Reg Wilson

There is no volume control on Bauhn headphones, but when switched on (they will operate as standard headphones when the n/c function is not engaged) a slight increase in volume is noticed. I have not found a booster to be necessary with this unit. I use a short 3mm lead in conjunction with the Quest WiFi system. A conversion plug is used to link the larger female fitting as incorporated in the WM12 and the Quest Rx unit, which does have volume control.

They must have a warehouse full of those things. The offer is not available in Australia. X coils would have had a negative effect on sales, as many used 19" ML coils are for sale here.

The n/c headphones that I use and recommend are from Aldi. They are called Bauhn and are great value at AU$40.00, rechargeable and very comfortable. I have been using n/c for years and would never go back to Koss or other phones. I also use Bose n/c earbuds, which are very expensive, rechargeable, and fantastic. I just don't know why more people don't use noise cancelling.

Every detector I have ever used has been able to be fooled by ground noises, or should I say that the detector user is able to be fooled. When using a detector with auto ground tracking many people swear by using the manual ground balance function, believing that very faint signals are more audible in this setting. A 'suspect' signal will not alter under the coil when it is swept back and forth over the target in manual setting, however by switching into auto and sweeping the target repeatedly the response may lessen to the extent of becoming very faint or completely inaudible. This is the detector ground balancing out the section of mineralized ground. If you move a couple of meters away from the suspected target, re ground balance, and then sweep back over said target you will find that the signal has returned. Now, some detector operators will adamantly claim that the detector has balanced out a faint gold signal when used in auto, but having dug an untold number of 'suspect' signals to try and prove that my detector is fooling me, I have not been able to do so. I have found that when using GPX detectors that the number of sweeps in auto required to give a good analysis of the target is about six, where as the number is about double that when using the GPZ. I do not claim that this method is infallible, and no doubt many will disagree with me, but for me it has worked well. One thing that is imperative is that the detector coil sweep should be steady and at a constant height. The QED method is most effective, but occasional patches of charcoal can fool any detector, and for some reason tree roots can confuse GPZ detectors.

Advice is given in some of the QED instructional videos. Should you encounter a 'signal' that sounds as if it could be a deep target there are ways to test it. Firstly, if it sounds quite strong, tilt the coil just a few degrees and sweep over the supposed target. A real target will not decrease a great deal, whereas a ground noise will often show much less response with the coil slightly tilted. This method is not conclusive, but with experience it can be a guide as to whether you are hearing a real signal. Upon hearing a possible signal note the ground balance figure. For instance, lets say you have been detecting with a quiet, stable GB of 120, now reset that figure to 130 and listen for any noticeable change in response. Now take your GB down to 110 and once again listen for any change from not only your original GB of 120 but also your first alteration to 130. Should each of the 3 signal responses be for all purposes be the same, then there is a high possibility that you are hearing a real signal, however, should there be a definite discrepancy in responses then there is a high probability that you are hearing a ground noise. Until you have confidence in your detectors responses you should stick to the rule; 'when in doubt, dig it out.'

Excellent advice from phrunt. You did have a bad beginning with your QED experience, in that due to a backlog in mail just before Christmas your detector took an awful long time to get to you. The broken part was replaced as far as I know, but if you are still requiring a part or parts just let me or Howard know and this will be quickly attended to. Being in the Dominican Republic can mean some time taken in getting your software updates, but the new DSM ground balancing system will make a world of difference to your machine. PS I have sent you an Email in regard to update.

A patch of over 300ozs, and when a costean was put in it was 12 feet to the bedrock with not a trace of gold on the true bottom.

Back in the days when Bob Hawke was our Australian Prime Minister gold was tax free, but a rumor circulated that the government was planning to bring in a gold tax. From memory it was about 1990, and to placate the miners Mr Hawke stood before a large gathering in the famous gold mining town of Kalgoorlie and told the miners that there would be no gold tax. "Well that's it", I said to the guy that I was working gold with at the time. "I'm going to sell every ounce I've got". "Why would you do that"? my partner asked. "Because if a politician says one thing he really means the opposite" I replied. Sure enough, just under twelve months later they introduced a gold tax. This tax was an income tax, the same as any other. If your primary source of income was from gold, then you were liable to pay tax provided that income was above the taxable figure, and tax became an obligation upon the sale of said gold. Equipment and other legitimate expenses were of course deductible. The hobbyist did not need to pay tax, even if they found a large nugget. This was classed as a 'windfall', the same as winning a lottery. It was advisable and perfectly legal to spread the sale of gold where possible, rather than sell a large parcel at a time. I paid tax until I reached a stage where my income fell below the taxable amount, and or I was of a legal retirement age. Should I be lucky enough to hit a good patch or large lump now it will fall into the 'windfall' category when it is sold.

