DetectingWales.com

Came across this article titled "The painful truth" the other day so I thought I should post the link on the forum
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It has given me some food for thought regarding some of my once productive sites and why it is almost impossible to find anything else because of the Iron and mineralisation but it has always bugged me how much I was leaving behind in the ground.


http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/painful_truth.htm (http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/painful_truth.htm)


ORDOVIC

That's a very though provoking article. I've often heard people say the "one way signal" is usually junk, but the masking effect is really something to ponder. I would be interested to hear club members stories relating to decent finds from bad signals... And vice versa.

Another thought is that presumably he sanitised the ground where he placed the excavated soil before he started  the exercise.

Very, very interesting

Not quite sure what is so thought provoking. Iron contamination is seen by a metal detector as part of the mineralisation of the soil, thus it ground balances itself according to those conditions and reduces sensitivity so you have a workable machine.
If you were to Ground balance on a ultra Clean site, keep those settings, then move to the site mentioned in the article, you probably would hear many of the missed signals but they would be lost in the chatter caused by the machine not being ground balanced for that site.
Anyone who has detected an industrial foreshore will know that most "high end" detectors are next to useless on these sites were it is akin to burying a corrugated iron sheet 2" below the the ground covering it with soil them trying to detect a 1p coin placed on the surface. By the time you have reduced your sensitivity (if you even can) to a low enough level to pick up the coin and ignore the iron, your detector is hardly working.
This is why most people who hunt in these areas rely on the more "basic" machines, (Bounty Hunter being the favoured option) as their filtering systems have a better iron see through ability. That is why I always advise people rather than getting that "new all singing all dancing" mini coil that gets around iron (and reduces depth), go for a cheaper machine such as a Bounty Hunter or the Cscope 3CMX, Unfortunately because their discrimination system is slightly different it does make them prone to overreacting to coke.
At the end of the day you can't have it all so choose your poison.

Makes sense Geoff, thanks for the explanation. The thought provoking bit with me is how to interpret the signals and the article has me thinking of possible mistakes I've probably been making. The explanation of the one way signal is definately a new slant on it for me, and also the disappearing signals (you know, you dig a hole and it's gone, or worse, it's turned to iron) might be worth greater attention than I've been giving them.

I've recently been improving my finds ratio (non-ferrous to ferous) to give more time to searching rather than digging scrap. But now I feel like I might have gone too far over the line and will try to pay more attention to some more of the iffier signals for a while.

Mind you, my machine has been playing up lately and throwing a wobbly (probably through damp). Hopefully the 24 hours it's had in the airing cupboard will have cured it and I'll spend less time chasing the bionic rabbit.

Cheers, Tony.

Chef is right about industrial foreshores and iron, here's a picture I took on the Thames last year, an example of conditions!  :)

Ouch, surely that was non-starter wasn't it Maxine? Or do you know a magic trick or two :D

No magic tricks, unfortunately.  ;D

There is a magic wand out there Though !!  ::) it,s called the goldmaxx   MK1  ;)