schoolofhardNox

19 hours ago, cudamark said:

 I don't know what others have experienced with the AQ, but, I find it the worst pin pointing detector I've ever used. Most targets seem huge, especially when the target is out of the hole and you're trying to find it in the pile. The edge of the coil seems more sensitive than the center, and the target will sound off even several inches off the edge.

 

Cudamark, I think you will learn to love some of the things that seem bad to you right now. The sensitivity of the edge of the coil is a huge plus for me. If you watch the early videos again, you will see the techniques on pinpointing a target, pinpointing a target in a deep open hole, and pinpointing a target that has been removed and is in the sand pile. The edge of that coil, especially when tilted, almost reacts like a knife blade. At least that is the way I envision it. With quick, short nudging of the coil, it reacts immediately and for me shows me how close I am to the target. That's how I learned to pinpoint with it, so it seems to do that job well for me right off the bat. My struggles will be different from your struggles, but all in all I think this machine will be a winner once all plays out.

Steve, Is your AQ wearing a yellow face mask?? That will not help with that Corona bottle cap virus.  😄 Glad to see I'm not the only one digging junk. OOps that is not your AQ 🙄 Just read it again

Thanks for the great write up. Picking an area to hunt is going to have a great impact on success rates it seems. Until they make a machine that actually analyzes the metal, we will always have trouble with the same targets that we have always had trouble with.... Iron and Aluminum. I'm glad the discrimination seems to react better in wet sand. That helps in the areas I want to hunt in. Looking forward to your minus tide hunt.

Thanks for the report on the AQ. Did the rings have a strong response? Any guess on how deep the Titanium ring was? I agree the AQ does have a solid, easy to swing feel to it.

24 minutes ago, okara gold said:

I’m not disappointed at all. I’m one of those guys who is looking for depth / power in a PI. I’ll dig the trash to find the treasure. I found this ring about a year ago. It is 14K and rang a solid 14 on the Equinox. Identical ID to all the pull tabs I was finding. I was hunting the wet sand just about at high tide line which was littered with pull tabs and bottle caps. Apparently no one was digging them so I figured their might be a ring. Sure enough!

Nice hit. I think this machine will not disappoint in the depth category. My two most favorite things about the AQ is how quick the coil responds when you pinpoint and how nice and smooth the threshold is.

1 hour ago, okara gold said:

I would rather have a root canal than hunt dry sand. Been there done that, but that's just me. (BTW... never had a root canal, but I've heard stories!!!) I prefer the water and with that at least waist deep. It seems the further you are submerged the less trash and as Joe B has done... if trashy, dig the deep faint targets. It really is all about location. I intend to hunt the East coast of Florida if the AQ ever appears at my door and that will be only the long wet sand slopes. On the Gulf side... the water.

Root canal? That sounds painful. 😧  😄 I didn't have a lot of choice but to do the dry sand since the tide was high and my time was limited. But dry sand can yield information too. That's all I'm going to do is gather info until the fall when I can do all day hunts and work the wet sand hard. I know some people are disappointed in seeing all that trash, but that is the way I gain knowledge about a new machine. I did the same with my GPX for a while, until I learned where it was best to use and where it lacked performance. The dry sand has yielded me a huge amount of silver coins from this beach, so that is where the GPX works the best (for me). The GPX handled the wet sand OK but the amount of iron killed it's performance. The wet sand and water is where I'm hoping the AQ can excel at. But in the meantime, I hope everybody gains some insight from these dry sand hunts. I hope no one is discouraged about what this machine may be capable of doing, since it hasn't been out long enough to even scrape the surface of what it may do. OBN's hunts give you some solid data on what it can do in the water, in an experienced person's hands. I'm sure it will have it's place in dry sand as well, although the trash count will be much higher.

17 hours ago, midalake said:

Man I got to tell YA. I don't want to find any of that stuff  IN FACT the Corona pant is down the street from me!!!!!

If this detector can't dial the stuff[I had a few margaritas] OUT. Well then....