After watching this show I was reminded of why I gave up mining claims and leases. These people are actually buying their gold. What I mean by this is that they are hoping that the yield will exceed the expenditure, and at the end of the exercise they are lucky enough to do better than break even. Even for a low budget operation there are so many possible setbacks. Breakdowns, weather, and government red tape being but a few of the frustrations that one must bear when tangled up in a mining operation. Even prospecting with a detector is a form of buying gold, but it is definitely the cheapest option, especially if you are fortunate enough to live near where you prospect. A fancy four wheel drive, big caravan, lots of fuel on a trip across the country naturally increases the amount of gold you need to find in order to make a profit. Let's face it, most detector operators as purely hobbyists never make a profit, but are happy with that situation and satisfied with the thrill of the odd bit of gold here and there. Those that are pretty good at this game and have some success are still usually working for peanuts when you consider the hours spent in the pursuit of color. The bigger the mining operation the bigger the risk, and any 'down time' is money lost. One thing that many fail to take into consideration is the task and cost of rehabilitation once the gold reserve has been exhausted. The gold fields are littered with the mess left where companies have gone broke and their forfeited bond has not been sufficient to cover the rehabilitation expenditure. A good detector waved over the right area by someone who has an idea of what they are doing is still the cheapest way of 'buying' your gold.

I've always wanted to see NZ, so if the deal comes off I might pay you a visit Simon.

Phrunt, you know damned well that that is a replica. One of Dean Smith's works.

Good grief Rob, that is way too hot to be comfortable. The best time of the year for prospecting here in Victoria is from March to July, but we are in lockdown this year. Current temperature hovers around 20 degrees Celsius during the day which is very pleasant, but I can only detect on my own 50 acre property until the rules are relaxed a bit. It is looking good so far for a loosening of the regulations, but we can only hope people are sensible as far as distancing etc. so that we don't suffer a relapse.

Well, there is a little experiment for you Simon. We all know how you love a challenge, and I for one will look forward to your resulting opinion. The WM12 is much more expensive than a Quest system, so may be a viable option for anyone who has problems with, or are dissatisfied with the performance of the WM12. I imagine that the Garrett Z/Lynk could also be an option.

As an option you can use the Quest WiFi system rather than the WM12. Just plug the Quest TX into the GPZ . You can Velcro the small transmitter onto the detector, and substitute the WM12 with the Quest RX. The receiver is more compact than the WM12 , has volume control, about the same battery life, arguably better audio, and faster charging. A further option is to use the Quest wireless headphones, doing away with the need for a RX unit.

Nice color Rob. Can't wait to get out to do some detecting myself, but not feeling too good after my bleach and disinfectant cocktail, which was recommended by what I thought was a reliable source. Now I have been told that I should not have swallowed it but should have used it as a suppository. I just can't seem to win. Ooooh I really feel unwell.

I have not used an oval or rectangular pulse induction coil, only round ones, and this means that the horizontal placement of the coil is irrelevant and usually decided by the position of the lead. The shorter the lead the better the performance, so the point at which the lead enters the coil should be orientated as close to the tow vehicle as possible. With a large round coil shallow or surface targets will give a double 'beep' as the windings pass over, whereas a deep target will give a broader single signal (whuuump). Unlike swinging a coil, where a signal can be tested by multiple sweeps, sledding only gives you one opportunity to analyse that signal and decide whether or not to mark it. The occasional false signal from bumps or EMI spikes can be a nuisance, but good tight fittings will keep these to a minimum. In the vast areas of Western Australia a sled can be used as a prospecting tool, following reef lines, patches of quartz, or tertiary gravels, whereas in Victoria it is mainly a means of eliminating planned areas by systematic gridding. One definite advantage of tow detecting is that paddocks of crop stubble or long grass can be scanned which would be impossible with a hand held detector. The sled simply folds flat the flora without causing damage and it stands up again after passing over it.

Simon, the problem with your magnet idea is that it would soon be clogged with stones with a high iron content. Mitchel, the beauty of using a base of conveyor belt is that the coil sits flat and parallel with the ground. this makes for good ground tracking. When used on pasture the grass is flattened by the weight of the belt keeping the coil as close to the ground as possible, but the grass stands up again once the sled has passed over it.

A couple of points when sledding. Noise suppression coils sacrifice sensitivity for quieter use. Longer cables equal less efficiency. The old KISS principle is best (keep it simple, stupid) The sled that I still have works best in conjunction with the GPX4000 running on sensitive smooth. I have tried other models but for some reason the 4000 is the best. The 38" round mono easily picks up .22 slugs at 5KPH with a clear unmissable signal.

The original PI sled was all plastic construction with height adjustment and replaceable black plastic poly pipe skid liners. Mounted at the rear of the sled was a plastic tank and spray nozzle. A small windscreen washer motor was wired to a button on the handlebars, and a spray of agricultural dye marked the approximate target site when a signal was received. At the end of a session of gridding hand held detecting pin pointed the target site, and detected objects recovered. This sled worked well in Victoria on pastured paddocks, however the abrasive conditions in Western Australia soon destroyed it and a different concept was required. A visit to a mining scrap yard resulted in a short length of conveyor belt forming the basic skid requirements with a section of split poly pipe transversely snapped over the leading edge of the belt to assist passage over rocks or other obstacles. The box containing the 38" coil was then mounted on the belt with large nylon nuts and bolts which were countersunk into the rubber belt. A simple rope was then used to tow the contraption. This set up proved to be simple but highly effective. Geo marker flags were then used to mark targets. This involved stopping the vehicle and marking the target site by hand each time a signal was received. Not a huge inconvenience where targets were few and far between. It was my pleasure to have had the company of the late Jim Stewart and James Beatty on that trip to WA. They had traveled over with a very large double D coil that Jim had built and was hoping to use this coil to achieve greater depth in the hot WA soils. We conducted some tests using hid double D on the sled, but it was not successful as the double D required very slow speed to be responsive. Hence we discovered that Mono is the way to go for sledding.

