Steve Herschbach

Welcome to the forum Peter.you may want to read the thread - this is from 2013 and this forum is not the place to apply anyway. I deleted your phone number since you are not going to get a call from the show producers by posting here.

Welcome to the forum! I hope you will tell us about that amazing pile of coins when you have the time

Anytime you see plug in "directional rods" that resemble dowsing rods you know you are in trouble. The pictured items "B Mode" claims ranges of 100 to 1000 meters. That makes it a "Long Range Locator" and personally I run from all LRL devices being sold. If I want one of those I will make a set out of coat hangers or welding rod.

What an interesting find! I have no information for you but wanted to welcome you to the forum

All the Facebook embeds have the Facebook logo in upper right. I could also add an additional note the embeds are Facebook embeds but that's just making it more work. Anyway, problem solved from my perspective.

I stick with mainline manufacturers and highly recommend anyone not wanting to waste money do the same. Aliexpress in particular is a well known distribution site for counterfeit product and as such not to be trusted at all.

If the information was available on the .com websites I would post the link there instead. Lots of stuff is only getting posted to company Facebook pages these days. It is how companies are communicating with people. Anyway, I do have other priorities these days so will stop taking the time to seek out and post outside links. It was just an attempt to keep some action going on forums that are not currently getting many posts.

Hi Gold, Welcome to the forum, and thank you for taking the time to relate your experience. I am sorry it was not a better one but you may save somebody else the grief due to your report. ?

The Sea Hunter does not ground balance - the equivalent White's would be the Surf PI Dual Field. The ATX and TDI Beachhunter would be equivalent models. The Sea Hunter does I believe employ a pulse delay control but they employ it as a reverse discrimination control. The problem is nobody knows the range of the control. https://www.kellycodetectors.com/catalog/fieldtests/index/view/id/105?

Minelab Equinox 800, Minelab Excalibur II, Quest Pro, Makro Multi Kruzer, Quest Scuba Tector. How to stabilize machine. Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II, Garrett AT Max, XP Deus, Whites MX Sport, Stable beach settings part 2

Pulse induction relies on the fact that all targets "hold" a signal for a number of microseconds. A PI transmits, pauses (the pulse delay, measured in microseconds uS), then receives. A VLF is a "continuous wave" or induction balance machine and has a delay of "0". The pulse delay is normally around 10uS to 25 uS on most machines. 10uS is very close to what will make a signal on saltwater. Pushing to around 8 uS is borderline. Basically, the shorter the pulse delay time in microseconds, the greater the sensitivity to small items, but the more sensitivity to saltwater and mineralized soil. If you want a stable machine you go for a longer pulse delay, if you want a "hotter" machine you go with a shorter delay. The Sea Hunter pulse delay is a well kept secret, I can't find the actual spec anywhere though I am guessing around 15 uS? Bottom line is the lack of sensitivity to tiny stuff is inherent in the design. Anyway, great detector but just do not expect it to be super hot on tiny stuff. Sea Hunter YouTube Videos Minelab Equinox 800, Minelab Excalibur II, Quest Pro, Makro Multi Kruzer, Quest Scuba Tector. How to stabilize machine. Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II, Garrett AT Max, XP Deus, Whites MX Sport, Stable beach settings part 2

The Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II is an old design, quite dependable, but if there is a weak side to the detector it is the ability to detect small targets. It is a straight up non-ground balancing PI and so relies on a relatively long pulse delay to eliminate saltwater and mineralized soil signals. The Infinium and then ATX were designed to address this lack of small gold sensitivity. Saltwater and small gold read the same, and so all detectors working in a salt environment give up some small gold sensitivity to eliminate the salt signal. Sorry, but no idea on battery life options.

I don't count on purity of tone - it's simply something I look for. If you do not want to miss targets get a GPZ and dig everything. Everything short of that is a judgment call but attempting to explain nuance is near impossible in writing. That's why it is kind of pointless to weigh in on these sorts of things. Everyone calls their own shots and everyone has a different idea of what makes a good target or a poor one. I am either digging everything, or I am making judgement calls and without exception anyone that does so is leaving good targets behind due to bad calls. Anyone thinking otherwise is kidding themselves.

I was never an expert with the BBS machines so will not try to compare. Equinox has plenty of nuance for my ear and my hearing is not so great anyway.

I tend to key on tonally pure targets. I want lots of tones to allow things the ability to not be pure tones. Five tones artificially forces pure tones, defeating my main “tell” which is either the solidity or fluidity of the tones I am hearing. Round items tend to deliver pure tones and when doing anything but nugget hunt I tend to lean towards round items.

Should I stop posting them?

Meteorite hunting in Antarctica... video on BBC.... https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-47395480/hunting-for-space-rocks-in-antarctica

All a contact zone in in simple terms is a place where two different rock types come together. This can be very obvious, like green rock next to red rock. Or nearly invisible, where one type of salt and pepper rock comes up against a different type of salt and pepper rock. If the contact zone is buried by overburden, the contact itself can grade from really obvious to invisible. In fact, you may not be able to see at ground level what might be obvious from an aerial view. You are simply trying to see something at surface level, like two different soil types, that might give a clue to the contact zone below. In my opinion you are thinking too hard. You say you know gold is in the immediate area? Personally I hit the ground and start wandering around with my detector scanning as I go. The signs I look for is hand dug holes, ditches, piles of dirt, stacked rocks... anything that indicates prior work was done. If it looks interesting, put the coil over it. Quartz is a nice indicator rock, but most places where you see quartz you won’t find any gold. It is just a very common rock. Ironstone and iron staining is nice to see. Each area is different really. Once you get familiar with an area either though experience or reading geologic reports of the area you can get a better feel for what rock types are associated with the gold in that area.

"We have not changed the GB on any of the modes since the launch of the detector. GB is definitely not locked in any modes on Equinox."

And from "the man": "We have not changed the GB on any of the modes since the launch of the detector. GB is definitely not locked in any modes on Equinox."

So Merton, did you get a Tarsacci on order or in hand?

I am curious why no U.S. manufacturers offer a discount to U.S. veterans. Minelab USA and Minelab Australia marketing are run out of different offices. The discount is through Minelab USA to it's dealer network. Why Minelab Australia does not I guess is a question for them... I don't know. When I put on my "cold hearted businessman" hat the answer I come up with is "they don't have to". In business it is all about the dollars, and you don't offer a discount if you don't have to. Could even be a cultural thing - are vet discounts common in Oz?

Roots are actually a separate issue. Quite a few detectors will detected a large root for various reasons. Thunderstorms create a ground potential. Lightning as much leaps up from the ground as strikes downward. I could certainly see this as possibly creating issues in surface weeds. The GPX and GPZ can detect variations in the earth's magnetic field and lightning strikes many miles away. The receiver sensitivity is astounding. Source