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  1. Rumors are flying that First Texas has hired a veteran engineer to upgrade their entire product line. As well as actually make the AQ happen. CAN THIS GUY SAVE THE COMPANY..? The video link below shows off this guys abilities with an advanced product sold to the U.S Government.
    12 points
  2. This post was a response buried deep in a thread on the Equinox Forum, but got long enough on a subject I think about a lot, that it deserved its own thread. Here you go. I find the whole George Payne way of conceptualizing things to be rather out of date myself. That was back in the day when only one thing mattered - detecting coins. Silver coins in particular. So he was looking at frequency, and most importantly, coin size targets. If you do that, fix target size, you get the false idea that frequency corresponds to type of metal. Nickels respond here. Gold coins here. Copper coins here. And the biggie, silver coins here. That's how the first coin discriminators were conceived. But it has also lead to this mythology that frequency corresponds to metals. Gold is high frequency, silver low frequency. No, it's not. There is no correlation between frequency and type of metal if you do not fix the size at some artificial limit. In fact, gold ranges from ground readings all the way to so-called silver readings. If you fix the metal type, frequency corresponds to size. Low frequency big gold, high frequency small gold. There was also ground to deal with, and ground reacts less well at low frequencies, so a double bonus for silver hunters. You might think it is low frequency working better with silver. But you might also think of it in terms of the detector simply being better able to see the silver, for not seeing the ground. It's all about conceptualization, and you can conceive of the same thing from different angles. I consider the old George Payne way of looking at things as obsolete from my perspective. It really was only something that worked well in the United States, and only because of an accident in our coin size and metal types. It allowed a scale to be created that worked well with silver coins and nickels, while knocking out a lot of trash items. In most other countries, our target id scale is worthless because their coins do not fit our classic scale. I detect for gold. I think in different terms entirely. For me frequency does two opposing things. Higher frequency is better for small targets. Small gold, small silver, small copper..... small stuff. But high frequencies also enhance ground, and especially, hot rock responses. The two effects offset each other, and can reverse things if ground is severe enough. This also totally applies not to nugget hunters like myself, but almost anybody hunting coins and relics under any situation but the classic U.S. silver coin regime. Let me explain. So I want to find gold nuggets. I must first think about the nugget size that I am looking for. I can look for the more common small gold, or the rarer large gold. If I want tiny gold, I usually want a high frequency detector, the higher the better. Now, here is the kicker. High frequency does just fine on large gold also. In fact, high frequency just detects well on everything - in the air. So air test a Gold Bug 2 on things, and it is amazing. Unfortunately, the high frequency also "lights up" the ground to an amazing degree, and it is hard to get good depth on anything at very high frequencies. The signal attenuates rapidly in the ground, and the worse the ground is (more magnetite in general), the faster the depth drops off. Hot rocks that never responded at low frequencies are now everywhere at high frequencies. Lower frequency starts looking better not just because it does better on large targets, but just as much because it is less reactive to the ground. The 71 kHz Gold Bug 2 is an amazing detector. I can find pinhead gold with it. The big caveat is that in most nugget ground it has low penetration, and is very poor on large nuggets at depth. Not because it air tests poorly on large gold, but because the ground sucks up the signal. 71 kHz is great for small gold, and even large gold in the mildest soils, but in bad ground it has poor depth, and makes hot rocks a real issue. If I am looking for large gold at depth, I might very well use a lower frequency VLF in the old days, just as much because it is responding less to the ground as anything else, allowing large gold to be more easily found at depth. For my purposes, a PI detector for a long time was just a high power, super low frequency detector. Huge punch on large gold, with minimal ground response. So PI took over early on from the VLF low frequency, large nugget detectors of the time. I mentioned relic detecting and coins in other countries. If you detect Europe, our U.S. coin scale is garbage. It's not "low frequency = silver." Over there silver can be all over the target id map. Huge silver coins. Or tiny silver coins. Or small coins hammered thin as foil. Or those hammered coins cut to make change. Silver under those circumstances occurs anywhere on your target id scale from ground to the highest reading, 0 to 100. It all just depends on the size, with a little ground effect tossed in to drag things down. So in Europe, if you want to chase tiny silver cut coins, or very small gold coins, higher frequencies work well, whether it is gold or silver. The metal does not matter. It is size that matters. Relic hunters see the very same thing. High frequencies find the small bits, regardless of what they are - worst fact being tiny ferrous. I long ago tossed the frequency and metal thing in my garbage can. Here is my reality. High frequency will help me with smaller targets, but also make dealing with the ground harder. Low frequencies simply have less ground and hot rock response, and also less tiny trash stuff response, making them better if I want want to focus on larger targets, like coins or rings. In my lifetime experience there is a crossover point for gold, and going too high enhances tiny gold nuggets, but also loses depth due to ground issues. A sweet spot develops around 50 kHz, which White's chose ages ago in the Goldmaster II, as being great for small gold nuggets, while still retaining punch in bad ground on larger gold nuggets. Minelab rediscovered this with the Gold Monster, and went with 45 kHz for this very reason. They found pushing high did better on tiny stuff, but the cost in larger heavier gold was not worth it to serious nugget hunters in bad Australian type ground. If I was hunting tailing piles for ounce type gold nuggets, it is hard to beat a 15 kHz type detector, just like that ancient 15 kHz Garrett Groundhog circuit, that was at the time a high frequency, but in retrospect was a great large nugget lower frequency. The White's MXT at 13 kHz is superb on large nuggets in trashy locations. If you are in Europe, that 15 kHz sweet spot applied for a long time, but more recently people have discovered the benefits of higher frequencies on these tiny cut silver and small gold coin finds. Pulse Induction did serve as super low frequency for a long time. You gave up small gold to get big gold as deep as possible. The lack of ground response allows use of extra large coils. It is interesting to me that as newer PI detectors are pushed to get more sensitive to small gold, that ground and hot rocks have also become more problematic. The newest PI nugget hunters suffer from hot rock responses you never saw on the old PI models. PI is getting more like VLF over time. So Billy, does Minelab put all this in Multi-IQ processing? Of course. But not in the way you think. They think more like me. It's every bit as much about ground, and saltwater, and even EMI, and what you do not want to detect, more so than metal types. A primary choice is saltwater - that forces a low frequency mix simply to avoid the salt response. Which, as I seem to have explained to beach guys a million times, also knocks out small gold responses. For large coin detecting a lower frequency mix gives clean responses on larger targets like U.S. coins and rings, while getting less ground response, fewer hot rocks, and far less tiny trash signaling. It is not targeting silver coins per se, just larger stuff. For tiny items, gold nuggets, small hammered silver coins, a higher frequency mix works well, but you will deal with more ground and hot rock response, more tiny trash. Forget metal type. Think size and ground, including saltwater, and hot rocks. As you increase frequency, everything responds better, and small items that respond poorly or not at all at low frequencies will do better. Ground, saltwater, and hot rock signals also increase with frequency. The first cut off is at saltwater. To work there, you must have a lower frequency mix to eliminate salt signal, and you lose all tiny stuff as well, tiny aluminum, tiny gold. This can also do very well on large targets in any ground. The teens are really nice for general detecting, right on the edge of the salt range. 