Dave 

All PI's and a bunch of VLF struggle with bottle caps. Once the season is over and the beach is cleaned up, it will mellow out a bit. Then that is when the deep stuff can be found. I don't usually hunt this early in the season, but will try and get out when I can. Who knows maybe someone will come up with a way to ID them before digging them. I don't mind the exercise, and this machine is going to compliment my Equinox and GPX nicely. One machine for tiny gold. one machine for Deep gold and one machine for deep silver. I think I have it covered now 😄

3 minutes ago, okara gold said:

You sure did a lot of digging and by the looks of your finds the "AQ" isn't picking up the tiny bits of foil. I recall an earlier post saying it is designed not to pick up the bits but to concentrate on the ring size objects, and that is a good thing! Good luck with your next hunt and bring on the rings!

Thanks. No really small pieces of foil. Most of the foil was decent size and maybe if I played with the pulse rate or or combination of other settings I may be able to rid some more. But I would like to find that point where the smallest ring and the foil meet. I don't want to shift that range away from small rings... if that is even possible? And yes, I dig a lot 😄 always have and always will (until something on me breaks) 🤕

Nice hunt. It always gets the blood pumping when you start hitting targets like that. Only a matter of time before you hit something good. Unfortunately in today's world a lot of jewelry looks good but is junk. I'm finding that for the past two years the increase of junk vs real has tipped in favor of junk. If I get a new drop, it's rarely gold. Most of my gold comes from the 70's, 80's maybe even into the 90's. After that Stainless, Titanium,  and other metals took over. But there is no better feeling than to be out detecting.

It's like a soap opera, but real. Maybe there should be a tell all book written  I used whites for many years exclusively from Coinmaster V Supreme until DFX. Then Minelab.... Now? Anyone who produces something I need and like. I hope White's re-invents itself. I look at things differently that I used to. I'm not really sad if a business dies, I just let it go and move on. If Whites makes a detector I like, I will invest my money with them. If they choose to rehash old designs or create new ones that don't do what I need, then I give my money to someone else. It really boils down to leadership in the end.

17 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I'm a bit surprised how few people care, the announcement on forums around the internet has had minimal reaction with a few short threads, most following along the lines of "outdated detectors, is it any wonder", people just shrugged it off.

I guess that was reflected in their sales figures too.  They needed better access to the world market and the prices of some of their detectors were too high for what they were.

I jumped through hoops all day yesterday to try buy a TRX, I contacted every dealer I could find in Australia, most had already closed down forever, one has replied saying they don't ship international but we don't really have stock of Whites stuff anymore.  I went through this trying to buy a 24k when it came out too.  No dealer in NZ ever took on Whites, I can get every other brand except First Texas' range, only the Gb2 and F-Pulse are sold here at the Fisher dealer, the only models viable.  The Fisher dealer that carried the other detectors closed down last year leaving the big smarter successful multi line dealer who only stocks what sells.

 It's buy from the US or don't buy at all for Whites... And US shipping is terribly expensive and at the moment very unreliable.  It might never arrive.  They needed to get their product into some dealers in other countries that were multi line big popular dealers to get sales or big box stores, not guys running out of their garage.  The big successful brands products are simple to buy.

I think their failure was partly to do with management and their decisions rather than just their products.   I know I'd have a 24k and all of it's coils, and a TRX.... and who knows what else if I could get my hands on them.  I've long read about US buyers struggling to buy their coils too.

When we had no Nokta dealer Dilek contacted our biggest dealer asking if he wanted to sell Nokta, he of course said yes.  Whites' could have done this too, it costs them nothing.

There my vent is over, frustrating when you want to buy something, to hand money over to a company, but they don't want to take it 🙂

The reasons most businesses fail is that the person steering the boat won't take advice of the most loyal team members telling them that the boat is off course. It's that stubbornness, denial,  and unwillingness to let others have a say, that crashes a business. The best thing that could happen to White's is new blood at the top.

