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Steve Herschbach

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  1. Well, I used to run a service department dealing with all sorts of products. All warranties pretty much say the manufacturer will repair or replace the item at their option. I almost never saw any company do a full product replacement unless it was something small and pretty much one piece. Like a bilge pump for instance. It fails under warranty, they replace it. After saying you ran it dry or sucked up fishing line or hooked it up backwards, etc. I am not saying this to defend Nokta per se but that is just how things are normally done. If you get a detector with a bad coil, any company is going to replace the coil, not the whole detector. Or in this case a handle, whatever. Now, having said that this is where a local dealer does come in. If you had bought the detector from me when I was a dealer, first, you probably would not got out of the door until we put it together and checked it out unless you insisted. If that happened and you brought it back next day, I would have replaced either the detector or the failed part on the spot and sent you on your way, and then taken it up with the manufacturer on my own. That level of service is rapidly becoming non-existent as people turn to the internet and mail order for everything. Even then however I personally believe a dealer always has primary responsibility for everything they sell, and way too many dealers these days just fob it off on the manufacturer. Most dealer agreements I ever signed made it clear that part of the deal is taking care of customer issues. So when I hear dealers say stuff like "I did not make it so it is not my problem" my answer is "my money is in your pocket, so it is". The dealer is the last line of defense. We can blame the manufacturer for letting a bad in box unit out of the door, sure. But how about the dealer who did exactly the same thing? I see on the forums a lot these days people just take it straight to the forums and the manufacturer and the dealers seem to be 100% off the hook these days and I just do not get that personally. If that is how it is to be then as a manufacturer I would cancel all my dealers and go factory direct for everything. Why share the profit with people who do not earn it? By the way this was not aimed at you Chuck. I just got started and riffed on about something that has been bugging me for awhile.
  2. Glad to hear my settings are at least getting some more experimentation going. They simply will not work as published for many people in some ground locations - I always want to be clear on that. But for people who like running hot they can provide some extra pop in the right locations. Can't wait to hear the followup as I am off season right now and not seeing any gold myself.
  3. If we all read manuals and understood them my forum would be out of business! Welcome to the forum usefy_eng and thank you for bearing with me while I got you online. First off, I have to say I have never heard of anyone yet suceessfully employing the Coin & Relic Mode. Despite its name, it really has nothing to do with Coins & Relics. Here is the quote from the link cited above: "Coin/Relic is designed for use in lightly mineralized soils including many beaches. It offers maximum detection depth on a range of target sizes, significantly greater than any other timings. However, if the ground is any more than lightly mineralized, the detector may not ground balance. Coin/Relic should work very well in most common parks, ovals, and old home sites, so is the preferred timing when using your detector for coins, jewelry and relics. On ocean beaches containing significant quantities of black sand, better results may be had by using Normal or Salt settings." In other words, by design the Coin & Relic timing is already using an extremely limited amount of ground balancing, so minimal that ground balancing simply will not work at most locations if you use this timing. So my first answer to your question is that it may not matter what else you do if you use Coin & Relic in the vast number of locations where it will not work. Your first clue will be that the detector will pick up the ground if the coil is raised and lowered over the ground, despite any changes to the ground balance settings. Another tip for Coin & Relic timing is to use very low gain settings to reduce ground effects. I strongly advise you start elsewhere, and a good place to start is at GPX Help For A Beginner If the GPX is run in ground tracking mode it constantly adjusts the ground balance for you. Holding the green button on the handle pauses the tracking while you are over a target so as to not track it out. The tracking speed determines how aggressive the tracking system is. Fast tracking will do a better job in highly variable ground but may tend to track out tiny or deep targets so is actually only used if you really need it. If the detector can't keep up with changes in the ground. Another solution is just go slower. Slower tracking speeds do force you to move slower in bad ground, but are preferred for maximum depth and sensitivity where you can use them. Most operators prefer no tracking at all. Turn tracking off. Now the green button temporarily turns automatic ground balance on. Hold the button and pump the coil over the ground until the ground signal goes away, and release the button. Now you have a fixed ground balance setting, and only set it again if the ground conditions change. If you yse Coin & Relic tracking may be best because that mode will be very sensitive to even slight changes in ground conditions. If you are trying to use the detector for coins or relics, ground balancing over targets is a real bad idea. The only discrimination you have available that works to full depth is the sounds the detector makes, and the best way to learn them is to listen to the sounds, then dig the item up and see what made the sound. Eventually you will learn small items or low conductor items make a hi-lo tone, and large items or high conductive targets make a lo-hi tone. Finally, if you use a DD coil you can use the Discrimination control to blank out shallow ferrous {steel and iron) targets but it is unreliable and does not work on deep targets. The GPX 5000 is designed first and foremost for depth. Any discrimination is a secondary attribute. Relic Hunting with the GPX 5000 http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/230759-new-gpx5000-digs-diggin-virginia-xvii.html
  4. The whole depth with single frequency VLF detectors thing in my opinion has been nothing but a red herring for decades. I have read a thousand posts from people wanting VLF detectors with "more depth". Yet VLF detectors maxed out for usable depth by at least 1990 if not before. I have not used any single frequency VLF metal detector since 1990 that got more depth on coins than my old Compass Gold Scanner Pro. The only real improvement we have seen and are still seeing is in the ability to find and correctly identify items that are masked by the ground itself or adjacent undesirable targets. There are an amazing number of targets in the ground at depths achievable by any decent detector made in the last 25 years, but that are being missed because they are improperly identified and ignored, or just completely masked and invisible. This is an area where the Minelab BBS and FBS detectors have excelled. They do not go deeper. They simply get more accurate discrimination at depths exceeding what most detectors achieve. Machines like the DEUS and a lot of other Euro machines are excelling not for the depth they get, but this ability to acquire and accurately identify targets at shallower depths that are missed by other detectors. If we had a detector that could simply see through everything and accurately identify coins to 10" the ground would light up with countless missed finds. I get a chuckle out of all the deep coins I see people talk about on the forums when the best detectors made can't accurately identify a dime past 5-6 inches in my soil. Anything deeper just gets called ferrous. There is huge room for improvement in metal detectors still not by getting more depth, but by simply finding shallower targets that have been missed by other detectors made up until now. How To Make Yourself Crazy! U.S. Versus Euro Style Detectors
  5. I have never tried the SDC on a salt water beach. I only put it in the water once, up at Lake Tahoe. The main thing I discovered is the SDC 2300 floats like a cork whereas the ATX is pretty much neutral in the water. I think the SDC makes a better wading unit than a fully submersible machine. The only guy that seems to have really put the SDC to the test in salt water is Gary Drayton http://www.minelab.com/treasure-talk/beach-hunting-with-the-sdc-2300 That is a heck of a deal for the right person.
  6. Actual field testing now commencing at http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/read.php?2,95264,95385#msg-95385
  7. I have not been quite as lucky but I have owned a LOT of detectors. So far have had to send back Garrett, Minelab, Tesoro, and White's units for warranty work. I have owned a lot of a Fisher machines but can't recall one ever needing warranty. I did send a Gold Bug 2 back once just to get it tuned up, but that is it as far as I can remember. So far no issues with the Turkish models.
  8. They make hundreds of things that fix the dirty finger issue for cell phones. I can get totally submersible cases for my iPhone. Underwater detector! I do not see the DEUS control box as being any less prone to wet dirty finger issues. The fact is once the detector is set up you don't play with the controls much if at all anyway. Whoever does this right is going to score. Most old line companies will avoid it because it will eat into what most mainly sell you, which is the control box and what is in it. But XP has proven the working guts can all be in the coil, and the box is just a control and display interface. Hey, I am the old fashioned give me a wired coil guy here. But I can tell a big seller when I see it. Even if it were just a basic park coin shooter it would appeal to a very large market. I know this Russian detector is not it but the concept is a gold mine for the outfit that does it right. Sell me the coil and make the app open source so we can all modify if we wish and watch the combined ingenuity of the community take over.
  9. I would lay my money on the handle also so we will see. Crossing my fingers that it fixes you right up!
  10. Dirty hands and touch screens being used around the world as I type. That is why all those screen savers get sold. I doubt these guys have it right but somebody will get it done. Wish I knew more about electronics, I would jump on the idea myself.
  11. Here is the 1904 Edition at Google https://books.google.com/books?id=vWY1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&dq=Geology+Applied+to+Mining+by+Josiah+Edward+Spurr&source=bl&ots=bzQM7aHsqL&sig=unyRG6BO8qy2ZmMSmsfCSxvC3P8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQzd6YxcjJAhWEFx4KHUNdDWoQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&q=Geology%20Applied%20to%20Mining%20by%20Josiah%20Edward%20Spurr&f=false You can read the 1926 second edition online at http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b315479;view=1up;seq=7 Other publications by Spurr http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Spurr%2C%20Josiah%20Edward%2C%201870-1950 Wikipedia on Josiah Edward Spurr (1870 - 1950) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Edward_Spurr He has been a part of my entire life in a way - Mt. Spurr west of Anchorage, a very active volcano that has dumped ash in my yard in the past, was named after him. In fact, I still have a bottle full of that ash. Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Entry - Do take a look at this, interesting read! http://alaskamininghalloffame.org/inductees/spurr.php
  12. It would seem inevitable when you look at what XP has done with wireless coils. Everyone already owns the best color screen control box billions of dollars can make, with screens and processing power galore. And built in GPS! Take calls while detecting - well, that might not be a selling point but you get my drift. Another great idea that should be happening here first but instead we are seeing it from overseas. I am sure it has limitations but the way tech is advancing it really is just a matter of time.
