GB_Amateur

Is this the device you are referring to?

Where have you been hiding this oscilloscope image, EL NINO? How about interpreting it for us. I roughly think I can pick out ~5 kHz and ~22.5 kHz peaks in the lower (Fourier Transform) window. Also looks like higher freq's (but maybe just harmonics)? I mean that one Garrett interview derided the use of higher frequencies in multi-frequency detectors.... What did that engineer call it, 'fluff'? Surely they aren't using those in their received-wave interpretation logic.

That explains a lot (possibly how it got into the family collection). Do you think the Navy (ground crews, etc.) used them? My father in law, among other things, built runways on South Pacific islands during WWII, often by planing down the coral with dozers, etc. This came from his (utilitarian) tool collection. His PBY squadron was often the first to set foot on an island after it was 'made safe' by the Marines. Thanks for that tidbit. Sometimes I post questions here and barely get a response. This thread has produced quite a few valuable replies. Thanks to all.

Welcome, Rusty! Several of your countrymen are regular posters (Rivers rat, Rick from UK, PimentoUK to name just three). Some of their posts are particularly relevant, but don't stop there.

Welcome, little_fellow! There is also silver in your province. Check out posts made by fellow Ontario resident Jim Hemmingway in which he shows pictures of his native silver finds and talks about his adventures. https://www.detectorprospector.com/search/?&q=silver&author=Jim Hemmingway&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy

There's a tradeoff here. First, a complicated detector with lots of settings is going to frustrate a beginner right out of the box. Imagine putting a 16-year-old trying to learn to drive in a Corvette ZR1. Secondly, if you read the highlights on this detector which Steve listed in the initiating post you'll see that it has quite a few features (e.g. ground balance adjustment) that the best detectors have. Competing with the veteran detectorists is more about location and skill than detector, IMO. As long as you're not fighting variable mineralized ground and nasty EMI, the low end detectors can hold their own for 80-90%% (obviously rough estimate) of targets in typical parks and schools. Culpeper, VA? OK, nope. 😁 Will they get the deepest or highly masked targets? No, but neither will a top-of-the-line detector in inexperienced hands. I agree that there are detectors for sale (especially some of the old models) on Ebay that are so crappy that no one would or should have to put up with them. But the established manufacturers today put out pretty decent entry level products. I've never used this BH 3300 but on paper it looks good (enough).

Hey! I'm offended by that question (or more accurately, my antique pick is offended). I do collect a lot of old things, including tools, but 99% of the tools I also use or at least have them ready for service. This is a family heirloom so it's a backup for taking out into the gold fields, but I'm going to try it on some stubborn crushed stone or gravel walkways locally (coin hunting). It would make a decent display item but I have more strenuous tasks in mind. You probably wrote this before you saw my followup post that I have a replacement handle already. Thanks for the tip of soaking the old one in oil if I didn't have a better option.

Worked like a charm so far. In standard operating mode the coil angle is easy to change but doesn't do so without my intent. When I lay the detector down it does flatten, but that doesn't bother me one bit.

Well, the good news is that I picked up a new (i.e. unused) handle at a gem & minerals show a year or two back. So you're saying that will hold if I use the same mounting technique? I'm accustomed to hammer handles that either have a shoulder and/or are tapered the opposite direction. But what you say makes a lot of sense, and as I was aware, this design has worked for many decades under difficult conditions. Thanks for the quick response. I'll see if can avoid messing up with the new handle.

I can't figure out a reliable way to re-mount this pick handle. This is a small pick (USA quarter on left, Australia 1943 penny on right, for scale). You can see what I tried -- wooden wedge in the long direction and steel wedge in the short direction. This didn't hold worth a nickel. Given that this design has been in use for well over a century there must be a solution. I can't be the first person to have this issue. (I looked online without success.) Any advice is appreciated.

