2 questons again

[chuckaaron]

1. I am still confused on using the threshold.
If the sovereign will report a non-ferrous item in close proximity to ferrous--without the treshold--then why do I need the treshold.

2. In using the threshold feature-how inmportant are the headphones?
I have some hearing loss that comes with age but the whites seem loud enough.
Are headphones like the timberwolf-that much better to discriminate slight sound differences that it would warrent the cost--or is the difference so slight that it would be a waste of money to change.

If so is there a consensis on the best to get?

chuckaaran

 

[Dang]

Talk about "ironic"! I forgot to bring along my headphones when i went on a hunt this afternoon. The park I went to was right next to I80 and even with the volume cranked all the way up I could only hear the strong surface signals because of all that traffic.
It was really frustrating. I rely heavily on my headphones for those deep whisper signals. Don't leave home without them!

 

[Rick(ND)]

On the threshold some like it and some don't, I am one that swears by it as I can tell if I am going too fast and also those real faint signals that may only change the tone of the threshold, but if you don't have the threshold you will never hear that slight change. Some would send their detector in and have them set for silent search if they didn't like the threshold and some would do this themselves, so on the new GT Minelab put a switch on it so you can switch it on or off. This is one switch I thought I would never use, but have seen in some areas where targets are far and few it is nice to run silent search, but as soon as I start getting signal I switch to threshold so I know if I am going too fast as I have no threshold and also looking for that change of tones for the deep targets.Now I find if I have no threshold and in a area where a good target is close to a trash target I hear nothing as I don't know if I am going too fast or not, but with a threshold I hear a null of iron or a disc out target and seem to listen more to see if a good target is close by or not. If I didn't have a threshold I would have never heard the null of the iron so I would not have went slower by the edge of the null.
Now on headphones I have tried many different one on the Sovereigns and I do need the volume as i am very hard of hearing and find the Timberwolfs work the best for me as they have the volume I need and the tones I can hear the difference in. I have also used the Uniprobe with the headphone and they too work real good. Now some that don't have bad hearing will think the Timberwolfs may be too sharp of a tone and like the Sun Ray Pro Gold too as they are more mellow sounding I been told and easier on the ears.

Rick

 

[chuckaaron]

Rick
I think I'm slowly getting it.
Since the elite is suppose to detect nonferrous next to ferrous without the threshold--are you saying that without the threshold I might be going to fast and would miss the nonferros item?

Also I have noticed that in some places the threshold seems to be constantly changing--even with the coil just sitting on the ground--is that normal?

Also since I do a lot of detecting in trashing areas I have a chance to get a sunray S8 coil from frank in NH.
He also has a coinsearch 8" but not sure if it works on the elite.
Does it? If it does which one would you go with?

chuckaaron

 

[OldeTymer]

Hi Chuck,

I'm not Rick, but I may be able to give some input to your questions.

If you are sweeping too fast, you can miss those non-ferrous targets that are in close proximity to ferrous targets. Without being able to hear the threshold, you would never know. You really need to sweep very slowly with the BBS units to get the maximum performance.

If the threshold is changing with the coil just sitting on the ground with no movement, the sensitivity is set too high causing instability, and/or you are getting some electro-magnetic interference. You need to lower the sensitivity so that the threshold smoothes out. If you can't get that to happen in the manual mode, you might try switching it into "Auto".

If you are hunting trashy areas, I would suggest a 5 inch coil such as the SunRay. Minelab doesn't make a 5 inch for the BBS units.

My favorite 8 inch coil has been the CoinSearch, but that was only in comparison to the "All-Terrain" coil.

Hope this helps, and good hunting,
OldeTymer

 

[GraveDiggerMax-VaBch-Va]

n/t

 

[chuckaaron]

Most of my hunting is in parks-- schools, that can at times be rather trashy--but not usually extreme.
I have the stock 10 toronado and a WAT--will the 8" search coil be a significant improvement over these--or would you still say the 5" sunray?
.
chuckaaron

 

[OldeTymer]

If you're not experiencing extreme trash, an 8 inch coil might be an improvement over the stock 10 inch, and definitely over the WOT. I've hunted in extremely trashy environments where even a 5 inch coil was too large. In those instances, you either have to remove some of that trash, or accept the fact that you will be leaving good targets behind as they are being masked.

Usually, the culprit in parks and school yards is primarily aluminum of various sizes. It's great at masking good targets, and has a tendency to override any signal from a deeper "good" target. When I started hunting back in 1972, aluminum, although present, wasn't the problem it is today. When you think about 30 years of aluminum trash being thrown down on the ground, and being covered up by 30 years of decayed grass clippings, etc., it's a wonder we find any deep targets.

An 8 inch coil has been considered the "standard" for many years, and it's not a bad size to have, although I wish there was a 6 inch available for the BBS units.

Hope this helps,
OldeTymer

 

[chuckaaron]

n/t