  13. What really stuns me is the size of these ships in the early 1700's. A crew of over 600 - I find that simply amazing. The battle was known as "Wager's Action" with details at Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wager%27s_Action Action Off Cartagena, 28 May 1708. Oil by Samual Scott (public domain)
  14. Cartagena (Colombia) (AFP) - Colombia says it has found the shipwreck of a storied Spanish galleon laden with gold, silver and precious stones, three centuries after it was sunk by the British in the Caribbean. "This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity," President Juan Manuel Santos declared on Saturday. The San Jose was sunk in June 1708 near the Islas del Rosario, off Colombia's Caribbean coast, during combat with British ships attempting to take its cargo, as part of the War of Spanish Succession. The galleon was the main ship in a treasure fleet carrying gold, silver and other valuable items from Spain's American colonies to King Philip V. Only a handful of the ship's crew of 600 survived when the San Jose sank. The loot is estimated to be worth around $2 billion, its value having dropped significantly due to the falling price of silver, according to US-based company Sea Search Armada. Full story at http://news.yahoo.com/colombia-finds-treasure-galleon-ending-300-mystery-230419797.html
  15. Concentrics do have better ferrous id capabilities over DD coils so it is not entirely unexpected? The catch with Tom is all his tests are in low mineral ground. He gets depths double in Florida over what I get on the west coast. The mineralization also adversely affects concentric coils. May be more to that story once he does some real world testing. This opens up possibilities because I have a FORS Gold Plus in hand and just got my new DEUS so if the weather cooperates I can do a little checking to try and confirm all this, plus see what happens with the new DEUS coil. I also wonder how the FORS Gold Plus handles flat steel, as that is their weakness compared to the DEUS and CTX.
  16. Highlights: "Fors Gold+ unmasks identical to XP GMP (with both low & high conductors in multi-co-locate with iron)" "the 10" concentric coil lends itself with a slight edge (over all other coils/options) as a slightly better micro-jewelry hunter" "10" elliptical concentric coil unmasks approx 11% better than the 10" elliptical DD coil. 10" elliptical coil also unmasks better than 5" DD coil" Full details at http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/read.php?2,95264
  17. Well, a Google search says the school is in Harvey, Louisiana and the website is at http://westjefferson.jpschools.org/ The ring should hae the year on it and if you can read the inscription of the name on the inside they might be able to help you via Yearbooks. Sometimes just doing a search online of the person, school and year will turn up a Facebook page . There may also be a class reunion website you can check with.
  18. The information was posted here last June http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/1006-fisher-czx-metal-detector-ground-breaking-technology/ Nothing new, hopefully 2016?
  19. I hated Windows 8 and stayed with Win7 but my experiences with Win10 have been nothing but positive. It made my old HP All-In-One run like a new computer. Thankfully even though over 5 years old I have not had the problem Peteren unfortunately experienced. XChange2 runs just fine on Win10.
  20. Very interesting. The DEUS I figured. CTX I might have guessed. But the AT Pro surprised me a bit. It is very popular here with coin and relic hunters, no doubt about that. I just did not realize it was so popular elsewhere. Bang for the buck the AT really is an excellent all around performer and being weatherproof it is sort of a "CTX Lite". Not only is the DEUS superb at pulling non-ferrous out of ferrous but it is light and let's face it, cool in a high tech way. The CTX does ferrous well but does it slowly. And very often it does come down to covering ground quickly and efficiently, whereas the CTX rewards slow and methodical. I will fess up to something. My CTX is for sale figuring it has been over three years since release and sooner or later we are going to see a CTX 4040 or whatever. NO, I have no inside knowledge of this!! But I certainly have plenty of other machines to occupy my time while waiting. What the CTX needs more than anything is a processor upgrade to improve things on the speed side, and a long overdue upgrade in the screen quality. I used to count weight as a needed improvement but frankly after swinging the GPZ all summer the CTX feels featherweight.
  21. I am posting this using Windows 10 and Edge. I have been using Windows 10 and Chrome for some time now with zero issues, so it is not Windows 10. Edge is working but I am having strange issues typing this. The cursor wants to disappear. It seems more a problem in "quick reply" than if I use the full editor under "more reply options". Bottom line Edge is new and people have been dumping it in droves. I would recommend just about any alternative for now. Back to Chrome for me!
  22. This is very unscientific but since I have the ear of our friends over the pond, I have a question. Just in terms of general observation at rally's and hunts involving knowledgeable users, what detectors are finding the most favor these days?
  23. Well that is great if true. Again, I have noted a very close similarity to what prospectors look for in a detector compared to what UK hunters are looking for. Which is the ability to pull non-ferrous targets out of ground with difficult mineralization profiles and very often, large amounts of ferrous trash. There also is the shared emphasis on the ability to recover very small low conductive target responses. Because of this I have scoured reviews of European machines and have found Gary's site and field tests to be a literal gold mine of information. Check out his website at http://www.garysdetecting.co.uk and in particular the reviews section at http://www.garysdetecting.co.uk/fieldtests.htm When I had the opportunity to visit the U.K. myself my decision to bring the F75 as my main unit was largely influenced by Gary's reviews at that time of both the T2 and F75. I also had the CTX 3030 and MXT along but they saw minimal use. Metal Detecting Ancient Coins at Colchester, UK - 10/1/2010
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