KD0CAC

Haven't checked out everything that  " ultimate list of gold facts " but near the beginning ,

#14. It takes a special mixture of 1 part nitric acid and 3 parts sulfuric acid, called aqua regia, to dissolve gold.

Does not ring true , aqua regia is nitric acid & hydrochloric acid .

But I have also found that there are more things / combination of things that will dissolve gold  .   

55 minutes ago, phrunt said:

This guy has done one, while not perfect and it was his first video he did an OK comparison I think.  There are a few flaws in his methods I guess but it gives some basic information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BGVbwBFips

Seems as though he did not try , adjust etc. with the 6000 , as much as he did with the 7000 ?

But was worth watching .

Well $6,000 would get me close to a truck to get me near gold fields [ 94-98 Dodge Ram 5.9 Cummins ] then after getting a truck to take get me close to gold , use my Equinox 800 to find some gold to pay for the 6000 .

Most people call it a fixed income , I call it a broken income --- detecting helps to fix the broken income 😉

Thanks Gerry ,

Just got back from Colorado , 9,000-11,000 feet load , had my Nox 800 , but have not used for gold yet and not enough time on a friends claims to get to know the detector & tailings hunting , mostly placer in California .

If I get invited back in August and find a little gold , may have to consider the 6000 , social security can not cover the cost of the 6000 , hope to get the 800 to provide enough gold to consider the new Minelab .

I checked out Gerry's linked post , helps to confirm , just more time to learn the NOX , and more time in that area ?

Too bad I do not live closer to Colorado and frequent the same spot .

Now to see if we go back in August , the owner mentioned that while we were there 😉

And get time to really check out the claim , & the NOX for hunting tailings from load ? 

11 hours ago, vanursepaul said:

I may sound a little harsh bit it sounds to me like you need to learn how to read a GPs and a topo/claims map before you worry about the type of detector you should have...

Any detector that does find you some gold would be great---especially if it is on your claim.

This is a basic tenet of detectorists'--- to know where they are at at  all times-- dont be that guy who has to be embarrassed when the real claim owner shows up busting your a.. and all you can say is. " I thought we were on my claim"-- Trust me-- at the time it sounds so weak of an excuse that you will want to crawl under a rock. 

Hopefully the claim owner will blow it off and tell you exactly what i just did. 

Opinion given with love---- but dont mess up!!! -- too easy to use a real map !!!

You seemed to missed what I posted , I was invited by the claim owner to go with to checkout his claims ,

when we got to where he thought his claims were , I looked at his paperwork [ limited ] IT LOOKED TO ME THAT WE WERE NOT ON HIS CLAIM , I took us to his claim with his limited paperwork , then the person who brokered the claims came a couple days confirmed where I said they were !

I did buy the 6" coil just before the trip , but did not get the time to learn the detectors gold detecting / I did get use to it on beaches & knew close most of the time what was there before digging .

But had time .

May go back in Aug. hope to do the planning this time , and take more time .

More time with any detector is a good thing 😉 

I'l wait for more replies .

If $3,000 is more than I can afford , $6,000 is out of sight .

Dang just clicked on the link and $49.99 ;(

A friend of a friend of a friend asked if I would like to go along to checkout a claim in Colorado load mine , that make 4 or us in 2 4x4s .

About 2 days each way from MN and about 4 days at site , kinda , the owners truck broke down LUCKY is happened in town getting supplies .

I have not been on roads like this for a couple + decades [ use to placer / underwater suction dredge in CA ] .

So very glad we did not break down on those roads .

I was the only one of the 4 that had done any mining [ very little load / tailings mining ] and my 800 was finding targets about every 2-3" maybe as little as every 4-6" .

Dug up many targets all man made / metal , no newgets ;(

Have never used this new to me detector [ about 1 3/4 yrs. ago , for FL beaches &&& ] so have not got to make personal tune for Newgets .

With the breakdown and showing everyone else how to . where to dig , break rock etc. had very little time to do work / detect .

Also no one knew how to read / understand the maps we had of his 3 claims , mostly copies of copies of topo maps , when we got to the 2nd spot he thought was his lower claim , I looked at the paperwork he had told me we need to look elsewhere , we were close 😉

Any prospecting is good , but this was getting close to being a , ha not so good [ would have been better if we found / had time to find gold .

