Keith Southern

Thanks for the link Steve,... make's you wonder how many of those people will become well off then persue detecting as a hobby maybe even looking for relics and such.. you know how it is once you get a detector in your hands it can beocme a way of life for a lot of people... Keith

That'ss what I use the ATX for Rick... Relics... Believe me if you have some weird ground like Here in North Ga..and especially where the soldier's dug in on tops of the rocky craggy hills and mountians a P.I. is a godsend at time's... Thank's for the link... Keith

Hey Steve... I'm down to just one P.I. and the ATX is it..so I dont have the option to contemplate over the TDI LOL!! but the TDI can do some nice tricks at times with the manual Ground bal and tone selector.... Yet at the same time TO ME the ATX seems more audio descriptive with the awesome coil design they have... I really like the Garrett has spent time on the audio of there newest machine's.....the AT's and Now the ATX has some wonderful audio quality.... And I'm sort of an Audiophile junkie when it comes to detector's...I love the ability to hear minute things and Garrett seems on board with that thought process too... Not weird at all about the looks Steve.....and looks don't mean a thing, but to be truthful the ATX looks like a serious piece of gear....It got the look to make people think who are watching from afar that Hey this guy must be doing something important .... Keith

Great report on the ATX Steve....very well written to I might add... and Yes the ATX is very very very EMI resistant is it not...unreal how calm they have it even in urban areas full of electrical smog... Congrat's on the find's... yes those ring's could of made you write down a over biased raving review...some time elapsed does help take it all in for review purposes.. and yet I see the ATX as one well engineered pulse machine... again a 21st century pulse...and I see no need to revert back to the Infinium and as of now even the TDI... thanks for the excellent read as alway's.. you deserve the goodies!! Keith

Have you ever watched this .. Hope they dont cut there toes off... Keith

Looks like my wish came true ....they just put it on the wrong machine LOL!! The carbon fiber Pole's... lets see 2300 P.I. weighs 5.3 Lbs without battery's.. 4 C-Cells weigh about 9.5 ounces so about half a pound...that would put the 2300 at 5.8 unless theres a holder of some sort the bat's go in... the ATX is doing 6.9lbs with batterys.. So it looks like the 2300 is a pound lighter with the smaller coil... so I wonder if the carbon fiber is that much lighter over the fiberglass rod's...or is the 2300 control box heavier than the ATX box... the carbon fiber might only shave a half pound or so off the ATX if it had it..and for the cost I might see why Garrett avoided it...fiberglas in ceheap carbon fiber is worthmore than gold per ounce it seem's... Heck we might Know why the price point for the 2300 is high...LOL!!! no but seriously it probably would of tacked on 200.00 or more bucks for Garrett to supply carbon... I know its irrelevant to the discussion about the machine just thinking out loud.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No one Knows anything at this point about the machine and its abilities..But I do like seeing another P.I. coming out... I see where its aimed with dissposable bat's and fold up design...Guys hopping on planes... I wonder how long 6 volts will run the P.I. Im sure they went C-Cell for a longer cycle... small coil, low voltage, MPF hopefully shuts off flyback fast enough to hear the smaller tiny gold... Maybe they are aiming it to the guys to get over where the gold rush is at on the other continent and pick behind the big machines looking for the smaller stuff...Just taking a stab at that.. I remember reading that voltage is not everything on a P.I.doubling it does not double the depth just like on a VLF.. but it does help sensitivity somewhat but maybe the MPF counteracts the low voltage.. to much speculation LOL!! Keith

Im watching the Cazador with great anticipation... 1-I hope its a reworked Tejon with a nice tight Elliptical DD as stock... 2-I hope they give us a better housing...maybe along the lines the X5 shadow...very robust and dust proof... 3-Work on the battery life...right now the Tejon looses audio gain once the power dwindles...and it dwindles quickly.. 4-have the first disc range just cover iron and where ever you set the disc allow it to also break the tone from low grunt to higher tone for accepted target's....((((((((((((((((((why add the low tone for rejected target's? well the silence is killing us in iron...the more rejected target ( nails) we hear the more we know how to hunt it more effectively.. alert you to slow swep speeds down, approach different angles etc....plus the AUDIO GATE staying open will unmask a tad better than the nulling effect of a silent disc'd item.. you may ask say just a tad? But every bit helps when your at the disadvantge.. it could mean a gold coin left for the next more precise hunter to get)))))))))))))))))))) 5-Add a volume control for the low grunt tone.. 6-Add some selectable filtering for clean to noisy report on the disc reject.. 7-A boost circuit would be most welcome for the fainter hits that we have to really listen for on the tesoro's to get the deepies.. wait a minute I just decribed the GMP and the DTVG... But you Know whats funny...Ive had it in the back of my mind the GMP was actually built off the tejon and just added to it to make it a site unlocker.... Tesoro has a great circuit and very depenable it just needs to be revamped...Hopefully they are looking to compete with the newer machines... The thing is depth is tapped out...seriously... most all modern machines are within an inch or 2 of each other on in ground target's some hotter on one thing than another but in a collective mix their all pretty uniform in the dirt... The best advantages to be had are in the habitat sites of yesteryear..where there was people staying for long periods of time there are the most goodies lost..and one of the biggest things lost in those sites is iron... nails to be exact... and to combat that you need specialty machines especially if those sites have been hunted for years already... The things left masked by just simple nails is mind blowing..the sites like house places or military camps sites or even old miner 49er spots are littered with iron debris and the easy targets have been got and even some masked target's to boot but the stuff got already does not equal whats still left... Nails have a tendancy to rise to the top coins, GOLD, silver, buckles bullets etc go to the bottom.. 1 3 inch long nail will cut out a jar of money that's 14 inches deep...if the nail is jut 1 inch deep under the coil but in the field of view of the coil over the top of the quart jar.. So imagine what thousands of nails to do hundreds of non ferrous item's...We just scratch the surface even with the newest tool's... Im a firm believer that theres more in the ground right now than has ever been found to date combined.. Manufacturers are starting to catch on that the depth is maxed out so they are looking for site unlocker's now.. and hopefully Tesoro is serious... Just like a P.I. is a must for unlocking bad, dirt a site machine Like the GMP or the DTVG or the DEUS are a must for serious iron unlocking. and even some newer machines to come along lately like the AT's and the G2's and such are also very good to have on hand for a few more keepers out of irony site's... Hope the Tesoro Cazador is a contender.. Keith ,

Nice modding Paul... did you swap the coil conectors out for less cumbersome? congrats on steamlining it... You Know I hate the weight of the ATX ...But man I love the look...LOL!!! it really reminds me of a piece of Gear that's indestructible... I relic hunt alot on inclement weather here in the South ...So I like the water resisitance but to be thrutful its overboard unless I get in a river or large creek... I have an idea for a pole and keep the housing like it is...a bushing if you will to take it to an aluminum pole and ditch the fiberglass yet still use the housing...wiht no modding required.. I got a machine shop working on me a bushing..Hope it works.. I actually love the ruggedness of the pistol grip......Best feeling solid grip Ive ever used... If they could get rid of that fiberglass tubing and add some carbon Fiber ( Yeah Right cost more than the machine) I think a couple of pounds would shave off... Again I love light machine's ...and you seem to be on the right track Paul... But I love that World War 2 feel it has going on also.Seems like a tank could drive over it and you pick it up and keep on keeping on,,,!!!!! But Im a nostalgic type Guy anyway!! looks dont get anything accomplished in metal detecting! Wonder why they cant get that baord to fit in a an AT Pro housing...Looks like a lot of wasted area on the board...unless it needs heat dissapation or the likes not sure why it has to be so large...it's bigger than the infinium.. Now a day's they ought to be able to get it into a smaller package...the TDI SL is pretty small and I bet it could get smaller... Oh did I mention Green is my favorite color in the world... Keith

Hey Steve thats my favorite coil on my G2... I never take it off... gives up very little depth to the stock coil and seperates better and is lighter Im testing out a 5" NEL G2 coil and hopefully a 5.5x9.5 Nel G2 coil in the future to see if there much better than the factory coils of the same size... Keith

Hey Kenny.. Sounds like things are starting to click for you!!! one of the things I mentioned earlier was that the AT series is a lot of bang for the buck especially working iron... There is some other unmasking options that are the complete package..DEUS...Gold max Power..Deeptech Vista Gold....those 3 are in their own leauge..Top rung..yet specialized for iron site unlocking on the most advanced level to date..And they offer the iron tone volume that you would like to see...but those machines also offer high resolution iron disc...by this I mean say on your AT a nail takes 1 to 2 points to become from high to low tone...imagine taking that and expanding that spread to say 10 points to remove it completely to the iron tone...thats where extra benefits cab be seen for unmasking..Instead of a nail dropping to low tone from high tone in one number you instead take the nail out piece by piece for simplistic terms.. why is the important? The less disc you can bring to bear on say the nail the better your chance of locating smaller and or lower conductors thst are collated with the nail... Out of all the machines available for intelligent site work the Gold Max Power is the Apex design for that purpose..followed by the Deep Tech Vista Gold.. One thing to note is both that both those machines are built in Europe...they are combating iron unmasking head on ..The American manufacturers are catching up yet not quite on deck ....YET....but that will be changing SOON...Your iron tone Volume Control is closer than you think ..I just hope they decide to expand the iron range to high resolution.. I'm not saying your AT will have iron volume but American Machines will soon.. That's what the company's now know..that there's more lying in iron that can be dug in the supposedly hunted out spots... One 3 inch long nail 2 inches deep will cancel out a silver dollar under it at 7 or 8 inch deep.. Keith

Ray brings up some valid points. The AT Gold seems like a coin machine turned into a prospector via the addition of the all metal threshold based mode being added to the AT Pro The AT gold in disc mode mirrors the AT Pro.. The gold bug Pro or G2 seems like a Gold machine turned into a dual purpose machine... In other words both do dual duty as prospectors and coin jewelry through I.D. ability and full disc modes but they have different DNA. The G2 acts more like a 18khz machine in the targets it prefers..and the way it behaves..The AT Gold Seems to act more like a lower grew machine in regards to it likes coins..These observations mind you are from the disc mode... I actually noticed the 15 khz At Pro can act like a lower frequency machine...but this is not a bad thing..even though they both are hot on coins the AT Gold has a prospecting mode with added Tools for perfromance..like I.d. In all metal through audio and it's very conservative in its iron I.d so as not to call gold iron....ground window very unique and at times in bad dirt can be godsend if used with knowledge..adjustable threshold again paramount for small gold.. so in the end the both in all metal mode will be good prospectors..user skill for prospecting will be the decider I feel more than the battle between which is better than the other..LOL.. but if both are ran on disc mode G2 Vs AT Gold I personally feel and have noticed the G2 likes smaller thinner targets to a slight degree and on the other end of the spectrum the AT has a edge on coin type targets.. I actually think the G2 is complimented by the Omega when working a site.. I feel the AT Gold is a good standalone unit when working a site.. I lean to specialty detectors myself..Like best unmasked best depth best mineral handling ability..best I.d. and no one machine Does all those things.. but I can say for the money and the performance that is achieved and the ability to do it all quite well with an audio that is conveying the AT series especially the Gold is very adaptive and once understood and learned properly it can be very much a great prospector and a great unmasker .. Yes there better unmasker and there's better prospectors but like anything else in detecting fringe targets require a skilled mindset be they isolated small gold or intermingled non ferrous in ferrous and the edge advantage machines come into play for what I like to call the final pull on sites At first the best machine for the required job may not be overly apparent because you are not yet sure what your trying to do and things of advantage may not be noticable..Right tool for the Job can come to mind.Yet the gaps seem to be closing..multi purpose can really get close to dedicated machines now-a- days.so the edges are not as easily seen unless you are really pushing the boundaries on your hunts.. But yes the Garretts are WORTH THE MONEY.. Keith

Hey Kenny glad you enjoy the AT-GOLD.. Fine machine for sure... I must say I have tested out alot fo detectors for unmasking over the years and thye have progressed slowly but surely... in the last few years manufacturers have started to realized theres more in the iron sites to be found and started to offer us the detectorist instrument's to combat the situation head on... What is it we need to go head on in a iron hole type site... 1-Higher freq's(18-25 Khz is the norm now)... 2-Ability to break tone on the most troublemsome iron ...In most cases Nail's the number one site masker in the world... 3-fast shutdown on target's.Greater seperation 4-minimal filtering of target signal's...in other words we need bleedy rejection not clean rejection... 5-Tight superior designed DD coil's 6 Iron Volume audio...this is useful when you are in abundance of iron like nails and you have broken your tone right at nail..So now it break low to high tone at this spot.but with iron volume we can control the low tone output for a less fatiguing hunt... The AT series from Garrett are leading edge...though they lack SOME of the top shelf feautures mentioned above for a true site machine, I can promise you they do VERY VERY well in the iron...especially with the 5x8 DD BT coil installed.... The At series also takes well to a more negative ground balance in disc mode than some machines are able to achieve.Why negative? Well if the dirt is bad enough smaller and or deeper targets can be called iron and at tiems if the dirt issevere enough they dont have to be deep to be signaled as iron... But a bit of a negative ground bal can help you SEE THROUGH the mineral a bit better....And luckily the AT series is able to run a good but begaitve wiht the excellent DD design they have and still have an Intelligent hunt... Next time out wiht your AT try some differnet ground settings than normal and notice how it changes the sensitivity to different conductor's..... I may aslo add once you really get into trying to work a site to its fullest potential that is full of iron you may want make sure you allow the Iron audio to remain on...Why? Well when you allow the iron audio to report instead of null like a regular disc circuit does you are keeping the audio gate open constantly and you are not having to start up and shut down in an iron saturated site....You just get your sweep speed right and allow the full audio report to flow through the headphone's...Also by doing this you can get a clearer picture of the rejected target...in this case iron... Some will say put disc on zero and and let the machine set the tone break but thast really a no-no for any serious unmasking and site unlocking...you need to fine tune the disc/Tone break for the individual site and evn ground setting to achieve the best result's... One thing unique to the AT is that there not the fastest like the XP GMP or DTVG or DEUS or T2/F75 and such but they are able to Blend up target's with a audio that in my opinion is second to none and also uncanny for a digital machine to posses.. I have a video I did of the AT on a dollar gold piece...it shows the need for the iron audio to be ON for the ultimate unlock. Please take a look Keith

On the 5x10 does it exhibit the tonal quality of the stock coil as far as say NAIL WARBLE Vs SMOOTH ROUND COIN sound's.... I see the Stock coil as a HD Audio coil... i have to admit I now see the Garrett ATX as a 21st Century P.I. I have to really give it to Garrett ...I was starting to worry about them a few years back..I see now thye are firmly planted...they have a desire to remain Current! They have really took aim at the detector market with some affordable performance in VLF and P.I. design.. If all I had was an AT series machine like the gold or Pro and a small coil I would not feel outgunned in iron unmasking by no mean's.. and they have now built a very aggressive P.I.which also exhibits great tonal quality as does the AT series .. I'm thinking the Coil designs are very cutting edge....on the VLF and P.I. Keith

Hey Steve i am thinking the Machine in the begging is in non motion since I hear no echo report... I have messaged the guy though and he says its in motion so it will maybe be that it is acting more like a mineral ... I have never had a meteorite to test or even found one...But does seen logical that the p.i. would cancel it instead of report it if its weak.. I had it in my mind He is in no motion mode to start with and has not re-tuned it.. the threshold seems way to high.. He says he is in Motion. though so maybe the sporadic noise he does get is just mineal false since hes not tracking... Whats weird is he has another video were he digs one up pretty deep but maybe its of different makeup... And thanks Steve for the insight... Meteorite hunting seems fascinating but sort of hard top do around these part's...I actually had it in my mind they are like a nickle construction or very irony...never dawned on me that they can be low grade .. Keith