22 minutes ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Good report,  You kicked butt for 2 plus hours...WOW! Lotta targets......No doubt from the pictures drysand is Nox territory, or VLF ...I think the "AQ" will shine for you this winter when the tides are low and you can slip out into the wetsand...Those are the hunts I'm excited to see for you. ..☠️

Thanks. Luckily for me those targets were all relatively shallow. Pinpointer  used before the shovel was, for most of the bottlecaps. But the AQ does pinpoint extremely well using the side of the coil. It saves a lot of time. The upper beach I hunted is grated so that it is smooth for the public. Judging from the area it seems they or the ocean has deposited a lot of sand. So targets are either shallow or the deep ones are far and few between. That's ok because it give me time to learn from reading and watching videos before my season kicks in.

On 6/28/2020 at 9:12 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

They are only using M8 (8mm) connectors and the cable itself is thinner yet. Way smaller and daintier than what you seem to be imagining. That's the whole problem with the power cable in general - too small and dainty, not thick and robust.

I have all the required parts on order and will probably have something to post and look at in a week.

It was smaller than I expected. When I first got the unit, I went to plug in the cables and could hardly align them with my tired eyes 😄 Good that the next generation release will eliminate those issues. I'm leaning toward a very, overly cautious, attitude toward this machine which takes some of the fun away from it. I'm sure I will settle into a more normal routine soon enough. So if I break a cable? I guess I just wait for a replacement for it, that's all. The world will still continue I think. 🙄

So here it is, my maiden voyage with the AQ. I was able to get in a 2½ hour hunt at the beach today. My goal was to dig every signal that sounded good and some that did not but piqued my interest. For the most part I stayed in tone mode, sensitivity almost full, and the rest in the preset settings. I did try all metal and mute modes as a check occasionally. I hunted the dry sand mostly since it was high tide but did venture on the saturated sand a bit. Results>>>>Humans are slobs LOL. I dug a ton of garbage just to get a feel for the machine. I like the quick, loud response it gives when you get close to a target. I also like how easy it is to pinpoint with it. Batteries lasted the hunt plus about an hour more for the land hunt I did later. The second battery lasted about the same. Way longer that I expected them to last.  About 3½ hours each. Coins sounded terrible as to be expected, aluminum screamed as did the bottle caps. No gold this hunt but a cool looking Amethyst pendant, a nice (fake) stud, a nice chain that I was hoping was silver but was stamped Italy 14K …yeah right, China special - copper showing through. The land hunt later was to hopefully find Iron canister shot for an 1812 war project I visit occasionally. It definitely found a lot of big iron at very good depth, but none of them would be round shot. My first impression of the machine? I like it and will probably do better when I have the beach for the day and the seasons change. If you are after coins and little junk, this is not the machine for you. If you are an experienced PI guy, you will probably appreciate this machine. I will use it for gold as it was intended, but still hunt for silver with the GPX. On the beach it handled the EMI well. On the land hunt and about 40 feet from the train tracks, it got a bit jumpy at times but still better that the GPX. Not sure how much depth I loose during that though. It will be about 2 weeks until I can get to another beach to hunt. Work always gets in the way!

12 hours ago, cudamark said:

Unless you bought several batteries (at $200 a pop) you're not going to be hunting all night with the AQ limited. I got just 2 1/2 hours on my first charge, and Fisher says it only good for 3 1/2 when broken in.

I bought 2 batteries just to get me through a hunt. Sometimes I hunt for 9 or 10 hours, so I will change machines and go to the GPX to balance out my time. One thing for sure is the AQ does not compare weight wise to the GPX . I charged both batteries and barely used one for some air tests. Then I put them back on the charger to freshen them up. Rested a couple of days and then charged them again and went for a hunt on Thursday. Each lasted me the 3 1/2 hours. Don't know if repeatedly touching up the charge did anything to get me the full amount the first time out or not, but they lasted. But when they go, they go fast! No time to delay in changing batteries, just do it right away. I'll post my first hunt in a thread today.

9 hours ago, Joe D. said:

PS:  SchoolofhardNox; NO beachhouse purchases, or any other "hard earned" money spent, where they are restricting beach detecting!😡👍👍 

If I get one right across from the beach though......Hmmmm. Then I can detect all night long and sleep during the day. 🥰

2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Yup. In other words, detecting as it has always been, with many very clear dig me signals, many very clear "do not dig" signals, and then a whole bunch of questionable signals. If you dig these most will be junk, but a few will be good targets.

