this was the only coin you've cleaned so far? Or was it the only coin in the jar, period?

Looking good, thanks for adding your settings in your report. Good Luck in Florida. HH Mike

WInds and tides have been bad the last week along with other projects keeping me busy. So to mix the project side of it I took CDV's battery out for a test spin Weds. Not a lot of targets but scored the 10k Class ring early. As soon as I walked out I got a buffalo, small medallion then the gold ring. The AQ seems to dislike silver even in All metal mod...but loves nickels..both medallions are brass. Gold #22 for the AQ..depth on the 8.4 10k I could have sworn 2 feet but measured around 16 inch's..

It comes down to movement and those rubber washers. Many like their coil tight.... no movement. That at least for beach guys means wear..... so you shim, replace rubbers, or tighten those ears. Tightening the bolt without shimming or replacing the washers often causes distortion.... normally inward. What i see often is people placing there machines a few feet from them while digging. They use their machine as a crutch. They push DOWN hard while digging.......and the shaft if you look at it is almost at a 45 degree angle with the coil setting FLAT.

I knew that it had a bad smell to it and decided to take it outside, if I would have done that to the kitchen grandmother said she would have burned the house down. I think the oil preserved the coin nicely, but it sure does stink.

GB_Amateur, I took that idea and tried it outside, BIG MISTAKE, come to find out it was whale oil. That stuff has the whole neighborhood still stinking, and I hope that we will be able to someday use the barbecue grill again. I was using the side burner on the lowest setting to soften everything to remove the coins when the smell overcame us. Grandmother went into the house and to the bathroom to remove her lunch the same direction it went down, my wife could not make it into the house and barely made it to the yard. I finally removed the jar from the burner and sat it down near the back fence about 200 feet from the house. Our neighbor called the police thinking that we were making some kind of drugs, and when they arrived they asked for a gas mask and a hazmat team. I only had time to remove a single coin from the jar, before they showed up. I then was trying to clean the coin to show them that there was some type of mistake about why they were called out. Before they were able to get to the jar I had the coin rinsed with water, sprayed with Odoban, and checked the date. I called out to the police and Hazmat team to show them what was in the jar and to keep them from destroying it's history. Since the oil was now a liquid, I was able to pour it out into another container to seperate the contents from the jar. The other coins are going to have to be cleaned before I can take a picture, because I am still sick to my stomach, and post. The whale oil from the jar is over 150 years old and stinks to high heaven, you can have it if you want. I don't know if it would be legal to mail it to you as it could be considered a weapon of mass destruction if inhaled. The coin itself smells, but not as much as it did before I sprayed it with Odoban, and was very clean looking when removed from it's tomb. I think who ever placed these coins in the jar knew that nobody in their right mind would ever touch the jar after smelling it. I told grandmother that I would pay the fine for the disturbence of peace that I got from the police, so I hope the coins are worth it. I think this should be it's own thread so maybe if someone else finds a jar with whale oil in it, don't heat it up like I did. Caleb

I'll buy you a whole bag of cheeseburgers, for your finds!🤣 Good job breaking the AQ gold barrier!👍👍

With the Nox 600 you have 25 levels of iron volume, you can raise or lower the iron pitch and instead of running with nothing discriminated you can accept part of the iron range instead of all of it so you can get a decent iron response. Lots of square nails and older big iron will give an iron response of -3, -2, -1 and even 0. So accepting say -5 to +40 will let plenty of iron responses happen in the negative number range and in the mid teens, mid 20s and high 30s to 40. Lowering the iron volume to 4 to 6 will let you hear iron grunts clearly but won’t wear out your ears and your headphones. The non-ferrous tones will really be accentuated with a lower iron volume setting. Running your sensitivity over 20 at this point is probably going to cause more problems like the coil knock you were talking about. You can also hunt in just 2 tones if you really want to simplify things so you will only hear the iron tone and a non-ferrous tone. If you just get a non-ferrous tone over the target and numbers that repeat by swinging in cross pattern + with no low tones and negative numbers, you might want to dig. You can also make sure your F2 iron bias setting is on 2 or 3 and make sure your recovery speed is 3. 50 tones is great too if your ears can handle it.

Once tightened would a thread locker help? Figure a drop on each bolt might prevent it from loosening up down the road.

Chase, thanks for the clarification, I chose Field 1 more from lack of experience than anything. I figured I was not at the park where there would be more modern trash and clad but long grown over farm fields hoping to find some older coins or buttons. I did not get any coins but did get one ferrous button shank intact but crusted beyond being able to identify it. I figured the site to be mostly iron and planned to dig everything and found lots of iron as I speculated. What would you recommend for a site like this 1830 grist mill. I did detect the river and the side across from the mill now mostly wooded former farm field but the actual mill site is adjacent to a road where there was construction for the road that would have dug the site and foundation below along with all the modern roadside trash.