We had planned to stay at least 3 days longer , but weather reports said a week of solid rain moving in ;(

Now if we , I go back I may consider a more specific gold detector , with simpler learning curve than the 800 for gold ?

I watch every TWO TOES video https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY0Qsb5XawenYsglMVNTbLw.      And he upgraded not long ago to the SD2300 , lots of things that looked good about that detector , but what caught me was using the coil on edge for crevices , but need to find some gold to be able to pay for it , many call it a fixed income - I call it a broken income 😉

With so many false targets , I put more time into helping the others learn how / what to do , and then helping the owner checkout all 3 claims - at least they were adjacent to each other , between 9,700' & 1,100' , sure noticed thin air at the age of 68 .

So the question of digging less iron ? 😉

Building a hookah system for using the NOX near beaches , within the depth of the NOX or less .  

It would be a big legal issue I'm sure , this is in a town that would take issue .

And maybe involve the feds , a good river - for federal water way .

But had the idea of one of those walk-behind tracklaying bucket / diggers and shovel into a sifting system , claim I'm cleaning the beaches , kinda like the beaches in FL .

And getting the other 2 sizes of coils for the Nox is on the list .

But with so many targets , needing to use more functions of the detector to get good enough to dig mostly good stuff / not much trash .

I thought about using my phone and making a video with sound to show how much more busy the detector is than I have ever seen or heard of .

I started detecting in the 80s mostly with dredging for gold , then left the gold country and ended up back in MN , got some more detectors with the intention of going back to northern CA - but dredging is outlawed [ bs ] and bought a bunch of detectors in the 90s and worked mostly parks & beaches walking the dog .

Had a fire about 5 yrs. ago and lost about a quarter million in tools , equipment and about 6+ detectors .

A little over a year ago , bought a Nox 800 , mostly did the FL beaches last winter , not sure if going back this winter .

But I have been mostly doing beaches here in MN since coming back from FL just at the beginning of the codvid thing .

1st problem seems to be is most of the beaches I grew up on have replaced the sand beaches [ dirty dogs ;( with grass , and have been worked over / detected , but I still find enough for fun .

2nd issue is a good one , too many targets , that includes pull-tabs & bottle caps etc. , along with lots of coins at least $1 -$2 + per hour , not including jewelry - not much of that - this is where the amount of other stuff - money & pull-tabs & bottle caps - being older 67 , my arm / shoulder can only last about 3-4 hrs. , the space between all targets is most commonly about every 3" - 6" at least 70-80% of the time / area , and many multiple targets on top of / or right next to each other - having to pickout the trash to find coins .

So finding jewelry is hard - have to dig lots of trash - to make sure I do not miss the googies .  

3rd Now this is just theory for now , need to bring a kid out with me to do , what is very hard for me [ 3 different back injuries ] digging - the theory being that lots of coins going down 6"-8" and nothing older than about late 60s / 70s , so the idea is to have a young slave [ never did get around to having kids 😉  to dig a large area , maybe at least for testing 4' - 6' square and guessing at least a foot deep + --- to find silver coins .

This should work good , because this area does not seem to have been found by other detectorist , I have never seen so many targets / coins .

Oh this is a river that in the summer there are hundreds [ really ] of boats every day , and weekends it's almost bumper-to-bumper , and all the sandy areas are crowded / over crowded , lots of islands also , so have to have my friend drop me off those with his boat - while he keeps throwing fish back 😉

Now when I get the Nox 800 even just a little figured out / use to , too many hobbies , need to take time from other things to up to speed with the Nox .

I agree that knowing what your doing , so as to avoid issues .

But once you know something , you find that many / most places that are charging $2k - $10k are ripping you off , a lot of that is from fear mongering .

Life is hazardous - ban it 😉

Point being that you can [ being well informed ] build just as good of quality for much , much less .

Steve I used you link to Keene , where I got my compressor as part of my dredge , now outlawed in CA , and repurposing the compressor .

It's a cheaper single cylinder , that does not come up after using your link , probubly because the 3 times the price difference , last I checked [ within the last yr. ] about $250 .

By the way , Keene does not make either compressor .

7 months later , these have been working very well , maybe 😉

The only issue was the last time out , the most target rich environment I've ever been , non-stop audio .

Good spot to get to know detector fast , endless targets , good & trash .