12 kHz - 15 kHz hits really well on most desired detecting targets, while not being overly sensitive to ground and the tiniest trash targets. 40 - 50 kHz is a sweet spot for gold nuggets and all really small targets, like the smallest cut silver coin, targeting the sub-gram range kind of stuff with some alleviation of ground and hot rock issues that develop at extreme frequencies. You get up above 50 kHz and you really are just surface skimming for the tiniest bits. Depth just drops off rapidly due to the ground, and so this is specialty range for the smallest targets. Multifrequency changes none of this, and making a machine that found everything best at all frequencies just gives you a detector that reacts to everything and finds nothing. It is about picking a few divergent frequencies that when differentials are applied, can add extra target information. This is as much about ground as anything else. The classic is the salt beach, where you want to notch out both salt response and ground response. Single frequency can't get you there except in crudest form, eliminating both, while losing a lot of gold. Using two frequencies lets you notch back in some gold jewelry missed by eliminating both ground and salt with a single frequency. Looking at two frequencies that are close together is a waste of time and processing power. The target and ground response is the same. But pick two very divergent frequencies, and you will see differences in target response and ground response. This whole idea of having a detector look at and analyze 100 frequencies simply makes no sense, and reveals the nonsense we have been fed for ages about more frequencies being better. Again, there are only a handful of gross frequency ranges that really matter. Under 10 kHz = find U.S. large coins well, minimal small trash and ground responses, few hot rocks. Call this Park Mode, with a special subset that tunes out salt, called Beach Mode 15 kHz plus or minus, great on a large range of small to large targets, while still not being overly sensitive to ground and very tiny trash. Call this Field Mode. This is an excellent all around compromise mode between low and high. 40 - 50 kHz is great for sub-gram targets, but will make dealing with ground and tiny trash problematic. Let's call this a Gold Mode. 70 - 80 kHz is basically surface skimming for pinheads, max hot rock and tiny trash response. Pinhead Mode? A niche area for sure. Four basic options, and really three, since the highest is very niche. It is also comparing results in these three or four options that give you the most bang for the buck in multi. They diverge enough to provide the basis for good differential algorithms. Again, multifrequency really just adds better ground and target id capability for cleaner, more accurate responses across the board. It's not some magic about finding all targets best at all frequencies by lumping them all together. Most frequency discussions simply miss the reality of what is going on, and what is being achieved by going multifrequency. I will say it one last time. Think of frequency, whether single frequency, or a mix of frequencies, in terms of the desired target size, offset by the added ground/salt response. Think of the target id scale as a size scale, low numbers are small targets, high numbers large targets. Think less about it being an indication of type of metal. Aluminum responds anywhere on the scale. So does gold, lead, silver, copper. Small foil a low single digit, and aluminum can like a silver quarter. Pick your frequency mix and your target id numbers to match the size of the targets you are seeking, and life will get easier. And quit thinking of multifrequency in terms of finding more targets better the more frequencies you use. Nonsense, just marketing nonsense. The White’s chart below kind of says it all. I’d certainly be picking a high frequency VLF for the tiny gold. But $20 gold coins? Any good detector is going to work, and I’d be far more likely to go 15 kHz or lower. Newer Thread in a Similar Vein
    12 points
  3. The relationship between shape/size , metal and its conductivity, and target frequency is potentially quite complex, and results in plenty of variety, that will easily surprise anyone not well educated on the topic. Most metals we dig are not 'laboratory grade' pure elements, they are either impure, or intentionally-created alloys, often with unknown properties. Alloys can have vastly different properties to their constituent elements ... far from intuitive. For example .900 fine gold ( or 22ct / .917 alloy ) has an electrical conductivity about one-sixth that of pure gold, even though the 10% that isn't gold is copper, one of the best conductors. The conductivity of .900 gold is near-identical to pure tin, which is a pretty poor conductor if you look. Likewise, the cupro-nickel alloy used in the US 5c coin, and many other world coins, is an especially lousy electrical conductor. It's widely used as electrical resistance wire, in heaters, kettles, hairdryers, electronics resistors. But it's 60% copper, not really what you'd expect. And corrosion can make a big difference to real-world conductivity. It's one of the reason some of our ancient silver coins read quite low down the ID scale. Despite them originally being .925 Sterling Silver, the copper tends to leach out, leaving the remaining metal porous and sponge-like, so electricity doesn't pass easily through it. Low conductivity means low ID. An example where physical shape gives non-intuitive behaviour is finger-rings ( or any ring shape item, like washers, for example ). It turns out that changing the diameter of a finger ring has hardly any affect on the target frequency / ID value. Scientifically speaking: if you double the diameter of a ring, you double the electrical resistance around the 'loop' , that's pretty obvious. What's less obvious is that the inductance of the loop also almost doubles, too. These two doublings pretty much cancel out, as ( inductance divide by resistance ) determines target ID. This can explain why very small copper washers can give impressively high ID values. It can even be tested practically - fabricating copper wire rings of different major diameter, but the same wire gauge is not too hard. Sweep them over the coil and the results can be seen.
    12 points
  4. I just played that for my partner. She looked confused and said I sound like that every time I talk.
    11 points
  5. Good point... here is a graph I recently did for ITMD3 showing the conductivity of copper-nickel alloys, from pure copper to pure nickel. As you can see, practically the whole alloy range is worse than pure nickel despite the addition of copper. This quirk is true of many simple alloys.
