Steve Herschbach

The end of our month long trip to Australia is approaching. It is starting to sink in that the massive Australian nugget I had dreamt of finding was going to continue to be a dream. The flies were out in force now but we persevered trying new locations hoping to get lucky. Mon Sep 19 - Two nuggets, 0.8 gram Tue Sep 20 - Move to new location, no gold Wed Sep 21 - 3.6 grams, found a sunbaker

The largest gem-quality diamond ever found in North America is on display at the Smithsonian for three months in its rough, uncut state. “It's a really unusual chance for people to see this rare diamond,” says Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. “It isn't something that happens very often. This may be the only chance in your life to see such a thing.” Full article here

Probably too hot for the area for general hunting. It might make a found nugget pop better once found, but also light up ground noise and hot rocks when searching for unfound nuggets.

Typical of what seems to happen on Aussie forums the two linked threads above have been locked over a misunderstanding. Hopefully it will get cleared up but if the links do not work that's why. In the meantime, here are some new videos on how to set up the QED:

The plot thickens. The link I had was to the first volume of the 1996 second edition. The blog link Terry provided has links to the three volumes of the 2005 third edition. I have updated my original post with direct links. Bob Beste's "Location Guide for Rockhounds in the United States, 3rd. ed. 2005": Part I--Alabama through Idaho (PDF, 155 p.) Part II--Illinois through North Dakota (PDF, 186 p.) Part III--Ohio through Wyoming (PDF, 193 p.)

Excellent - good work Terry!

Just listing what I am seeing where I am seeing it, and seeing noting at Regton's yet. Just a note to everyone - any link I ever make to any dealer is not an endorsement of that dealer. I just link for informational purposes.

Well good on you Harry for getting out and braving the elements - it paid off!

Hmmmm..... A UK dealer and an Australian dealer are both listing the 9" round high frequency coil and the new pinpointer for sale, but neither lists the elliptical coil. Delayed maybe?

My take was down last year but mainly due to being busy on other things. No complaints though. Renewed focus for 2017 is the plan.

Guessing that is a gold specie in the middle of the picture?

Hi Des, The loose fit with some coils is to be expected as one rod can't fit everything perfectly. I have a vast collection of lower rods and washers so it is not an issue for me personally. I just mentioned it so other people would be aware of it.

There will both a round and an elliptical high frequency coil option...

Production QED units are reaching users hands. Here a respected Oz forum member was able to observe one being tested against a GPX 5000. The summary: "Do I like this machine "Yes" For the price it is an excellent machine. Would I buy one. Not yet until I see how it functions in the proper goldfields. But what I saw today I was impressed for such a small compact machine with a great punch." Full report at http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t24672p120-the-qed-and-me#240736 "For the price" is pretty standard - I used that same terminology when talking about machines like the Infinium or TDI. You are getting good value for what you are spending. Nothing wrong with that at all in my opinion. The machine may represent a very good value in Australia where machines like the Garrett ATX and White's ATX are quite overpriced due to import duties, shipping, markup, etc. Here in the U.S. however the situation reverses somewhat. The QED may not be a world shaker, but my main takeaway from all this is that it is finally here and it does work. Now that units are getting into end user hands where the QED fits in compared to the various other options will be made clear fairly soon. Supposedly there is already a waiting list of about 50 units. The machine may be a joy for people who like to customize units - one already in a nice set of photos at http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t24672p150-the-qed-and-me#240816

I sadly have to report that I just read at http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t24764-rip-robby_h that forum member robby_h has passed away. He was a frequent poster on many Australian forums. Robby had great technical knowledge and I was thrilled when he showed up on this forum. You can find his posts on this forum at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/profile/622-robby_h/content/ My condolences to his family and friends.

Dr Richard Goldfarb is a world expert on Orogenic Gold Deposits. He explains how orogenic gold formed during plate tectonic collisions and especially during continental growth. Published on Nov 10, 2013 https://youtu.be/RBGuaCDMPzM

March works for me

The not so technical way - https://www.uvm.edu/~swac/docs/mod7/Exporting.pdf The official technical way - https://support.google.com/earth/answer/166438?hl=en

That really does suck - sorry to hear that guys

Not just you Mike - snow on the ground here and highs in the 30s.

The tones are merely an artifact of the ground balancing system. Depending on where the ground balance ends up at, possibly in conjunction with other settings, you will get either a hi-lo or lo-hi tone. In general hi-lo means small target and/or low conductive (short time constant) and lo-hi means large target and/or high conductive (long time constant). Whether a target is lead or gold or whatever is not part of the equation per se except as relates to metal conductivity. Since the ground balance point changes depending where you are responses can change. Different ground modes will also change responses. Similar responses can be had with any ground balancing PI detector. A person, with enough time in a given area, may learn that certain tones correlate with certain targets. Dangerous territory but it can be done. For instance, small gold normally goes hi-lo. Large iron junk normally goes lo-hi. This can help in areas where large nuggets are not likely. But a large gold nugget and even some smaller, round, solid nuggets will go lo-hi, hence the danger. When in doubt - dig it out!

No need for that idaho - looks like paul is going for that 4500 so I am the one that will butt out now!

If you would like a preview Paul, just put your FORS CoRe in Gen (all metal) mode and dig everything. The GPX iron discrimination does not work at depth.