Phrunt, anyone, can find gold right behind me! No one gets them all and I’m at the top of that list! Makes me go back to old patches and rework the good ones...always something left to keep you smiling 😁

Some recent finds with the 10 inch x coil

Anyone who thinks you need expensive, or at least cutting edge detectors to do well, should download this and look at the finds, and what is making them.

Yes but the Simplex has an important drawbac:k ; it is an heavy machine with its 11 stock coil . At around 1,4kg it is largely above the average , its 11coil / 480 grams is front heavy compared to the 360grams of the Vanquish 340and 440. I would not recommend the Simplex for young people and women for example ..

Lots of great suggestions and helpful information and a few things I didn’t think of that could come in real handy. well, that would pretty much suck Having your vehicle stolen and find yourself stuck in the outback I hope he wasn’t alone. Anytime I’m off on foot following my coil wandering from left to right, having the Jeep stolen is always on the back of my mind and it’s a good feeling walking up over a hill and seeing it parked where I left it. I forgot about using a tracker and geofencing as far as actually getting my stuff back that probably gives the best chance for success. I never thought about adding anything to the suspension, I peaked under it for a second and everything looked like it was where it was supposed to be thanks for the tip I’ll beef it up if I can and a little more lift will give me more tire clearance. Yep, I can see where the traction boards would come in real handy, I’m used to plowing through anything with the Jeep probably how I bent an axle and if I’m not careful the Aliner will be in a thousand little pieces. Ive looked at a few camp showers on Amazon if I have any place left in my little trailer to store one I’ll get it after a long day picking trailer parts up off the trail I’m going to need it, lol. Did you build it with lithium for $100? That’d be a great price for 400wh battery pack, I’ll need to see how much room I have and see how many wh’s I can fit in the available space. I got some good news from the drivetrain shop late yesterday my rear driveshaft u-joints were shot and I might have a bent axle. Normally not what you want to hear, but since dropping in the new engine a month ago I’ve been chasing demons, computer timing and fuel delivery, transmission pump, torque converter, misfire codes and overheating all the time crossing my fingers I don’t need to pull the new engine and ship it back east with a burnt valve or something, That’d be a major PITA. This SHOULD fix the last of the driving issues I’ve been seriously doubting my decision rebuilding the Jeep vs replacing it, Jeep... J(ust) E(mpty) E(very) P(ocket).

Steve, it was a thin folded nugget, little less than 2 dwts. Someone will want it for their collection! Chevron’s are getting harder to add to the poke! Rick

Thanks Mike! I fully understand. I'm getting out about once a week now but hopefully this winter things will easy some. Been working on the batteries of late...

Thanks Cliff....I just sent in all of my silver for the last 18 months..Amazing I got 1598.oo Thank You!...I agree on the Class rings, I've got several from the teens also, the designs are so interesting. Thanks Buddy...Yes I would say the 30's possibly?

I have been learning my grandfathers equinox 800 metal detector for the past couple of weeks and digging more trash than anything. I was back at it again in his back yard after watering the holes I have dug in the past, almost 300 of them by now, when my grandmother asked me to go back to where an old log cabin used to be. As I turned the corner of area where it used to be near the pine trees, I had a strong signal of 23 and 24. I stopped and rechecked in several directions. I noticed that every direction showed the same numbers and used the pin pointer mode and marked the spot. The 800 was in park 1 at factory settings, and showed that it would be about 5 arrows down. I started to dig in the dry ground removing the top few inches of dirt and grass. I went to the tool shed and picked out a shovel knowing how hard the ground was I needed the added ability to dig. After I got down about 6 inches and no signal on the carrot yet I kept digging. Once I got down 8 inches deep I got a signal on the carrot and began to carefully poke around the ground to remove the dirt where the signal was coming from. I finally saw what was giving me the signal and removed it from it's tomb. Since there was so much dirt still clinging to it I rechecked the hole and nothing else was in it so I filled it in. After cleaning the dirt of with a little bit of Dawn dish soap and water I could make out what was on it. I first thought it said 1 farting, but later was able to read 1 farthing a British coin. The date was 1799 and I am shocked that I was able to find it. Here is what was on grandfathers property, and yes I am going to keep searching the area for more items. I fully expect to dig at least another 15 pounds of trash before I can say I have covered his yard properly. I wish I knew more on how to clean coins and I am reading the forum on just how to do that before I ruin anything. Grandfather never got to clean some of his coins and I really want to get those done for him.

Kac, mine weighs in at 490g, I'm not having any depth issues at the moment. Maybe the newer 11'' coils are lighter and they just didn't upgrade the spec sheet or maybe the old spec was a typo. maybe the coil is bad like my old one was. I wish i weighed my old one but its to late. Good luck with the next one.