    11 points
  6. This is a fantastic topic. Since I usually use an Equinox in my area, I get lots of questions from fellow detector users about which mode to use..... This is just from my experience so it could be totally wrong. The frequency used in my detecting area which like KOB and Cal Cobra has soil that is definitely not inert, really matters in terms of what frequency can actually penetrate far enough to hit deeper targets. SMF tech like Multi IQ really helps but single frequency detectors in certain ranges work too. The rule of thumb would say a lower frequency would penetrate farther on say, coin sized US targets. That is just not the case here. Frequencies in the vicinity of 20 kHz or a bit higher seem to be able to get through the magnetic ground fog created by all of the magnetite and volcanics in the soil in my area. Detectors running below 12 kHz get absolutely no depth here. Even some approximately 13 kHz VLFs (MXT/MX7, T2 F75 are great examples) that ordinarily are incredibly deep don't do well at all here. So it seems to me that the amount and type of iron and volcanic content of the soil mineralization also determines what the best frequency/SMF frequencies may be for a certain area which may be determined by the size of the frequency wavelength. Using Multi IQ tech which seems to make the ground more invisible using the Equinox certainly helps here too.
    8 points
  7. Beach hunt # 19 was a later, but better than never hunt, a couple of days after the big storm surge. The weather was supposed to be a snow and possible icy road mix, so I decided to NOT do a beach hunt. 😞 Then a friend posted a video of the storm surge breaking over a wall at the beach, shot a few days previous. I talked myself into going and decided I would travel very slowly if it iced up. Got there no problem. Funny how storms work, as the fist thing I saw on the beach was that the sand was pushed way up high on the beach, higher than I have ever seen it. But just 50 yards from that spot, I noticed about a foot of sand was removed. Let’s give it a go. So, I hit an area that looked lower, and it produced some modern clad and just as I was going to wander away, it produced a Buffalo nickel. And that was the way things happened for most of the day. The Indian head cent was the same scenario - all clad and just that one old coin. I thought this was going to be all I could get, so I figured I would hit an area that I did really well at last year and looked like it was also down 12” of sand. I really hit this area hard before, so I just wanted to see what scraps I could find. Thankfully, that is not how it turned out to be. 🤩There were no scraps to be found, ironically just the opposite. I started to pop out a lot of copper cents, lead, and silver. I wish I started the day there. I was very excited to see my beach was starting to give up silver again and I’ll probably hit it again later next week. I hope conditions do not change significantly. The weather was tolerable at around 35 degrees for most of the hunt with very mild winds. Great to get out and dig some sand!
    7 points
  8. Gold alloys especially. Almost nobody detects pure gold, but alloys that are all over the map. Regardless of the metal type, as long as it and the shape is the same, the larger it is, the higher it reads. Throw in differences in shape and purity as pimento notes, and it’s a Wild West crapshoot. These gold nuggets vary wildly in purity, shape, and porosity. It means some small nuggets read very high, and some big stuff very low, the big nugget reads like a silver bar. Australian and California gold is relatively pure and clean, so the numbers climb nicely with size. Alaska gold is crap by comparison, lower purity ( yiu can see the color difference), lots of quartz inclusions, etc. The numbers are all over the place.
    7 points
  9. Fresh off the beach! Good to have one of these down early in the season!
    6 points
  10. My point in posting that video and comment was Primarily because as a technical guy I think it is Hilarious.! The original story behind it is said to be the guy was an actor and made all that up On The Spot, if so that is very impressive and creative. My secondary reason for the post is sometimes if people are made fun of even if it offends them it at least wakes them up.! This is a Technology Based competitive industry, if you do not offer competitive technology, You Soon Won't Be In The Industry.! I find the older I get, The Less I care about offending people, Especially these days with Political Correctness Out of Control. A JOKE is A Joke, People.
    6 points
  11. These forums are by and large are pretty respectful. FT has made it clear for quite some time the marketing and management people don’t care what we think, and don’t care to engage. What you are seeing is the result of years of customer neglect. There is no point in pretending they (management or marketing) will ever show up officially, and no reason to be fearful of hurting their little feelings. If you are going to be in business, you need to put on the big boy pants when it come it comes to critics. You think a Minelab does not get an earful here? But they still lurk and learn. Or Dilek - fierce warrior that she is, she takes it and gives it right back. Ultimately, it’s First Texas loss, not ours, if they choose to ignore their most rabid fans…. and critics. Any company whose social media strategy is “let’s engage, but only if people are sweet, and treat us with kids gloves” knows nothing about social media, or how to engage with it. If I was running the show at FT, I would show up once a quarter at key locations to talk shop. I’d make it clear it’s just for the day. It would not have to be much, even the barest tidbits. The idea is to show you care enough to bother to engage at all. It’s a two way street, and FT could show a little respect also. Ultimately though, they say a relationship is still alive, as long as there is some passion left. People at least care enough to be sarcastic. It’s when nobody cares at all anymore that it’s really over for FT. They are in serious danger of sliding into irrelevancy.
    6 points
  12. Nice post Steve. US classic coinage provides an excellent example. We have 4 coins (dime, quarter, half, dollar) that are all the exact same alloy: 90% silver, 10% copper. Yet have different responses due to size & thickness. And a nickel that is larger and thicker than a dime yet has a much lower phase response, showing that metal type can also play a strong role. But, yeah, any alloy can end up just about anywhere. I'm reminded of the big aluminum token I once found that had the exact same TID as a silver dollar.
    6 points
  13. They'll deploy the engineer to make an automatic floor sweeper to pick up the pieces of all the broken Impulse AQ's long before they deploy him to make metal detectors. It's lucky they have a giant back catalog of detectors they can paint various colours to sell to keep them going for many years to come. I believe my monitor can do 16.777 million colours, so if the local paints shop guy in Texas is a skilled paint mixer they've got years of detector designs ahead of them.