Frankly, the AQ changes nothing for me as far as detecting except that areas I would not hunt because they were done, "cleaned out", I'd now hunt again with hopes of making more good finds. But they've already been hunted, supposedly to death, so a lot of good stuff has been extracted and much of the junk left behind. No matter how you look at it the situation is more like cleaning up leftovers, than turning hunted beaches into virgin territory.

Same for me. If other PI's have been hitting my favorite spots and have cleaned a lot of the iron out, I'm hoping the deeper gold will still be there and  more alone of a target. Fringe targets are where I think it will be for me.

2 minutes ago, Willy said:

You would never be able to discriminate out BRONZE nails. You will have to live with them!!

Oh No, I love those nails!! It's the other ones I hate  I've only found 3 bronze spikes at the beach.

7 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I was wondering why nails would be on a beach in the first place.  While I'm not a regular beach hunter I've never found a nail on the beach.  Bottle caps and pull tabs are my typical enemies at the beach.  I guess countries with a lot more history than my own tend to gather up more junk over the years of habitation.  I'd be quite happy if I found nails off an old ship wreck though.

Plenty of nails everywhere in the USA  The old shipwreck nails in my area are bronze I believe. Probably the 1700's and up. We can never totally get rid of nails, the best we can do is limit how many we pick up. Deep nails can be 15, 18, 24" etc deep. they sound very faint at that depth, just like a deep coin can.

10 hours ago, GaryC/Oregon Coast said:

So the last I heard on these past posts there were 8 sold but not all delivered.  By now all eight should have been delivered.  Am I correct in thinking all eight are not going to be leaving feedback on this forum.  I don't follow other forums, just this one.  Is someone (who has an AQ in hand) posting finds, likes, dislikes, problems, concerns on the AQ limited on other forums.  Seems Joe and Steve are all I have seen feedback on.  GaryC/Oregon Coast

As soon as I get a chance I will post my results here. My beaches are a 2 hour drive and  most of them turn a blind eye to detecting before opening at 8 or 9 AM. They are starting to restrict detecting during operating hours. So that means getting up at 3 AM, driving 2 hours and detecting for 3 hours max and then home. So I'm debating if I want to do that. Now if someone wants to buy me a beach house down there, then I will definitely post for everyone 😄 But seriously, I will try and get a hunt in soon, as well as trying a land hunt for low conductors just for kicks. Disclaimer: I have zero hours on the AQ, so don't expect too much...I'm figuring 30 or so gold rings would be acceptable on a first hunt 😉

Nice, secure set up. My set up is not so neat 😄 I pile everything in the trunk. Since I bring everything I think I would ever need for 10 hunts, it packs nicely against each other. No room to move at all 🙄

Beauties. Some early ones there too.

28 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

How clean do you have to get those scrap metals?  And do they just weight what you bring in and give you a fixed per pound price?  I've accumulated quite a bit of copper but haven't gotten all the dirt cleaned off/out.  For example, some of the tubing, after sitting in the ground for a few decades, is full of soil.

Is this a case where you've developed trust with the scrap yard and when you say for example "it's copper", that's enough?

Short answer - the cleaner the better. Anything that has paint, corrosion will be #2 copper. Fresh tubing is #1 copper, dirt filled is rejected. Trust is good, but scrap yards generally know what they are looking at.... they don't get fooled too often. Prices are per pound. You can call ahead and get the going rate. If you need more info, message me so we do not stray to far off topic

1 hour ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

You my friend are going to rock this winter. The 2 hour hunt yesterday I may have did 30 foot long by 20 foot wide area...I move slow and dig every little jump in the meter. 

Thanks Joe. Hunting those threshold blips is what I planned to do, to see how deep it can go! Funny how for years, I liked to keep the threshold just about silent. Now I want to hear a quiet, but steady hum to hear those anomalies.

Nice hunt Joe. In addition to gold I am looking forward to finding older nickels too. Just goes to show you, old sites still have deep goods to give up.