ARADO 320

[Ronnie M]

In case any of you were wondering what's happened to the new all singing, all dancing, Arado 320 I'm afraid it failed its medical. Gary of Garys Detecting website fame was asked by Arado to do a field-test on their new machine and he reports it didn't live up to expectations and the last I heard it was back on Arado's test bench for 'adjustments' to be carried out as required.

[U.K. Brian]

Turned out to be to sensitive for "modern conditions" what ever that means though it could be a repeat of the Troy Shadow when it came out, just to hot for many.

[DIGGA]

well i have to be honest ,,,, i wouldent know what an arado looks like if someone dropped one on my head     obviously a detector of some kind  but can someone fill me in on what its all about ,,,,, is it one of these new  all singing  all dancing jobbys ?     

[U.K. Brian]

So soon forgotten.....Arado was one of the top detector manufacturers of its time.

Their first success was the IBA 45, impedence balance audio frequency metal detector. Stable on wet sand and offering iron rejection and negligible pick up of silver paper, coke, even tree roots. Tree roots were a problem with many detectors of the time.
They claimed similar in ground depths to the non discriminators of the time.

Soon followed up by the VFA 90 (Variable Frequency Acoustics).
Almost foolproof rejection of scrap iron up to fist sized.
Rejection was based on the coil used. There was six, eight and ten inch black coils. The eight inch grey (stock) coil was general purpose, if replaced by the eight inch black coil it would reduce ferrous rejection but increase sensitivity to gold and cupro nickle.

By the late 70's they introduced THE discriminating beach machine of the period, the Arado 65. Great ferrous rejection and still used by many today.
Followed by the 95. Looked the same but included a switch to allow it to be easier to use on Roman spoil heaps and similar sites.

For land they introduced the 120 series. The 120 was very, very low frequency. The 120b that followed had a higher frequency (4.5 kHz) and better iron I.D. Several improvements were made with no name change but they added to depth so a newer machine should be better than an older one. In the end the 130 model arrived.
 
All versions looked the same and worked in the same way. A primary all metal search mode that detected all targets bad and good and fed the audio to the headphones. When you heard the signal you would resweep the area and see what the ferrous/non ferrous I.D. meter was up to. Essentially a shallow non ferrous target would move the needle on the meter stronglyto the right. Ferrous moved it left. A deep good target left the needle in the middle which you would dig. Foil also gave no meter movement but could be identified by the audio cutting out as the coil approached it and again as the coil swept away.

The advantage of the system was that you heard and would check out every target in a field and if the target was to deep to be identified you could just remove an inch or two of soil and drop the coil (its non motion) into the hole and repeat if necessary until you felt certain of what the meter was telling you. The drawback is that checking all targets took more time but on the other hand being non motion detecting in all metal you could detect faster between targets.

They had double D coils, a battery life of near 100 hours with good batteries (2 x PP3's) and the in soil range on good ground was up to eight inches on a hammered penny, eleven on a Sovereign, and fourteen on a Victorian penny.

Drawbacks were they didn't cope with wet salt or highly mineralised ground. The 130 was meant to cope so you could detect under power lines. Its wasn't totally successful in that. They had increased the detection depth of the main search mode but didn't manage to improve the discrimination depth so you ended up digging far more deep iron targets so the detector was not as popular as the 120b had been. They added a Tr 180 model to the range that was similar to the original 65 and 95 models in looks but was intended more for inland high ferrous/small Roman coins type of sites. This did not sell well and Arado disappeared from the scene.

The hope is that the 320 would offer the advantages of the 120/130 range in a modern package with deeper iron rejection.

Before someone mentions it there was a version produced for the troops dubbed the "Falklands Special". You might see one turn up in an army surplus shop. 

[Ronnie M]

Thanks Brian for the run-down on all the Arado models, I had quite forgotten about some of them you mentioned. I used the Arado 120b to great effect in the 1980's I understand that eventually the Arado designer was head-hunted by the MOD to make detectors for the British Army and that's why the Arado name disappeared from the detector market. Lets hope the problems with the new machine are sorted out err long as I  would quite like to get my hands on a decent non-motion machine again but at £1200+  Ye Gods, I will stick with my Golden Mask 3+ at under half that price for now-(now there's a great machine,  I recommend that you get your hands on one if you can)

[U.K. Brian]

Try a Nautilus Ronny. All the advantages of the old system but deeper and no meter to have to refer to.