    5 points
  14. Steve you bring up some interesting points with the size vs conductivity discussion. Although I started park hunting, I mainly relic hunt these days. I run my EQX in F2 not because it's supposed to be hotter on a certain type of metal, but because it's more sensitive to smaller targets. This opens up a lot of types of targets as well as targets on the fringe/edge/etc. But if it's more about target size vs conductivity, in theory using the Gold modes on the EQX vs Park or Relic modes for relic sites should work better eh 🤔 The college of hard knocks taught me that the only test that really matters on a detector is that detector in your hands at your sites. There's no such thing as inert soil in California or Nevada where I enjoy detecting. Inert Florida soil doesn't tell us much out here about how a detector will operate in the field. It's a bit akin to the nail board test, it's one metric we like to see our detectors pass, but it's only one of an endless variety of variables we're up against.
    5 points
  15. The Quartzite Gold Show is February 11,12,13 and I will have a booth there selling my book. I will be in the section in the parking lot so I can camp out of my chuckwagon Taco and keep an eye on my rig at all times. If anyone is in the area, please stop by and say hello. It would be nice to meet anyone on here that is able to make it.
    4 points
  16. Gary Blackwell explains the Deus 2 Notch feature. Good news, the notch feature is on the WS 6 module too.... Bad new for gold prospectors and micro gold jewelry hunters, Sensitive, Sensitive FT and Fast have halo effect/coke notches by default at least on the version of software that Gary is using. Park also has the big 23-36 coke and tiny aluminum notch. So if gold prospecting/micro jewelry hunting with some of the 40 kHz discrimination programs, better remove that notch first. Dumbing down the Deus 2 for the masses like this is very similar to how Minelab dumbed down the Equinox with coke discrimination in Park 1, Field 1, Field 2 and making every program including the Gold modes have iron discriminated by default.
    4 points
  17. Having spent my entire adult life running businesses, I have a short list of culprits where it comes to business dysfunction: Management Management Management Was that Tom Dankowski in the video? He wins my prize for engineer geek speaker.
    4 points
  18. The old adage that, " You get what you pay for." holds true in spades where sand scoops are concerned..and it's the next most important piece of equipment besides your detector that you have on the beach. At least that's been my experience and all I hunt are beaches. The best out there that I know of: Sunspot (Stealth) https://j9h.6d6.myftpupload.com/ Xtreme https://xtremescoops.com/ T-Rex https://thegolddigger.com/collections/detecting-adventures-sand-scoops (The T-Rex is carried by many dealers) Buy quality and you'll only buy it once. Just the view from my sandy foxhole
    4 points
  19. I will never forget this guy that visited my Moore Creek gold mine in Alaska, where the goal was finding multi ounce gold nuggets in bad ground. He had a 71 kHz Fisher Gold Bug 2, and I was sporting a 13 kHz Fisher F75. He swore his Gold Bug 2 could out detect my F75. I told him yeah, on small stuff, but not the large. He said "nope, tested them, the Gold Bug 2 wins." I asked "air test." He nodded. I knew I had him. So I got a larger nugget, forget exactly what, but 1/4 - 1/2 ounce type thing. We air tested the machines, and sure enough, the Gold Bug 2 blew the F75 away. He was smiling. Then we buried the nugget at about where I knew the F75 would reach. Decent signal. Gold Bug 2. Nothing. Not a weak signal, no signal. The guy was stunned. Absolutely stunned. This simple story is why I tend to scoff at air tests. They serve some purpose in showing theoretical depth max info, so if he and I were in Florida on white sand, he would indeed have beat me. Air tests are a nice way to learn target id numbers. But air testing detectors is like testing race cars with wheels jacked off the ground. Dyno tests only tell you so much, what counts is when the rubber meets the road, and with detectors, when coils meet the ground. I habitually hunt bad ground, and not only find air tests of little value, but even results from most detector test gardens, as they are in mild ground. 12" dimes? Are you kidding me? Not even close in my ground. I see often see results half what others see in mild ground. I wonder how many newbies have that happen, watch the internet, and think their detector is defective?
    4 points
  20. ATREX & MULTI FREQUENCY Atrex currently has a Water Reject function, which is the simplest use of more than one frequency for operation in a metal detector. The transmitting signal is not specially formed, we simply take advantage of the natural presence of harmonic frequencies in a rectangular signal. Research and experimentation on the real Multi Frequency work has been going on in RUTUS for a long time. The Atrex has, for good reason, a processor three times more powerful than the one we used in previous models, and similar but different solutions for the detector electronics itself. The main problem in talking about Multi Frequency is the advertising material you have seen for many years. The amount of irrelevant and sometimes misleading information is overwhelming. They are intended to convince you of this technology, not explain how it works. The first most important point is the number of frequencies. You can often see in various advertising materials how many frequencies are emitted by Multi Frequency detectors. The important thing is not how many frequencies the detector transmits but how many it RECEIVES - how many frequencies it simultaneously analyses in order to detect an object. Transmitting a frequency not received by the detector is just a waste of unnecessary energy. If you are standing in a dark courtyard and want to keep an eye on the gate and the garden gate at the same time, how many torches will you use? Two, only two are enough for this task. Any additional ones that shine into the sky are just an unnecessary waste of batteries. The transmitting signal has to be optimised to transmit ONLY those frequencies that the detector receives and this issue, in itself, is complicated. The second point is the drawings showing that for each object there is a single best frequency designed to detect it. Yes, it is true, but concerning SINGLE FREQUENCY detectors. Is this how Multi Frequency detectors work? Of course not. To describe the topic roughly: single frequency detectors use a resistive signal ("Y") to detect objects, whereas Multi Frequency detectors use magnetic ("X") signals from multiple frequencies. The X signals behave differently from the picture we are all familiar with. How many frequencies will the Atrex operate in Multi Frequency? As many as needed to achieve all the desired features. Another lingering myth to deal with is that Multi Frequency is "slow". The first Multi Frequency detectors were developed and designed on the basis of 8-bit microcontrollers, with a clock of 3.9 MHz. The efficiency of such a "monument of technology" is only 1.4% (!) of the Atrex processor. Multi Frequency designed today does not mean "slowness" and has a number of advantages: - there is no need to select frequencies for the searched objects, the detector detects small and large objects well, - no detector response (or the response reduced many times) to any conductive, non-metallic substances in the ground, e.g. sea water, coke, shales, etc., - no influence (or very little influence) of the magnetic and conductivity of the soil on the ID of the objects, - more effective detection in highly mineralised ground (both in terms of the presence of magnetite and its conductivity). Multi Frequency software for Atrex is currently in the final stages of testing in various parts of Europe, the feedback has been very positive. It will be available to download for free on our website in the near future.