This was the 1st time I had this issue , and cannot confirm where the issue was coming from [ not enough time to bother with all the goodies ] but what would happen is a couple to 3 times during the 3 hrs. - the audio would drastically drop - still could hear , but slowed down to listen , then it would come back to normal level after just a couple seconds .

Dang now winter is in & out and the river beach is freezing up ;(

With a couple months in between uses , still did not have to pair - just turn on the 800 & headphones and connected automatically  . 

I looked at the prices of store bought at around $2,500 - $4,500 .

No way 

I have a diving compressor from Keene Engineering , that I used on my dredge .

I am going to build my own with Lithium battery , shopping for the rest of the parts , motor etc. 

100 amp hr. lithium battery for about $600 , motor for less than $100 , regulator less than $100 .

The Keene compressor guessing from memory $200 + 

The biggest problem I have is info on diving off Florida coast 20' or less ?

Got delivered today through Amazon , tried pairing twice by turning the detector on and then  headphones , and off and on a 2nd time .

Then the 3rd time turned on the detector , then the headphones - paired with the + works good .

Now to go out & play .

And the price was ok also , https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A0EAYDI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks Chase 

" I'm kind of surprised by this statement because you know your way around a soldering iron and circuit board like nobody's business.  Wish I had that skill.  I'm all thumbs and love to burn up electronic components if I try to dive in myself, but the throway nature of surface mount micro-electronics makes DIY repair hard these days. "   Chase Goldman 

What I am referring to age wise , is programing / computer controlled , vs. circuit board work - thats just mechanical  working with my hand/eye coordination .

Or put another way - I could be a brain surgeon , I can work on brains / but cannot work with brains 😉

Or , my hands & eyes are coordinated , but the brain - hand coordination is problematic 

Thanks for the links .

I do realize that there is issues , faults all over the place .

Generally , maybe partially because of age I get frustrated with over complication , it seems to me most that are younger grew up with all the extra bs and are just use to it / don't know the difference .  

I've been in one business or another for over 50 yrs. and see an endless gouging [ started at the top and everyone below has to gouge to keep going ] that is just getting older faster than I am ;(

Probably pissed some , my way of thinking is you can only piss yourself off , either that what you want or ? 

3 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

I'm not because I have found no less than 7 BT headphone models that pair up just fine with Equinox in low latency mode (including BT 5.0 phones) ranging from $30 to $100, plus there is always the WM08 receiver option for the 800 that accommodates any wired MD headphone.  People just need to be smart and read the specs when shopping for a replacement.  I would rather have options on choice of headphones that comply with a commercial standard (BT APTX LL) rather than be locked into a MD manufacturer's limited proprietary wireless model that cannot be used for any other purpose.

Sure would like to find some of those , every one I've check has been sold out , or other issues and costing excessive .

Also most of the comments leave lots of doubt , lack of enough to confirmation , that makes it a toss up ?

This is not Minelabs issue - kinda ?

Well they picked the headphones .

Might have to find another supplier / manufacture of metal detectors , someone who will not leave customers in a deep dark hole ?

Especially when they jackup the price by 2-3 times ?

Anybody else a little or more unhappy .

On 3/18/2020 at 1:17 AM, Tometusns said:

I bought these to just give them a try. I really like the way they talk to you. The noise canceling feature is cool (I don't know how it works but it does) but makes it harder to hear your pin pointer so I rarely use it. They are very affordable which is why I tried them. I noticed they would make a really static like sound sometimes and was concerned but have since found out there's just bad junk in the ground causing it. Anyways for $25 I bought another pair for back up. Oh, they pair up way better than my original headphones. I turn on the machine and when its gone through start up I turn these on..you hear power on then it either says pairing then connected or just connected and power off when you shut them down. Also disconnected if you get to far away from your machine or shut down the machine and leave the headphones on. To me they sound good. 

A link would help ?

I looked those up , only replies were from Amazon , and none available .

I did not have the option of getting into them for a couple weeks , so not real hopeful .

I do my own repairs , but typically I'm last in line ;(

Got deeper into the headphones today , and realized  I was out of flux for doing ic chips .

Got the main IC off the board after taking a closer look & seeing corrosion on the edges .

Took some bad pictures , will take some more after I resupply and clean up more .

After removing the IC with hot-air station , and turning the chip over you can see [ bad picture ] corrosion - yellow on a couple edges .  

Well the battery & charging system works ok , but does not turn on yet .

Now have to get to costumers repairs , mine are last in line .

Will update on progress .