jrbeatty

Back in 2015 Reg and I found ourselves one evening camped in a farmers paddock in central Victoria. Following a hearty meal and with a roaring fire going to deter the frost, we offered a toast (or several) of Reg's home brew to the "Great God of Nuggets" Amazing what a good inspirational home brew can lead to sometimes - - - :)

Not wrong there, NE. Pity MN's on the wagon - - - :)

I selected one with an Irish accent - brought back happy memories of hitch hiking Britain years ago as a randy young man - - - :) US smartphones are apparently compatible with Aus providing they are unlocked. Both use the GSM standard

Mitch: for communication, Mobile coverage is pretty good in Victoria. You can rent a smartphone here, or buy an Aussie Sim card for yours. I recommend Telstra for best coverage.

Thanks for the clarification, my mistake. Looks like Houston is the go-to place for cheap fuel, according to that map. Lets hope we meet up!

Are those per litre prices? Golly Molly! I'd be riding a Vespa over there! It'll feel like stealing it at our prices - - - :)

I calculate .84 US$ per litre for gas :) and .94 US$ per litre for diesel. How does that compare back home?

Prices in Bendigo, Vic ATM: unleaded 91 = 1.19 A$ per litre Diesel = 1.32 A$ per litre https://petrolspy.com.au/map/latlng/-36.75871120000001/144.2837459

The only person who calls me that is my bank manager. JR is fine and I hope you don't mind being called Mitch! Others may, but I can't smell mine! Aren't they the ones with silly slogans painted on them? Personally I've had no experience with rentals but your travel people should be able to organise something in advance from there. Remember we drive on the "wrong" side of the road though - - - :)

Mitch: Highly recommend a campervan for prospecting in Vic. I use a diesel VW T5 poptop 4wd and basically camp anywhere I damn well please. I do my laundry at laundromats in towns (or coin washers at caravan parks, although I never stay at these) Even at Reg Wilson's spacious and comfortable mansion I still prefer sleeping in my van! The amount of money saved touring in this way is immense and more than justifies campervan rental. You don't need a large van, indeed the smaller the better for following bush tracks. I'm getting softer as I age (disgracefully) and have now fitted up myself with a hot water system (with a shower out the back door) Most towns in Vic are RV friendly so water is usually available free somewhere.

Beautiful crystalline specimen George. Yes, bulldozer pilot startermotors. Many not so fond memories of those damn things. Great stories you tell Steve - - -

Damn right! Look forward to meeting up Mitch. I usually get away about then.

Ah yes, John Tully. Dunolly's resident historian and top bloke. Also pioneering electronic prospector and finder of many sizeable pieces in the early days. Back in the day, you could see signs of where he had once surreptitiously scraped a patch or two with his little grey Fergy tractor. His excellent published series of maps and books have led to many good finds over the years.

Yes Holtermann. Just another boring specimen - - - ?

I missed that Kiwi.. Bugger! Question du jour: Is their another monster at shallow depth awaiting discovery? Of course. But, obviously, it won't be in any regularly detected area. Moral of story: Start working new areas. Do your research - - -

Heartwarming story Paul. :)

Yeah Jin, the real problem with the Fluoreons is that, under test, they just don't have the claimed MAH output - which means you are carrying extra weight for nothing. As you mention, they also don't last very long. I can recommend the mid price range Turnigys for both endurance and correctly rated output. You can pay much more and get lipos with even better specs but why bother? After three years mine is starting to lose capacity so I'll probably replace it with a 6000mah cell. These weigh much the same as a 5000mah one.

Sorry NE, I had a mental picture of the audio output plug on my cordless setup stuck in my mind when I posted - - - Note to self - avoid early morning posts - Lipo battery fires are a very rare event. The only real danger times are charging (and discharging) at ampere rates beyond the specified "C" rating of the cell. In the case of a GPX the discharge rate is approx 750 MA which is insignificant to a lipo, so that leaves the recharge period as the sole risk. Ensure you charge the cell using a "lipo charge bag" and, once again, remain within charging specifications. Apart from that, relax and enjoy! I've witnessed my brother crash his electric racing planes into the ground at speeds in excess of 200KPH (following technical failure) yet the battery, although destroyed, has never exploded. Personally, following several years of abusing Lipo's in many ways with different applications, I have never witnessed a fire. My 5000MAH lipo weighs 290 grams compared to the Minelab battery's 860 grams.

No booster needed NE, just a female/female adaptor - but then you're still attached to your detector. Best way is to use a wireless transmitter, but not a Bluetooth fan, far better to use high quality (uncompressed) digital audio. OTOH, the setup Jin showed looks good. Here's my setup from a few years ago using a TDK "Kleer" transmitter. I now prefer using the Sennheiser RS160 "Kleer". Note Female/Female adaptor The "Kleer" systems are all interchangeable and more than one headphone set can be run at once, good for instructing beginners. I wouldn't recommend the Floureon lipos. The quality control is terrible. Stick with something like the Hobbyking brands. With fast charging lipo's there's no need to carry a large cell (providing your car and charger are handy) This lightweight Hobbyking 5AH lipo (shown on my old QED prototype) will run a GPX for 6 hours or so:

Sorry to confuse! As my description states, I mainly use the QED over the GPX and that's because of the weight advantage. Performance wise I find they are very similar. If working deep Ironstone ground the multi frequency GPX may have better penetration and that's why I retain it as a backup, but if I didn't own one I wouldn't bother buying one solely for this purpose. The ground I mainly work is not of this nature so, for me, the QED is the everyday grunt machine. Both my GPX and QED are powered by onboard lithium cells and my cordless audio setup is the Sennheiser RS160. These have excellent gain and boosters are not required with either machine. If you want to use speakers then this is no help. The coil I use on both machines is a rather battered and much abused 14" Elite, but I also have an 18" Elite if I suspect the ground is deep.

Northeast: I recommend all three ☺️ With the coils now available you won't miss much - - - maybe the good old SD would be redundant nowadays, they didn't miss much big deep gold though, especially the prototypes.

QED inventor Howard finds his biggest piece so far. Like Bruce Candy, Howard has little time for detecting. He's a one man band who not only designs, but also manufactures and assembles every machine he sells. I know he got a huge thrill finding this shallow 4.2 grammer in new ground late yesterday. Lets hope it's just the start of a patch. He writes: "A 4.2 gram nugget at ~3" deep found late this afternoon with the QED fitted with an IBgold prototype coil. Many thanks to Reg Wilson for sussing out the promising area yesterday."

Yep! Its the same reason I use the QED in Aus. An ultra lightweight but effective detector can't be beaten for putting in the looong hours on new ground :) Edit: talk about coincidence! Howard the QED inventor just now posted up his largest find to date, a shallow 4.2 grammer on new ground. Naturally, he's over the moon since, like Bruce Candy, he's not had much time to be a detector operator. Probably hooked now!

Yep, that's a replica. Reg Wilson missed finding it earlier, only found small gold there. It's fun to remind him occasionally - - - :)

That's Jay Gold's find already posted here: https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7831-jays-lump-golden-triangle/ Nice one!