    3 points
  21. And frankly there was not much difference between 4 and 5 khz when ML added it to Equinox in ver 3.0, per se. Although small absolute changes in frequency at the low end can make a bigger difference in response (the 1khz change from 5 to 4 khz, would make more difference than at 1 khz change at 40 khz). What was interesting, about adding 4 khz was that it seemed to run a lot quieter than 5 khz. Primarily anecdotal, but if what folks were observing was more than just their imagination, then it could indicate ML was also potentially experimenting with a new signal processing or noise filtering algorithm. Great way to beta test a feature without much risk because the 4 lhz was perceived as a bonus add on. Of course it also added to the confusion regarding the frequency constituents of Multi-IQ because ML marketing conflated the 5 (now 6) single frequency options with the SMF frequency range with their infamous cloud diagram.
    3 points
  22. Steven : It's electrical conductivity ... how good would it work if you made an electric cable out of it ? Copper, silver = great choices bronze = not that good lead, tin = going to need pretty thick wire cupro-nickel, stainless steel = they will be glowing red all the time Here's a decent reference table for many 'industrial' metals/alloys: http://eddy-current.com/conductivity-of-metals-sorted-by-resistivity/
    3 points
  23. It appears it's not engineering that is the major problem, the head honcho's are the problem.
    3 points
  24. I have gold prospected for years i know the general method just cant grasp what im listening for with the nox, seems erratic. i just read Steves tips on the nox going to see if any of that info helps the hot rocks seem to be the biggest culprit, i will figure it out just thought i would pick some brains and see if anything could benefit me as i learn the Nox better. Thanks all for the input and advice.
    3 points
  25. It's funny how many water bottles I have collected from trade shows and other events. Everyone want's to give you one, aluminum, plastic, even glass, I can't give them away fast enough, even family members are like "no thanks, we're good" haha The only [new] ones I keep now are things like Yeti's or something cool/clever. If I found a Yeti in good shape, I'd probably autoclave it and call it a day 🙂
    3 points
  26. Of course they are, after much demand from fans Fisher has decided to upgrade and re-release the F75, the new F75 SE-2 V1.2022 Ultra Super Multi Frequency 81st Anniversary edition available in Fluro pink and Electric blue so you can't lose it in the rough wilderness it was designed for is meant to be coming out in 2022 some time. It features an array of improvements over the old version by way of fancy new decals of it's name, along with an enhanced grip handle modeled off those on bicycles for trouble free grip. They've also added another two offset frequencies for EMI mitigation and enhanced performance in the field, named FMF. Now with 6 frequencies available to avoid EMI, making it a true multi frequency detector. You will now be able to run on 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5 and 13.6 kHz to enhance your detecting experience. They even took the liberty of changing the back light from a 60 watt incandescent light bulb into a multi colour LED that cycles through an array of colours to really make your night detecting experience enjoyable, this will also greatly improve battery performance. They've added new Vinyl decals instead of USB updating, now to get the new model all you need to do is remove the Decal and gently apply the new Decal, new decals will be sold approximately every year to provide you with a new F75 for a small fee for the upgrade * It will be accompanied by a new 12" coil that may or may not be ready for production by it's time of release so they'll give you an IOU coupon for when it does come to market to collect your coil from your nearest friendly Fisher Dealer. F75 SE-2 V1.2022 Ultra Super Multi Frequency 81st Anniversary edition New Features Available in Fluro Pink or Electric blue New Vinyl adhesive Decals makes changing model detector easier. New Handle Grip - Enhanced swing performance New FMF (Fisher Multi Frequency) for ultimate target performance New multi color LED Back light system, an industry first New 12" Coil - Maybe * Fisher will release new model Decals approximately every 12 months, these new Decals upgrade your First Texas detectors to the latest version available for the low cost of $99.99. You can upgrade to the latest version of any model from any pre-existing version, please contact your First Texas dealer for more information.
    3 points
  27. I like this image because it is one of the only ones I have seen that illustrate the effect on size instead of type. Minelab tried to take credit here, but it really was White's that found the 40 - 50 kHz sweet spot for small gold. Again we have marketing at work. This frequency range is great for many small gold locations, while still doing well on large gold. But it is the gold on site that matters. If the location is old bucket line tailing piles, then there may be no small gold at all. Just larger oversize nuggets, say 1/4 ounce or larger, with main hope a multi ounce nugget. Then this chart is simply wrong, and that 18 kHz detector is now the winner. Conversely, what is there is nothing but 0.1 gram and smaller gold? Not that unusual actually in the goldfields. Now that 71 kHz machine reigns supreme. You have to know enough to read between the lines when it come to marketing, and in this case it is really telling you lower frequency for larger stuff, higher frequency for smaller stuff. Again, does not matter if it is silver, copper, or gold. It's all about size.
    3 points
  28. First of all thank you for your welcome! Talking about metal detecting here, law is a really big nightmare. In theory, targets which have more than 50 years are state property. Whatever you find underground is state property. This is the law here. Many times I asked myself how is possible to buy a metal detector here. In theory, when you find something you have 24 hours to deliver the object to the police. I’m not joking, it is crazy but this is. Obviously there are tons of target older than 50 years which have no historical importance. But there are many archeological areas from which you must stay away, we have to pay attention. But we’re in Italy and you can find everything everywhere. Years ago I found a medieval knife: I went to the Police and delivered it...but I didn’t know anything more. Probably that ancient knife didn’t have historical importance.. Don’t know. There are many contradictions in metal detecting law here. A lot of contradictions. You can find tons of Vittorio Emanuele II coins, which are from second part of 1800. If I find them I prefer to leave them underground! I live 100 km away from the sea...with a CTX I spent a whole winter on the beach and in water as well..