The one problem with the Golden Mask is if you have bad ground you need a second machine but in general the best bang for your bucks as the Americans say....but for how long, the pound isn't going to buy anything in a short time the way its going !

[rjm]

Brian
My compliments to you - you're a mind of information! You must have an encyclopedia by the
side of the bed!  LOL

I agree with Ronnie M...  the GM3 is a superb machine. I've been so impressed I've upgraded
to the GM3+ with more powerful batteries as I was sold a "pup" by garys detecting. The battery
pack was only 500 milliamp and not the 1700 milliamp it should have been! I didn't get a response
from my e-mails so in future I'll take my business elsewhere!!

I've got to say, in my humble opinion, it's the best I've used in 20 years and I've had ALL the XP's, Whites,
Minelabs (yes beats my favourite Tribune/Sterling!!), and Tesoros/Lasers, Fishers and some others.

I can't say I've noticed the GM3 struggling on bad ground. Have you tried the machine or is it something you've read?

The big criticism is that it only has rechargeable batteries which are charged within the machine so you can't put in a spare pack in the middle of a detecting session. My mate's in the process of making me a meter which I can plug
in to indicate the charge left and to pulse charge the detector, should I need, so that a 10-15 min charge will give me a few more hours detecting.

I really don't know why they mad this system. What's the matter with inserting a recharge pack or alkalines?

Must be the Bulgarians wanting to hang on to the money!

[U.K. Brian]

I should have said really bad ground. ie where two inches on a coin is good. I had a big row with Dave Emery (Pulse Devil) on the Pulse Classroom one year re bad ground as he doesn't think we have any which in his lights we dont as he thinks of bad as where you pick up ground effect when the machine is held straight out in front of you with the coil in the air.

The Arado site is back up at www.aradodetectors.co.uk and they have put a list of the old machines up which would have saved me bursting my brain. Will you buy a machine for £1295 ? I would expect at least a two year warranty at that price.

The Pulse Devil is back by the way. Dave will be putting a web site up soon.

Re the rechargable battery situation it does seem odd. I spent the last couple of days on the Gower. The site I was to stay on closed early. Ended up paying £9 per night to stay in a field with a tap. Then £3 parking (winter rate, summer £6 !  So I had to find £12 each day before going into profit ! Had three machines all on rechargables and ran them all flat. No electric hookup so when the last ran flat it was time to go home. At least with my pulse machines there's some excuse as the drain means you need a battery the size of a brick which would cost a fortune in Duracells.

To go back to the GM machines they came out a couple of years back  and the outside hasn't changed though the battery pack was uprated and I think the early machines had the slightly smaller sized coil. These are the ones that don't have the five year warranty so you have to really check what your getting for your money.

[Ronnie M]

I contacted the Arado site via e-mail last Friday asking them if the Arado 320 faults had now been sorted out and also asked whether my old Arado 120B could be overhauled and a new meter fitted. Much to my surprise on Saturday night I received a phone call from a certain 'John' at Arado. This is what he told me:-  There were no faults with the new Arado to begin with, Gary of 'Garys Detecting' didn't listen to Arado with regards to how to set it up and use it, consequently he used it incorrectly and only found iron. Also he told me the Arado hierarchy were not pleased when Regton knocked £300 or so off the introductory price of the 320. As a result of this and if I understood John correctly, it will now not be sold by dealerships but will only be available directly from Arado. I had also assumed Arado had stopped making detectors until recently, not so says John,  Arado have carried on making detectors since the 1980's but for use abroad rather than here including the deep seeking radar variety that supposedly penetrate the ground several meteres down, (got a few thousand pounds to spare?). I can't see they are going to sell many of the new 320 models if you can't go into a local detecting shop for hands-on testing before you buy, still we shall see. By the way he tells me that you can get your old Arados overhauled but at a cost of £100 or so.

[rjm]

Just had a look at the Arado website. No wonder Regton knocked £300 off the price.
I can't see too many takers when the E Trac can be had at less !!!

Interesting post - thanks!

[U.K. Brian]

I remember Mike Longfield having his supplies cut off for giving a discount on the 120b or 130. The discount was supplying a free coil cover. They didn't last to long after this.

If they continued in the detector business then why couldn't the hundreds of owners get repairs undertaken ?

[bigjase]

welcome