I had to call 3 times to get an answer and I sent an email before that, no response. Luckily it’s back to working again

Need a wireless receiver in there too prior to the SPO1. I only point that out (for others, I know you know this Simon) because if someone were to try to accomplish what you are doing with the Quest (which is comprised of both a transmitter and separate receiver) using a Trond or equivalent B/T transceivers vice the Quest or WM12, it will take both a transmitter and receiver B/T unit to accomplish that task. And it should work out for him, Norm, if he is able to find the right GPZ mounting point for the Trond transmitter to avoid the interference. I feed the audio output of my GPX battery/amp combo (mounted side saddle on the control box) directly into a Trond transmitter and use my Equinox equivalent wireless headphones to untether from the GPX.

We seem to have gotten specifically away from the EMI question that Norm originally posted with talk about assisted vs unassisted signal processing. Here is a thread about THAT which we hear from both of the 'principals' of the B&Z or SP01 talk about their products. As Gold Catcher said maybe they will join us on this thread as well.

That publicity photo showing it identifying " low conducter" isn't very inspiring. Lern to spel proply. Interesting that it runs at 7 kHz, not the usual BH 6.6kHz, not the 7.8kHz of many other First Texas machines.

thank you so much for the info! I will be doing this on the weekend. I will strip my spare one as practice first.......

Neighbor does pier repair. I'm fairly confident that the chips dropped from his pontoon boat that is set up as a floating workshop. Nice thing about finding those is that they are aluminum and right in the range of conductivity I really want to find! I've got tinnitus in one ear, so I resemble the constant threshold thing too! When I first got there, there was some breeze that gave a little bit of whistle around the headphones. I will have to look around to see what might be whistling. I've taped over drain holes on some headsets to stop the whistle. Have not looked close enough at this set yet.

Nice finds indeed. Running out of steam is what's starting to happen to me as well at times. . . . All the best, Lanny

If it's just about volume boosting then I understand why those with bad hearing use a booster, I still don't understand why people with good hearing swear by them though. What people tell me in the field is that they are enhancing signals, not making them louder, but I've been unable to hear anything that couldn't be replicated for free with the GPZ audio controls so far. I don't understand - what specifically should the GPZ have that it doesn't have or what makes what it does have terrible? The GPZ has volume, volume limit, tone, threshold control, and audio smoothing. With these you can filter EMI and emulate a compressor which seems to me the only things the SP01 could be doing. These control the WM12 remotely. The WM12 seems to just operate as a remote speaker, not a processing unit. Which is IMO the way it should be for a piece of field equipment. A fancier WM12 means they'll charge even more than they already do, and losing or breaking one would break the bank. I think the WM12 is built physically like a cheap toy and I am not trying to say it's a great piece of equipment, but I honestly don't understand the criticism of the GPZ audio processing. To me, it's the right idea, it just needs more Smoothing control, like a slider and not just 3 settings between 0-low-high. So few actually use Low Smoothing or run lower thresholds along with vol limits and volumes but then are totally willing to use filtering on the SP01, it doesn't make sense to me. I can definitely see a use for the SP01 on a unit like the SDC which really does lack audio processing control. But on the GPZ, I'm confused. What I'm curious to know is if the SP01 filtering is doing anything that you can't do for free using the onboard GPZ audio processing controls. And if so, what specifically it's doing which cannot be done with the GPZ controls.

An Apex ended up on my doorstep a while back. Unlike people expecting Garrett to blow away twenty years of Minelab technology advances overnight, I have a different perspective on all this. But I'm taking my time putting my thoughts together, so it may be a bit before I comment. Let's just say for now that I applaud Garrett's effort.

Thank you! Best to you Valens! Welcome! And I agree. The only one missing is Rick....He put in many hours.

Hello to all , Despite the dodgy weather went for a beach session yesterday on the UK Kent coast armed with my Nox ,beaches have moved a bit which is why i believe i found so much stuff. 4 hours non stop on not so popular beaches but still few coins despite the Covid restrictions,a silver and an copper bracelet and bit from another (made i believe to combat athirst and rheumatism )plus enough coin for parking and petrol(i was on a local beach ) a good work out for sure Enjoy RR

And just to note - it's not just browsers, but add ons. Ad blockers in particular can be problematic, and many of them are scams in themselves! There were issues yesterday I am still trying to sort out. There was a server reboot, which corrupted some database files. The site was down for about an hour. I got it looking good now on the front end, but still having some issues with portions only I can see.

I have a NOX with Steve's shaft and fully loaded counter weight. I find that with the 11" coil, the balance is perfect for my 6 foot frame. Norm

Not all sites are productive. A house less than 3 miles from this new one had nothing but modern coins and lots of iron in the ground. One other I visited within half a mile of this new one gave me silver coins. It is a more modern house. I'm hoping this older one is still "in the silver belt". Compared to that silver coin producing house, this one was owned by more prominent people. We shall see what it produces. Maybe I will get lucky enough to unearth a 1800's coin. I've rode by this place for over 18 yrs on the way to work and home. It has always called out to me for some reason, just like the other house did that gave me the silver coins. Really feel there is something important there to be found. Could be totally wrong but the fun will be seeing what it holds!