    3 points
  29. Welcome aboard Riccardo ! You picked a good time to sign in with your new Deus2 ! Lots of us here will be waiting to read everything you post about it , no doubt. You probably have a few good GPX5000 hunts to brag about too ! I have 3 questions for you. Are old coins on the do not dig list too? 🧐 Any good tourist beaches nearby ? Do you have a pirate map with an X marking anyplace in particular you'd share with us???? Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 😉
    3 points
  30. Been in another skunk period of a week or two until today. Got this pretty little nugget in a wash I keep finding gold in. Same wash I found my first two in that got me on the board back in October. A buddy of mine went over it with his Gpx5000 and missed it. This nugget was found 6-8 inches to the side of where I found my third Nugget in this wash. It was in the bar in the middle of the wash and down in the bedrock. I had missed it several weeks ago and didn't hear it. There was a few inches of silt on top and I thought I heard a blip in the threshold so I slowed down to snail pace and then I heard it. Kicked a layer away and now it was unmistakable. Kept digging to bedrock and it was still there. I knew this was going to be gold so I got it on video. I knew because I have not dug any trash in this wash. Hal could hear the signal from 150-200 feet up the wash so he rushed down to see if I got gold. Hal has been here for 4 weeks and still has not found any gold. I am really loving the Gpx6000. This detector is like a gold nugget bloodhound with the scent sniffing capabilities of a Grizzly. Dug out all around the area and dug out the bush better. This was painful as the bush turned out to be cat's claw and I got hooked across the face and those thorns dug in as I moved back. It wouldn't let me go. Lmao. My shirt was stuck to the bush, my hands were stuck to the bush and now all across my face on the right side. I don't know what I hate more choiya or cat's claw. I think probably cat's claw as I get caught up in it more often than choiya. I try to avoid choiya like the plague. It is like getting caught up in a nest of fish hooks. The more you fight getting free, the more you get hooked. The nugget looks like an s. AZGoldman came up to hunt with me and my buddy Hal from Montana. I am surprised I don't have any broken bones in my hand from all the times I hit my hand with the rock hammer when chiseling out bedrock. I dug up all around where I found these nuggets. I have a couple hundred yards or more of bedrock left to work. I am sticking put in my honey hole wash and to hell with the rest of Gold Basin and the weeks of skunks.
    2 points
  31. Thanks Simon. I post these beach hunts because sometimes PI units get a bad reviews for being a dig all machine. I can do this at most of my beaches as long as a specific amount of sand is removed. Too much and everyone can reach them, too little and I just miss them. It's exciting when you dig the first deep coin and you know the layer you are looking for is available. But at the end of the day, I can say that most people will not find these coins with their VLF/MF machines. I barely get them with the GPX.
    2 points
  32. I'm what I'd consider a good customer of First Texas, I own five of their detectors and all of them the higher priced models, and their F-pulse pin pointer and for those five detectors I've bought almost every First Texas coil they've made available including with much disappointment the T2 manhole cover. I also don't pay US prices for these things, I pay Australasia prices, think the price you pay and add another 50% to the product price and you're about what we pay. All I do is express my disappointment in a company that's basically given up, and my reason? I care. I'd rather if they saw this forum they took some criticism to heart and it motivates them to try. It really seems at this point they don't want to try, even their own employees point that out. Carl speaks so comfortably here knowing they'll never see a word he says because they just don't care and I applaud him for speaking out, keeping us informed as every time we get our hopes up about the possibility something is about to happen, something new to be released he puts us back down on earth. It would be a very different situation if they were trying, they're simply not and their marketing decisions blatantly rip customers off, having the Gold Bug Pro on the market for the price it demands and then the Time Ranger Pro on the market at the same time for a far cheaper price for a better detector is just wrong. You can buy the Time Ranger Pro and a small prospecting coil to go with it for cheaper than buying the Bug. How many people get ripped off buying the GBP that know no better? I just can't agree with this way of selling product. Do they just blame the customer for not doing the research if the customer finds out and contacts them saying oi buddy, what's going on here? I think they're comfortable just selling entry level detectors and flooding the retail shops with a big range of entry level detectors to make it look like they're the big brand to buy from to that market. This strategy isn't going to last much longer for them either as the competitors are coming out with entry level detectors that rival or exceed their high end machines in performance and often exceed them in features. Retail stores want to sell the products that they can turn over quickly and make their profit, I can think of a Turkish machine that could easily sit on the shelf in one of the US big box stores that's box would look far more appealing with its feature list to a mum and dad detector purchase team looking for a birthday present for their child than the large row of various Bounty Hunter models sitting next to it. Garrett are trying, and they're going to succeed, they're in the game and I'm very positive towards Garrett, they've put the effort in and are getting places. First Texas sadly is not, they probably thought they had an easy quick buck with the Impulse AQ, a good deal to put an outsourced almost finished product to market under their name rather than make a new product themselves, sadly that hasn't worked out too well for them either. Had another company taken on the Impulse and done the same thing I would not be surprised if it turned out better, the Impulse debacle is largely as bad as it is due to management decisions.
    2 points
  33. Testing I've learned a lot. The AQ can pick up a 1 gram gold ring directly under the big golf ball size chunk of Iron shown in the picture below, then up to about 8-9 inches under all pictured. After that it fades to the point it would be something you would not stop for..Interesting gold wedding bands from 2 grams to 4 seem to show the best results,,,at 5 grams, then 6 grams does not hit as hard...but depth does improve... And this is air testing.. I do have video but unfortunately I can not share for it shows the machine... I do have video I can share of a crab pot wire, 1 to 2 inch piece above the hole that I dropped a 6 gram gold ring in.. conditions can be so different at every spot it's just a matter of hitting all at the right time, surroundings and settings..(this video is the Limited model) I've got 35 gold with the AQ's so far. 4 ..if I remember correct were found in the mute mode, and after playing around with the AQ, I think tones maybe the best mode if using the disc side. Testing looks very impressive with the AQ but once you get it out in the wild, you really have to be in the right spot for all to work as it tested, which is rare and It is the reason I say.... buy it as a PI...
    2 points
  34. The 600 and 800 are same detector, and will do just as well for most people and uses. Gold Mode adds some edge for nuggets, but I could use a 600 and field mode and not come up very short by comparison. If a person can afford it I’d always say get the 800, just for all the extra options. But I genuinely also think a good 600 operator will miss very, very little by comparison, if the two machines are run head to head. The 600 is probably the best bang for the buck value on the market today, though the new Nokta Legend might change that. Jury is out on that one.
    2 points
  35. N/M needs to release some "I ❤️ Dilek" T-shirts. She's been A1 since day 1.
    2 points
  36. The one merc came from the area right above the shoreline. All the coins from the dirt are in very good condition. I've hunted several other water holes around the area and none of the copper or silver coins were this rough.