I wonder if there is some noise reduction reason to do this. Simply saving space is not a good tradeoff, IMO. I've seen PCB traces broken with a lot less stress/force than (repeatedly) plugging in a 5+ pin cable connector. I'm amazed they actually don't fail on a regular basis. But they (Garrett and Minelab) know more than I do..., I hope. 😕

You forgot 'affordable'. 😁 This thread is a wish list so yours qualifies. I doubt if my body has enough years of detecting left to think I'll ever experience this (even ignoring the affordability part), but doesn't hurt to ask. The Equinox was cutting edge (among all-purpose detectors, anyway), lightweight, and affordable. I hope ML continues this trend.

1918/17-D Buffie -- talk about a/the key date+MM! I take it you've found a lot of nickels to be able to claim this and the 1885 (two excellent rarities) among them. (The Cherrypickers' Guide to Rare Die Varieties of United States Coins is the bible and it estimates the survival population of that 1918 overdate as 125-150 specimens. That qualifies as a find-of-a-lifetime in my book!) I'm still waiting for my key date nickel. As of now I'd settle for a semi-key (at best) 1955 plain Jeffie. Those three nickels in your first photo are clearly tip-top shape (low wear). I can't figure out the dates on the other two (second photo). Any help there? As soon as I finish my lunch I'm headed out. The spot I've chosen for today probably doesn't have any V's, but Buffie's are a possibility as are scarce date Jeffies. Thanks for the inspiration!

Exactly what I do. Pitch (audio frequency) set to 24 for TID's of 12-13 and 25 for (typically) TID's 20-40. Even the 24 vs. 25 is a huge difference to my ear, and my brain is trained to recognize the nickel zone hits compared to all other tones without having to revert to screen checking. Even if the 800 didn't include other pluses (gold mode, WM08 module) I think the many audio tone options (pitch, volume, breaks) are worth the $250. (But I might have complained anyway. 😏) Again we're on the same page. 4 kHz is a specialty setting which brings with it potential shortcomings. Fortunately many who have preceded me detecting my parks and schools didn't value the nickels as much as I do and weren't willing to dig the trash that overlaps its TID region. At least they left something for me. 👍 How about a picture of that only slightly worn, strongly struck 1916 Buffie.... And an 1885 V-nickel, key to the series! That would get my heart racing for sure if I found one of those. Fellow coin detectorists, ignore nickels at your own risk.

I see some caution/warnings in responses which I assume result from previous experience where 'improvements' took away performance. I think everything I'd like to see has already been said, but I'll give my independent opinions, kinda like survey results. In order of importance to me: 1) A moderately sized (e.g. 5"x10" or 6"x10") closed eliptical coil option (keeping the 11" open round as stock is fine with me). 2) Move the User Profile button to the front panel. 3) Include/allow more User Profile memory slots. (Total of 3 or 4 would be nice!) Although I don't really know how things work in detail, I think only #2 even involves a physical change to the 600/800; the other two are either external (new coil) or software (multiple user profiles). However, if there are 'real estate' issues with overcrowding the front panel then give the user some leeway in choosing/changing the meaning of front panel buttons. Right now, for example, the only time I use the horseshoe (exception -- when I can get into hot rock laden gold bearing ground) is to open up all TID slots when I turn on the detector. (Why is default notching 'on'? Oh well, I've learned to live with that.) I use the Profile button about a 100 times more often (I'm not exaggerating) than the operating frequency change button. Of course we'd all like to see improvements to performance such as even better target separation and tighter digital TID accuracy -- the two combined leading to better unmasking. I also could list several ergonomic 'nicities' but the three requested improvements I've listed are things I can't do myself.

I think that is Dick Stout's #1 recommended site type -- people sitting around (often on the ground) ignoring their troubles/responsibilities for a couple hours and dropping coins in the process. A coin hunter's dream. Fantastic finds!

