Aureous

What the Russkies have done with their coils is absolutely nothing special, just a lotta hours of trial and error, experimentation and common sense. I could start making those coils easily (coz they have done all the initial hard work TBH) with the injection of just $50K to get a production line started. You'd be looking at a wholesale markup of around 300% with no coil being over US$500 each retail. If Minelab started the same thing for the GPZ8, it would be farmed off to the lowest bidder in Malaysia with the resulting poor quality.....as we've seen with the GPX6000 coils.

Could not agree more..... and you're not the only one to lose $$ trying to help him Reg. 😑

The 3 biggest issues with the QED are single channel (limited to either small-medium targets or larger only), complicated, multi segment setup and most of all, a ground-grab fixed ground balance. Soon as you get into more mineralized ground conditions, the Minelab machines beat it easily. Numerous side-by-side & test patch comparisons have proven this over and over. It certainly finds gold and for the money, its a great option for those wishing to get into PI prospecting on a budget. Light weight and coil options give it Kudos as well. But serious operators give it a wide berth in exchange for better performing ML machines.

Most Everyone is well aware of Rohan's difficulties in running his business which he does remarkably well, considering the small workforce and the quality he produces. What I was referring to, is the Minelab chip stuff-up. That issue set NF back many months. Its a total clusterf%$k that ML went down the track of chipping the coils to start with...totally unnecessary and detrimental to the uptake of the 6000. Add to that, the sad illness and death incidents, it certainly a bad year for them. I am a big supporter of NF and have bought numerous coils from them and have always had zero issues. Hope 2024 is a much more positive year for Rohan & Co.

100% correct Simon.... I think we both know the dramas that occurred early last year. I believe the word 'Clusterf&%k' has been used more than once.... 😁

Steve, your DP guide is still amazingly relevant, and a lot of work has obviously gone into it. As you may recall, I started a book (haven't finished it, now I'm homeless and starting life No.4) and my top rated detectors for gold still haven't changed. In pure High Frequency VLF's the top 3 are still the 24K, the Gold Kruzer and the Gold Bug 2 (if the user can handle a manual ground balance). The Gold Monster wouldn't even make the top 10 with me... In Multi-use VLF's, the Nokta Legend and the Equinox 800/900 & prob the Manti deserves to be there too. In PI's, the 7000, the 6000, the 5000 and the 2300. Plus of course the Axiom deserves to be there....somewhere in between the 6000 and 5000. Anyone serious in getting into detector prospecting need not look anywhere else but the machines mentioned. Everything else is just 'fluff' 😉

Ive used and owned the stock 11, the stock 14DD, the Coiltek 10x5 and the NF 12x7. The 10x5 had a minor edge in sensitivity (best of any coil) but was similar in noise characteristics to the stock 11 mono. The NF 12x7 now rarely leaves my detector.... easily the quietest coil and whisper signals are more easily heard. No wonder NF can't keep up with demand and the other sizes aren't available yet because of it.

Joe Legendre is fighting cancer and might not be putting up videos anymore. Things are not looking good for him 😞

Yeah I trialed both silver multi-strand and silver coated copper which seemed to have the correct specs per foot but like Geof said, they had a frustrating noise issue. Tried Aluminium wire as well (from Microwave ovens) and same issue. So far, Ive found only 4 types of litz and Teflon/nylon coated multi-strand wire that work perfectly every time.

Looks like I'll have to tear-down a 6000 coil just to take a look at that. Very curious..... With your whole-coax-and-chip idea, do you find any bump sensitivity from the external connectors outside the coil?

Yeah, I forgot about Goldfields Goose (Daniel and his Mum) and Nenad (Phase tech), my apologies for leaving those guys out. ML gold went to Western Australia and is probably still there, but videos are not on his agenda anymore.

Just wondering Chet, how far off are the specs on the various coils you are winding, versus the legacy GPX coils? The X coils guys were suggesting that the 6000 and 5000 coil specs are near identical..... say in the 290-350uH inductance and <1ohm resistance ranges. You say that the older coils don't work as well on the 6000 using your adapter set-up???

....and don't forget the McDonalds Big Mac voucher for a snack on the way home.... 😉

There's a big difference between informative or instructional... and entertaining to watch. Not many of the US Youtube sites are 'entertaining per se. Pioneer Pauly and Dan Hurd I watch, mainly for the scenery (and Pauly's ludicrous sense of humor) but they are Canadian of course. Bill Southern can be informative, so he's worth a watch. Mount Baker mining is also instructional, but for mining info rather than actual prospecting. The Aussie ones to watch are: Outback gold fever Vo-gus prospecting West Oz Adventures Savage Prospecting Buckshot Prospector (absolute lunatic lol) Rob Parsons Tassie Boys Prospecting Gold Magnet JB Heli-Prospecting

A crushed coke can is a fairly good analogy to a less-than-ideal gold conductor. A solid lump of aluminium or lead would be heard far deeper. Aluminium is of course, in the same conduction range as gold, but because the can is not solid, its similar perhaps to a large specie.... Almost 1 meter depth is pretty good. Yeah some X coils on his 7000 would be an interesting comparison for sure....

Blackmans Lead at Maryborough. Ive got gold quite close to that. According to Dunn's nugget book, it was found at a depth of 6ft on 15th Jan 1858. I also first saw the monument back in the 80's. Brings back memories....

My experience with the 17" ellip mono was poor. Way too noisy, had to dumb it down to manual 1 or 2 just to shut it up. Trialed another from a friend, same deal. But others have had no such issues... I aint buying any other coils except NF ones...but the wait is now painful.

If its the 8" green round coil, then its certainly sensitive. BUT when I owned an ATX, I got a dud one in the box...was terribly bump sensitive. I got a warranty replacement and that one was bump sensitive too...but not as bad. But still, In rocky areas, it was totally intolerable. If you can get a chance to test it before you buy...do that.

Ha, you're full of great ideas Chet! Re-use the cable and chip for multiple coils....brilliant! Giving me ideas now... 🤔

Cool, thats the smart way to do it, keep the coax attached to the chip and remove the whole lot. Shielding is spot on. Are these results all air tests??? Were you able to ground balance any of the larger coils or were they all board-builds only....without shells???

So you plucked the 'handshake' chip out the stock coils and made up an adapter for these tests? Fascinating results... The 6000 is not regarded as a deep-seeking detector, with both the 5000 and 7000 obtaining better results in all tests that Ive seen. But, these tests seem pretty good. All obviously mono's with but with proper shielding????

Maurice Coppola (a very well known Golden Triangle prospector) has another video comparing various detectors and coils. Well worth a watch.

I asked Dilek directly....she declined to answer which 'normally' means something is still happening...

A magnet on your pick assists in those occasions...

Yes......good ones are a total rarity these days, your chances of finding a 'good'un' are low. A great saying is: "Dating in your 50's is like looking into a box of used toys....wondering which one is the least broken" From my experience, your odds of finding a 20oz nugget are better than finding a good woman. Plenty of fellas have been lucky....but not me 😞