    2 points
  37. Not enough difference between 40 and 45 kHz to matter. I ditched the Monster and kept the Nox for that very reason. The Monster was redundant.
    2 points
  38. Indeed, the tin mines were in Cornwall , the most South-West point of England, and the tunnels went out under the Atlantic: Here's an article, sorry it's the Daily Mail, they spam adverts and trash all over the page: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285245/Cornwall-tin-mines-How-quest-metal-took-men-just-feet-ocean-floor.html And one of the mines is now a tourist attraction: https://www.visitcornwall.com/things-to-do/attractions/west-cornwall/lands-end/geevor-tin-mine
    2 points
  39. Thanks to those Red Lines, I'm gradually understanding the risk using filters of any kind looking for a stable tune or massive reject. I can now try to trade some acceptable falsing for the shines, instead of a numb and overly quiet machine.
    2 points
  40. Old Trenches--A Missed Nugget Opportunity So, I thought I'd post a little story about one of my infamous missed opportunities, a chance gone by to metal detect for some sassy nuggets. But, what else is new, right? I’ve left lots of gold behind due to my long nugget shooting learning curve. Well, at the time, I was pretty green, although I had (the previous summer) broken the rookie metal detector's curse (You know, when you swing the detector forever and only get the coil over trash. Which means, all you dig is trash day, after day, after day. . . . However, I broke the rookie curse and found my first nugget "The Africa Nugget", which then led to a dozen or so nuggets all the size of your fingernails. On a side note, it’s always amazed me how that worked out—nada, nothing forever, then once the curse was broken, I couldn’t keep the sassy nuggets from getting under the coil!) I guess that was enough digression, so I’ll get back to my tale. As I was pretty green, I'd been detecting a huge excavation, one worked around a massive boulder, that boulder the size of a small house. It was so huge, you could look under it where the Chinese had tunneled (a lot of silt and debris had washed in closing most spaces up) and see where they'd left their, short, stout and round posts to ensure the boulder didn't drop to the bedrock to crush them. It was quite the sight, and I can't imagine the work done to excavate it, let alone the courage to tunnel under it! Anyway, I was detecting around the boulder’s basin, and I was getting all kinds of trash. I was having flashbacks to the previous year's "Rookie Curse" mode, so my enjoyment level dropped fast. As well, because I'd hit so many nuggets the previous summer, I was in a bit of a hurry to start hearing that "low-high-low" golden tone once more. Well, it didn't happen at all in that spot, and the bugs were exceptionally blood-thirsty down there away from any breeze, so I moved on to windier realms. I happened upon some long rows of hand-stacked cobbles and small boulders, and then I came to some sheets of bare bedrock, but I couldn't get a peep out of the bedrock. It was completely smooth and iron hard, the wrong type of rock to trap gold, which made for discouraging hunting. I walked down closer to the river and detected along a bench, but all I found were more heavily rusted pieces of tin can, bits of lead, snips of small gauge iron and copper wire, broken chunks of cable, boot tacks, and lead meat-tin keys. It was Deja-vu all over again. By this time I was hot, sweaty, tired and felt four times dumber than when I'd hiked in there. (I say I was much dumber because of what happened next.) I decided I'd hike out through the pines and aspens in a different direction from the way I'd bush-whacked my way in. I got partway through, heading uphill about a block and a half away from the boulder basin, and all at once, the trees opened up, and I was in a clearing. Well, that should have been my first tip-off (a clearing), but like I said, I was a bit grumpy, hungry and looking forward to cooking some grub on the wood-burning stove back at camp in the wall-tent, about a half a mile away. Nevertheless, my little prospector brain (the one much smaller than my big, dumb prospector brain that wants nothing but food, and easy finds) lit up and overrode my big dumb brain, and recognition set in. This area was clearly not natural. (I know it's hard to believe, being so easy to understand for a pro, but at the time I was such a green rookie my brain had almost no gold logic.) Anyway, my two opposing brains quit fighting and made me do a double take; my hunger was briefly forgotten, and I started paying attention to what I was walking through. Off to my right I spotted disturbed rows of forest floor. And, sure enough, there were rows of trenched forest floor, which cut down to bedrock! (Now, any prospector worth his salt, his bacon, or his beans would have spent time carefully checking this entire area, but no, at that time I was a sausage-brained rookie.) There were chunks of broken bedrock, tree roots, cobbles (clearly indicating the existence of channel underneath) and smaller water-worn stones cast up everywhere. In addition, some spots had been trenched wider than others, leaving exposed bedrock patches. (It was about two to three feet to bedrock.) Other cuts were slumping back in, and many had grown over. This was old work, likely done by the early diggers around 1870. So, what did I do? I followed those trenches around in the forest, peering down into them from time to time like a sappy tourist. Towards the end, It dawned on me to fire up my detector (That it took me that long proves how dumb newbie dumb can be) and detect around a bit. There were old square nails, bits of decomposing tin can, and much rarer tiny square nails. What did this mean to me at the time? Well, I figured someone had been digging around, had left some trash behind, and had moved on to bigger and better opportunities, of course. What does it all mean to me now that I’ve been chasing the gold for many years? Someone did a ton of back-breaking work hand-trenching chasing the gold, and because of the different sizes of square nails, they were there most likely had some kind of recovery system set up to get the gold. Moreover, as they were following the bedrock, they were probably finding enough to make it interesting. (Have you ever trenched in the forest two to three feet to bedrock? Cutting through those roots and rocks is zero fun!) Yet, with the clearing not worked to bedrock, it likely wasn’t rich ground (gold was around $19 an ounce in 1870). Or, they could have had water problems or lacked enough funding, etc. Regardless, I should have reopened some of those trenches and detected that ancient bedrock. Instead, I overruled my tiny prospector's (developing) baby brain that had tipped me off in the first place and only gave the ground a superficial working. The location of that forest trenching is a gruelling eighteen-hour drive north and west of here, and I may never return (thick with bears and bugs, and a road that really beats up vehicles). Nonetheless, because I've learned much better how to find the gold now, if I ever do return, I’ll know where to explore and what to exploit as it would be a fantastic opportunity to detect virgin bedrock as well as virgin (thrown out) dirt. I've since found beautiful gold in areas like that one, as the prospectors a hundred and fifty or so years previous had no way of knowing what they were throwing out (unless they ran all of the dirt, which they did not) during their testing. Moreover, they had no way of knowing what they were leaving in the invisible cracks and crevices of the bedrock, but a premier gold detector, put to good use today would do the job very well indeed. So, there’s one for the someday, if I ever return list, and a lesson that’s stuck with me since that’s produced nice nuggets when I’m out tramping around old workings. All the best, Lanny
    2 points
  41. The Gemini (and TW6) is primarily a utility locator although it does get sold to occasional treasure hunters (the TM808 is a better choice for that). The best way to use the Gemini is to split it apart, connect the TX to the line or pipe, and then use the RX box to trace it out. At my previous home I traced the power line out to the well house, about 150 feet. In utility locating there are 2 popular frequencies used: 8.2kHz and 82kHz. 82kHz is the better choice for tracing metal pipes because it does a better job of jumping across the poorly conductive joints. Probably why the TW6 runs at 82kHz, and the Gemini is just a copy of the TW6. As a unified 2-box detector the Gemini is not especially sensitive. I know that it failed my 24" silver cache test, but so did the TM808 and everything else I tried.
