E_Lee

Thanks Steve K.  I will try both of those.  Great ideas.  Much appreciated.

Thanks Steve.  I'll check out those links and see if I can get anywhere.  It seems like it is super sensitive to highly mineralized soil.  This is a bummer because I would think those are the types of locations where you have a good chance of finding some gold.  Thanks again.

I was detecting over the weekend with my Garrett ATX near Redding.  The ground was moist and was mostly a reddish-orange clay like soil from the decomposed shale bedrock I am assuming.  When I moved away from the creek bottom (gravels and bedrock) and went up on the hillside or in tributary gulches I would encounter soil areas that made the detector constantly give a target signal or what I would say is a mineralized ground wine or squeal.  I tried ground balancing several times, but it did not alleviate the problem.  Ended up shutting down the machine and relocating, basically starting over in a new area where I could maintain a normal threshold sound.  I have used the machine for about a year and this has happened a couple times, but it happens infrequently.  The first time it happened I had a low battery and figured it may have been a symptom of a low battery.  Any ideas, similar experiences, and/or tips using the ATX would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance.