abenson

Steve-if your high ping falses were in the 28-30 range, which I also get when running in high minerals/salt. You can disc those out and possibly make the unit run a lot quieter. You could set the disc at 28 and actually take care of 26-30 which might help some.

I could be way off the mark in saying this but. From what I'm reading and seeing in videos....it seems to me that those who have used the whites TDI and are familiar with it's sounds/characteristics are going to have the easiest time learning the AQ. I've owned 4 big box TDI's and one SL, the AQ sounds and acts a lot like the TDI from what I can see.

Pallets in burn pits some how manage to make there way down to the wet sand. The beaches I hunt in South CA have plenty of nails.

Very interesting results, thanks for reply. I would like to hear more from others experiences in similar situations. We don't know what we don't know unless people test different scenarios that could be encountered in the wild. That test alone tells me clipped signals should probably be investigated or at least scrutinized more closely. I would do a bunch of testing myself and report but I don't see me getting an AQ for at least a few more weeks.

Steve thanks for your reply and having used a number of PI's in the past on beaches and relic hunting I do understand that the AQ is still going to have the same issues as other PI's with bottle caps, wire, flat tin, rusted washers, etc. I was wondering about nails and more specifically rusted nails. Just wondered if anyone had done a test as I described because I also plan on trying to using the AQ for relic hunting for low conductors and if it can see past nails better than other machines, then all the better. Right now I use a GPX for the deep stuff and we all know the trouble it has with iron, even if you use iron reject you can't pick out anything do the the blanking. Although I have picked out some pretty amazing stuff in nail patches using the 5 x 10 DD coil on the GPX. You just have to go slow and be patient.

I know this has been asked before and I'm sorry if one of the current Impulse AQ owners has already done the test and reported..........But we've all seen the nails stacked on top of the ring and the ring on top of a pile of rings. What I want to know is will the Impulse AQ pick out the ring in a 3D scenario? What if a ring is buried 2 or 4 or 6 inches deep and nails are placed above and off to the side of the ring. Can the Impulse AQ still get the ring.

Bad day to see them go. I grew up using Whites detectors, my first was the 6 DB. Found many silver coins with it. My first Barber Quarter I found with it a 1905, I can remember it like it was yesterday. My dad found a seated dime the same day using a 6000 D. For me Whites started falling behind in the 90's so I went to the Fisher CZ 6a and then Minelab when the Sovereign came out.

EMI generally is noticeable. Your machine will have audio interference as well as numbers jumping all over the place. Power lines, cell phones, cell phone towers, blue tooth devices other metal detectors and nearby airports can all be the cause.

In my ground multi works best unless EMI is a problem. I had a situation the other night where single frequency on the 800 was required because the EMI was so bad. 15 KHz seamed to be the best pick for the site. Even tried switching to multi a few times to check targets, but the deeper signals were lost in the noise. Nice to have options for different site conditions.

I personally like the Coiltek 12" X 8" DD coil for wading. A 15" coil is going to be harder to swing in water and I personally dig plenty deep with the 12 X 8. If you really want a bigger coil then I would suggest the Coiltek 15" Treasureseeker All Terrain. I use my GPX wading occasionally too, but not in the surf only in calm bays, waves can catch you off guard. I always bungee my GPX to myself just in case I drop it, but I also have rule to never remove my arm from the arm cuff when wading.

All those targets had very clean signals and varied in depth from 2" to 12". The round balls are very clean on the Tarsacci unlike a lot of other detectors, with the exception of the Equinox. Most iron junk is easy to tell on the Tarsacci (some flat tin and washer type targets can still fool you) The ID numbers will usually jump around a lot, both positive and negative. I circle around the target (conditions allowing) and if the ID stays positive it's usually ferrous. On that hunt I only dug two non-ferrous items, 1 was a round can lid (which sounded good) the other was a piece of wire (which I was pretty certain it was going to be junk but dug it anyway). The Tarsacci has far less falsing than the VLF machines I usually use, so it's a real pleasure to run in junk. There are other machines that unmask better, but overall I'm liking the Tarsacci more and more every time i take it out.

I was wondering about the GPX myself as that is what I generally use for the beaches when I want to us a PI. I have the 4000 which cost me $1600 so not a major concern on cost. When I get done hunting around salt I will wash everything that can take a dunk with the hose to get the salt off and then use electronics cleaner to get the control box cleaned up. Never had a problem with the GPX failing going on 3 years use around salt water. But of course I don't wade, just use it on the wet sand. There's only 3 places I beach hunt. Oceanside and San Diego, CA and the Great Salt Lake Marina and public beach next to it, which is a 35 minute drive for me. San Diego has lots of black sand and I know from my experience, the GPX does just fine. Rick has used the AQ limited in San Diego as well and so we know it gets great depth as well. I've never done any depth comparisons with the GPX while in San Diego or Oceanside because I was on vacation and wanted to get as much hunt time in as possible. But I know I've dug some pretty deep targets. At the Great Salt Lake, salt conditions are brutal, 8 times great than the ocean. This mega salt would be a great test for the AQ. In addition there are areas in the lake where bedrock approaches the surface and that rock is very mineralized. In the areas away from the bedrock I have done depth tests with the GPX running normal timing and low gain (still get some drift and it will not ground balance), with a 15" coil I can easily get a nickel at 18". Running salt timing I lose a few inches. Over the bedrock areas there is nothing I can do with the GPX to get the threshold quiet and drift free. Running salt timing and running the gain low with a slow steady seep speed is about all you can do. In those areas, depth on a nickel drops to 12". Those areas are where I really want to see what the AQ can do. The volcanic sand mode might be the ticket, but I also worry that without a ground balance feature it might not do any better that the GPX. If and when I get the AQ the Great Salt Lake is the first place I plan to test it out. I'm also an avid relic hunter and so the next place I plan on running the AQ is the pastures and fields I relic hunt in. Later Impulse models will probably be better suited but I really think the AQ can be setup to relic hunt.

Thanks for the report Steve. Sounds like the AQ limited is right up my alley. Now if I can just get my hands on one.

Great looking machine Steve and from your description it sounds even better than it looks. Looking forward to your Lake Tahoe report when you go on Monday.

Believe me I looked for the coins.