Responding to Peter in SA. Back in the mid 1980s I had been involved in the introduction of the Minelab GS15000 metal detector at Wedderburn in central Victoria. The early Minelab crew were a bunch of clever people from Adelaide university who got together to produce an Australian made metal detector which could challenge the big American companies. Wedderburn was chosen for testing and development due to its reputation of having very mineralized, difficult soil conditions. A number of Australian built detectors had failed to live up to expectations, defeated mainly by the hot soil conditions in Western Australia and central Victoria. The GS15000 proved to be a better machine for these conditions than its competitors and soon gained acceptance throughout the gold detecting fraternity. Craig Hughes, who was part of that early team came up with the idea of a coil towed behind an ATV. An area near the famous 'potato patch' just out of Weddurburn was chosen for testing, using a Honda three wheel ATV (horrible unstable beast of a machine). The coil was fairly small, but I can't recall the exact size. A GS15000 provided the electronics, and although noisy, did work with a small bit of gold recovered. (a few grams) Even though the manual ground balance made for uncomfortable detecting, the concept had been proven, much to our surprise. In 1987 I was involved with the testing of the GT16000, which was the first ever automatic ground tracking. This machine was a major breakthrough and really put Minelab on the map as a serious contender for the title of the world's best gold detector. It dawned on me that the feasibility of tow detecting was a reality now that a detector could stay balanced automatically, and I contacted Don McCoy, one of the original Minelab team and asked him to build me a coil suitable for towing. The result was a rectangular coil about 3' x 2' which was very stable and sensitive. I purchased a Yamaha 4 wheel ATV as a tow vehicle and with the addition of a suppressor managed to keep the EMI to a minimum. The first day of testing yielded a 6oz lump, which was a big surprise, and paid for the ATV in one hit. I sent Don some nice specimens as payment for the coil. I later sold that coil through Miners Den in Melbourne when the SD2200 was introduced. The SD2200 was of course the first auto ground tracking pulse induction detector, and naturally I soon made plans to adapt this concept to 'sledding'. John Hider-Smith, Ian Jaques and myself had been involved in prototype testing of Minelabs first pulse induction detector, and Bruce Candy had taught john how to wind mono coils. One of Johns coils was used in the first PI tow coil testing where we discovered that a 4 stroke engine was not feasible due to the high susceptibility of PI to EMI. With experimentation we discovered that diesel was the way to go as no spark was required for the engine to run, and an isolation switch for the alternator solved any EMI problems. We later used a GPX4000 which worked even better. I have to close now due to having to shut down internet but will add further details later.

Some folks are sure easy to entertain.

The claim belongs to Ian Holland and is at Corindhap, south of Ballarat. It is on the 'Break o' day' lead, which at it's time of discovery was reputed to be the richest mile of alluvial gold in the world. There are two leads running from the north to the south in parallel, the other being the Frenchmans lead. Depths vary from surface to over 80 feet. Ten nuggets of over 100ozs were found in this gold field, the largest was found in very shallow ground and was reputed to be 375ozs. In 1987 in company with another detector operator I unearthed an 11oz lump in unproven ground between the two leads . This led to a surface run of very course gold, totaling 350ozs, the largest nugget being 98ozs.

A bloke dedicated to making a cumbersome, heavy machine usable. Full marks to him. Just a shame that the detector manufacturer didn't design the damned thing properly in the first place.

The guy on the left is Dean Smith, who is an expert on the casting of gold nugget replicas. His work is excellent, as you can see. He has actually taken casts of a couple of nice colors that I have unearthed. Neville Perry a Victorian gold buyer is in the middle and next to him is Mick Clark, his partner and excavator operator. The two have a successful license north of Dunolly in central Victoria. These gold shows give the impression that gold is easy to find in Australia, however as Mitchel can attest this is not the case. I was approached by one of these film companies some time back but decided against it as i suspected that facts would be, shall we say, flexible.

Ah, Norvic, you are indeed a philosopher. You know I have spent some time thinking about success and how I could increase such. After a deal of inspiration (whiskey) I have come to a significant conclusion. It seems upon reflection that I have spent an awful lot of days where no gold has been the end result of digging holes for things other than gold. No future in that. It's obvious. The days when I found nothing I could have been engaged doing something useful. The days when gold was recovered were well spent. All I have to do is stay home on the wasted days, and get out there and dig like hell on the good days. All I have to do now is work out which one is which.