See if you can tell what's wrong with this guys ATX video. I am pretty sure what wrong with the first part poor performance and its not got to do with the disc/delay... see if you can see anything.. I know I'm not crazy.. Keith

Ok Paul... I was digging through the parts bin of junked detectors last night and the old big box Whites were about perfect... But if you have a metal brake you can bend out your own pretty simple...and heck you dont need any holes for the knobs... I enjoy modding myself at times...to me finding the battery box's is the biggest challenge... But yes bend out a box and swipe the door and battery tray and channel slide system off a junked classic 2 or somehting and mod it into the hand bent box and SWEET!! One thing that really grabbed my attention in a modding way on the Nokta boxes was the way the endcaps held the sheetmetal sides...When I opened one up for a headphone jack swap all kinds of things ran through my mind LOL!!! Also the Battery box is 12 volt recharge.. High Quality Lipo...and it hip mount's and connecte's through a microphone coiled cable type system and mic jack...I sort of liked that.. Even the circuit board was held secure inside by a channel system... very unique Box... Well really all you need is the end cap and rails for top and bottm and cut out the 1/8 aluminum sheet metal to fit... I hear you on the falling over Steve...they are quite tall.. Whites does have the best stability of about any machine... Hey paul When I modded My Explorer to the S-Pole I wish I could got hold of one of those Deeptech battery boxes...that was my only piece of the mod i had to scrimp on...I actually had a 1266 battery box in the bin and sold it right before I did the explorer...Man I could of Kicked myslef !!!! Keith

You Know what would be perfect for the mod paul.. A Nokta 109 Deep Pro Wonder if you can email Nokta and ask for a box and handle...they are very nice about sending part's.. might sell them cheap.. it would look like a Minelab 5000 then LOL!! Keith

Hey Paul... You have more Guts than I do...But thanks for the innard view.. At first I thought you tore into the ATX..but then I see its the Recon!!!Whew... I wil admit the ATX is one fine Unit as you already Know...Im enjoying getting out and putting mine to use also... One the board is there any Variable resistor's...I see maybe 3? I like that...!!! The TDI has a ton of them and they have to be prefect to make it work... the less VR's inside a unit I like..especailly if it performs as well as the ATX...But man that board is simplistic is it not...? Im serioulsy thinking of adding the 5x10 to the ATX.... I actually worked the edge of a house site today in the woods with the ATX and was impressed with the way it talks to you on the iron signature's....I believe the 5x10 if it retains the audio quality's of the stock coil it would be nice on the edge of the house site's.... I plan on using the ATX mainly in open grond relic sites like tranch lines and such but I do occasionally envison some true Arcaeological type digs with it on some more important sites and hope to use one of the smaller DD's for that work...maybe even the smaller 3x7 for some tight work in iron site's for a dig it all hunt.. I think me and the ATX will have a great future togehter.. And hope you and your machine do to... Im really into total site analysis and the ATX has that audio feel to it for a more revealing hunt.. Humm maybe I should of kept My recon for spare part's....LOL!! Keith

Thought I would say Hi... Just joined the forum... Im registered with most of the popular Forums on the Net... I relic Hunt mainly... I like to try and unlock history in Iron laden sites as My main intrest... What brings ME here? I love to talk about P.I.'s I have a garrett ATX Ive been using for about 3 weeks now...and I have decided to add it as my main P.I. I have been looking for a replacemnt P.I. unit for my North Georgia area relic hunt's.....I've used the Minelab 3500 the TDI,TDI PRO,TDI SL..and the infinium... The ATX seems to offer enough features for the price point to make it worthwhile for me to add to the arsenal... I look forward to discussing the ATX with all of Yall!! Keith

Good info..Or should I say bad Info LOL!! Keith

Good looking set up Steve! Does the iron check function work on the Infinium DD's? Keith