    2 points
  42. Yes, we had good deposits of iron ore, lead and tin. The lead also contained silver, as a bonus. The Romans were pretty skilled at metallurgy; bronze, pewter, solder were all tin-containing metals. https://www.romanobritain.org/11_work/raw_mining.php
    2 points
  43. There is native gold in the U.K , there are deposits running down the west coast of Scotland, through to the central mountains of Wales. Some was extracted from the rivers, and in Roman times, there was some mining in Wales. But most of our gold was imported from the continent. Roman mine in Wales: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolaucothi_Gold_Mines Some background reading on gold artefacts in the UK from Roman to Medieval times: https://finds.org.uk/counties/blog/gold-working-in-the-roman-and-medieval-periods/
    2 points
  44. You see it very easily with Bluetooth and water. Nice high frequency distance for above water, but you only get inches at best with Bluetooth underwater. I know radio and detectors are different things, detectors are more alternator theory than radio theory, but you see similar issues as regards wavelength and signal propagation.
    2 points
  45. Thanks a lot guys! I have more machines and few days ago bought the D2. Have been using Deus 1 since many years and has always been my first choice . I enjoy myself testing machines in depth, separation and iron masking. Here in Italy we have to pay big attention and must stay away from archeological areas. Bye for now and thanks again for your kindness!
    2 points
  46. Been my worst year for finding gold. The few times ( because of you know what} I have been able to get out ( I'm 69 ) only 3 times. Once with the 5000 and just 8 hours with the 6000. Will get out more this year, I hope.
    2 points
  47. My intent was misinterpreted, so I clarified it in the Classifieds rules. New members will have to have made at least ten posts over a minimum of a 30 day period on the forums before being allowed to post in the Classifieds. The change was from “members” to “new members”. Frankly, I thought that would be a given. I had to make the original ten post over 30 day rule because people would join, make ten posts in a day, and place an ad. The change made them work a month to do it, and did put a stop to it. The intent of the Classifieds is simple. Provide genuine active members with a free venue to advertise. That’s it. But the internet being what it is, I’ve had to add all the BS to head off scammers. Anyone that’s been a member for years is welcome to post ads, even if they have not posted anything else in ages. I realize the original post is in jest, but the actual issue has come up before, so I figured good time to fix it. Thanks Norm. And good luck getting the disguise. Me, I think I’d just need the little mustache, as I’m half way there already.
    2 points
  48. Hello there.... wanted to chime in here because you keep on bringing the name contest we did a few years ago. And I want members not to be misled with your comments. Now, first off, when we first said we were going to work on an SMF device, we never said when it would be released and that it was just a concept/project. We clearly referred to it as our FUTURE product. We held a naming contest of which the main purpose was to get people's input NOT on the name only BUT the features and specs! Anybody who applied and filled the form back then can confirm that! Second, R&D and engineering - if you are serious about it - may take years, if you didn't know. The only time we mentioned a release date on this product was November 19th 2021 at the launch and even then I said we are ''hoping'' to start shipments in December. Now, we never asked any END-USER to go ahead and purchase this product as we do not sell to end-users directly. Some dealers take orders and make the customers pay, some do not. This is a decision made by distributors/dealers and the end-users. We do NOT get involved in that at all. We as a manufacturer try our best to keep everybody informed and try to be as transparent as possible. And regardless of what people say, we will ship this product when all the updates are done as our priority is not to start making money earlier but to put the best unit possible in the customers' hands. People put down a lot more money on a car or many other electronics and wait for months to get it and I seriously do not see any manufacturer caring about end users and talking to them directly to give an update. It is seriously very disappointing when we try our best to communicate and interact and at the end hear so much complaint. Hope this clears it for the rest of the members who did not know about the background of this product and the naming contest. THANK YOU!
    2 points
  49. Beach hunt # 18 is still a continuation of hunting the same beach that I was getting a lot of copper cents from. Tide was not very low, and I was determined to try the 17x21 SEF coil to see if I could squeak out anything just beyond the other coils reach. I also want to see if it could actually find a dime size object deep. With the tide down as low as it was going to be, I should have waited to try the big coil. It did work well in popping a lot of clad in a short span, but the sand changes in moisture very fast, and it soon became too jumpy to use without dropping sensitivity a lot. So, I tried the 12.5” coil that gave me trouble a while back and it worked well but soon started acting up also, so I switched to the 11” Detech coil. Smooth as could be. On this beach I prefer the 11” over the other coils as I can crank the 11” and get really good depth and a lot quieter EMI. The others work, but you need to be aware of the saturation of the sand you are hunting. It took a while, but I finally hit the coin / silver line and ended up with 5 silvers, one of which was the ’27 Standing Liberty Quarter – a nice surprise indeed. A cool looking lead soldier as well, and some big chunks of lead really deep. I thought I was digging iron for sure. I did dig some nasty looking globs of iron, so I broke them open to see what they held. No coins trapped inside them iron globs this time around. Still a decent number of copper cents vs zincs and really not a lot of holes dug on this hunt. I’ll probably end up there again next week to hit some areas I didn’t really cover well. Always a pleasure to just unwind and do the best hobby on the planet!!!!!!
    2 points
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