Hi to All,
Not much meat on the bones here for the experienced hunter, so read on at your own boredom.
I did not realize that I had never posted on Steve's site before, so part of pinning this on the board is to escape the Lurker rap.
The other reasons for posting? So we can review common sense principles that I wandered away from that you should respect:
Always power up your detector before leaving the house
Always run a target over the coil of your detector before you leave the house
Have a backup detector and always take it with you when you leave the house
If you choose not to have a backup and have only one detector that is a rare older design that nobody repairs, grief is in your future
At the beach over a week ago my detector would turn on but not respond to targets run over the coil. The machine in question is an Eric Foster Goldquest Aquasearch v.2, which is a pure PI designed for beach/shallow water only. No many around anymore, no parts available and few if any work on them. Bad place to be, and I put myself there without anyone's help. What I realized right away is buying a top shelf backup PI right now is next to impossible- they do not exist in number. Garrett buying out White's made the TDI Beach Hunter scarce, plus everyone is holding their Dual Fields and/or Surf PI's. The used detector market is hotter than the used car market. Thanks, but no Seahunter or 7lb ATX for me. It may be a multi-freq machine is in my future because it is the only viable option- we shall see.
As for the Goldquest Aquasearch, after many failed inquiries I found that East Texas Metal Detectors works on Eric Foster machines. Thank you Steve H. for the suggestion (via earlier post search). All is well for now in Redondo Beach.
-Jerry