Silicone lubricant arrived but first I made some measurements. I noticed some differences on the ML rubber washers. Here is what I measured (estimated single measurement uncertainty ~0.01 mm): 3 sets of the 'teardrop' shape for the Equinox: Four of them were within 0.01 mm of 5.00 mm. The other two were 5.07 mm. The only set that has been used was of the smaller size. There may have been a tiny bit of wear loss (0.01 to 0.02 mm) on one of the used washers. (4.99 mm compared to 5.01 mm) 2 sets of the special (toothed on one side, flat on the other) washers for the X-Terra: (Note: I'm using the X-Terra lower two shaft sections on my Eqx to convert it to S-shaft). The two used ones were thinner by about 0.15 mm! So if my measurements are anywhere near correct, both manufacturing tolerance (Equinox washers) and usage wear (X-Terra washers in particular) come into play. I've put the silicone spray lubricant on the X-Terra washers and installed the newer (thicker) ones on my shaft to accomodate the Equinox coil(s). The fit so far is snug but I didn't have to force the coil ears over the washered shaft end. I'll be going detecting tomorrow so I'll see how well the assembly grips -- i.e. how easy/difficult it is to change the coil angle.

Two other options are to ask them to sell you the connector or short of that, ask for a part number. Amphenol is big and widely distributed so if you can just get a part number (yes, I realize you, J.C., asked specifically for that) you should be good-to-go.

Are you referring to the Ronald McDonald's House (Charity) Organization nationwide campaign? Don't get me started. (Oops, too late.) I respect their charity efforts but they encourage littering with this program, and we park and school detectorists are all too familiar with the result. Why not rather collect the entire can? More aluminum to be converted to cash and way less littering. My wife's aunt has an empty lot attached to her property where her home is located. Next to that lot is a Wendy's (fast food restaurant for those not familiar). Every few months I collect the trash that has blown in there. I figured most of the trash would have Wendy's logo but McDonalds wins in a landslide. These companies (many of them and not just fast food) are happy to sell products in throw-away containers with their advertising all over them yet seem to take *zero* responsibility for the littering that results. Great stewards, aren't they? (OK, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.)

Thanks for that review, Jeff. I'm not familiar with the details of how the AT series operates. From what you said (quote), is it fair to say that just ignoring the AT/Gold's Iron Audio setting completely (i.e. keeping it off), as if it doesn't exist, takes away this negative? KG (George Wyant) and Ringy (Tim Saylor) get a lot of flack here. (BTW, both are from Idaho and acquaintances of Gerry. He speaks positively of them.) Yes, they have a slapstick style performance and both are Garrett homers. But if you can look past those (we all are capable, of course), there may be something to take away from their videos/TV show. And people who have met them (e.g. a poster here not long ago -- don't remember who or what post/thread) also speak highly of them as people. That matters in my book. When I got back into detecting five years ago and started learning about modern detectors I noticed that they relic hunted with the Gold models, not the Pro. I found that interesting. Now that you've reviewed the AT/Gold yourself it's making more sense why they made that choice.

As always I look forward to your review (if you get one of these new coils). And you're the first person here that I can remember in a long time (since Steve's review) saying something good about the AT/Gold. 👍

Would you explain what you mean by "carry right side up?" Odd that this photo shows a Detech 13" Ultimate coil attached to the Equinox. Maybe they are trying to get Simon (Phrunt) excited... 🤷‍♂️ If there were an easier way to get one besides international shipping (and they are good quality, of course) I suspect they would sell the heck out of these. I agree that the second one looks odd. Possibly it allows a longer reach and thus a wider/longer sweep arc while still keeping a comfortable grip & hold position.

I watch a lot of treasure shows and read a lot of magazines and books on the topic. As such they tend to run together into the murkiness of my mind. I recall one story about an early (i.e. pre-American Revolution?) ship that sailed up a river in the northern part of the Gulf of California and got stuck there, eventually being buried in wind-blown sand. I don't remember if it was supposed to be a Spanish Empire ship. Does this vague recollection ring any bells?

Enjoyed the read, thanks. What year was it that he happened upon your group and told this story about his Area 51? And did he tell you the year he made that discovery?

I suspect the thicker washers are a requirement to be able to do this so efficiently (as shown in your video). My rig was modified to an S-shaft which includes the ML X-Terra lower shaft section. Pretty sure I have spare 'washers' for that so I'll try the silicone on one set. If I don't like the result I can revert to the other set of washers. I adjust my coil angle quite often so being able to do that without stressing anything would be a nice improvement. I'll report back what I find.