Cal_Cobra

Of all the VLF gold machines Steve posted, is the EQ800 equal to these detectors, better, worse or what when it comes to nugget shooting?

Can't help you with that one. My wife wants any piece of jewelry I find, so I stopped showing her - lol

That single find just paid for the EQ600 !! Nice going, would love to dig that monster!

I try not to let it get out of control. I was up to around 10 detectors at one point, now I'm down to 4 + the wifes ETP. I have a F75 LTD2 and a Racer 2 that I'll likely sell, as I feel that with having the Multi Kruzer and EQ800, their either redundant or completely surpassed by theEQ/MMK machines. One aspect I enjoy about this hobby is that once you have "seed stock" in place, it more or less becomes a self funding hobby.

If you don't dig them, you'll never know. My 4th or 5th target I dug on my first trip out with the EQ800 I got a solid, repeatable 14 TID, and much to my chagrin, it was a beautiful 18KT antique yellow gold ring loaded with rubies, emeralds and sapphires. So had I thought, oh pull-tab skip that, I'd left a nice $500 ring behind. JMHO Cal

Sounds like it'll be fun. Any time I can get out to detect is a good time

Dug a couple of silver war nickels and they TID'd @ 13-14. 18K gold ring rang in loud and clear @ 14.

Room booked! Would've enjoyed camping, but with a newborn in tow, and a wifey that doesn't like to stay out in the sun, I figured an airconditioned room with a kitchenette was probably a wise investment Need to play around with the EQ800's prospecting mode, but for the planted hunts a disc mode will be better. I take it they just kick sand over the planted coins & tokens? Any surprises? Our club used to do funny things, like the person who had the most pull-tabs or crown-caps got a prize, most trash got a prize, and other evasion tactics to keep you on your toes. Planted hunts aren't usually my thing, but these large rally style hunts are pretty fun, especially if some of your friends go and vendors show up. Fun to meet new people, and put faces to your internet friends. Looking forward to it

Now that Carl is over at FTP, if FTP released a modernized V3i, in a lightweight, waterproof package, with modern upgrades, for >$1K, they'd have a big hit IMO. Heck with Carl and Dave both at FTP, they could be working on a hot new SMF (simultaneous mufti-frequency) detector? Only time will tell...

Very well said, can't say I disagree with a single point. BTW The ID Edge was a decent little detector, not a depth demon, but it had good TID and separation, and it's light as a feather.

Obviously not to finance, but to the people developing the projects, it's immaterial. Do you think the lack of attention to innovating/developing their high end machines is because FTP is broke? FTP doesn't appear to be hurting for money, so I doubt this is a money problem as much as it's a leadership problem.

I had a soft spot for my CZ70's, but finally sold my last one after getting the EQ800, just wasn't relevant any longer.

Sorry I fail to see the relevance? Money is money, regardless of it's source.

I'm very much looking forward to what you and your team design, I know it's not easy to innovate, and engineering takes time. I remember when I was in a telecommunications class in college, the professor said that modems were tapped out at 9.6 kbps. I recall thinking this was bs because T1 carrier lines that had been around since the early 1960's used a similar schema over a four-wire transmission circuit, and low and behold, the next thing you know, a 14.4kbps modem was out, then 28.8,K 56K and so on.

Totally agree, and believe me I've been rooting for FTP for years, and have had many FTP detectors.

Carl this isn't a knock at you at all, but for the past ten years we've been hearing that FTP is coming out with the next big thing. All of the rehashed detectors FTP has been releasing haven't exactly been setting the detecting world on fire (although apparently they sell well enough to build the new FTP plant), and you could write a book on all of the permutations on a theme that exist within the F75 line. I'm amazed that a tiny company in Turkey has been eating your lunch, perhaps the powers that be at FTP are unaware of this up and coming detecting competitor, but if the best that FTP can offer is "it's in the works" I wonder how they can expect people to take them seriously?

Great find! What settings were you using if you recall? HH&GL, Brian

Take it with a grain of salt, a Minelab USA rep told us in April that they would be shipping in a couple of weeks.....that was a couple of months ago ?

When we go on multi-day marathon detecting adventures, we detect until we drop. We're usually out in BFE territory on a well researched and rare 3-5 day detector adventure, so we go as long as possible when possible, and that includes hunting into the night sometimes. In BFE where it's pitch dark, a low backlight is a godsend. The F75 was the worst, damn thing would blind ya to death and it was stuck on, ya couldn't turn the damn thing off...dumb idea there. The Nokta and Makro machines almost have it right, you can lower it enough to provide a pleasant, almost non-existent night time display...switch to a RED LED/LCD display system and it'll be perfect. The EQ even with a red film will be visually far brighter then what's comfortable, no biggie, the 50 tones are so nice and the PP is so darn accurate, you really don't need to see anything. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see the TID#s, but I can tonally tell a low-mid-high tone and oh those warbley, soft, faint high tones, the ones that even pinpoint faintly, love 'em (well not when their deep iron!).

I don't think the 800's backlighting is that great either, still too bright, get out the red film (will be my solution as well). I like the backlighting on my Racer/Impact/Multi Kruzers the best, has two low modes that are both useful when night hunting. The low mode(s) on the 800 are far too bright for effective night hunting IMO.

From what I understand unless you have a megabucks PI machine, any gold left there is few and far between BUT this is a free hunt with over $20,000 in prizes! Sounds like fun, and even though it's supposed to be pretty cleaned out, it would be a fun to test the EQ800s prospecting mode out there and possobly eek out some tiny speck of gold that's worth a penny haha

I love going to the desert, gets me out of this cement jungle they call the bay area and there's so many amazing places to detect, although most are already pounded to death, but doesn't matter, stuff is still found and the adventure is the best part.

Yep. Dan used to be a regular on the California (Kinzli) forums, but dropped off the radar the past couple of years (I know he has some health challenges). How's he doing these days? If you guys get an opportunity to flag some deep silver signals to check on the EQ600 that would be really interesting, I know he had an incredible knack for sniffing out those ultra deep silvers with his Explorer SE. GL&HH, Cal

Nice nickel trifecta! Those LA parks have been pretty well pounded, used to be a Minelab ExpSE guy down there that detected them (CaptSE) and he would usually get somewhere around 1000 silver coins per year, unbelievable!!