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Air Test

A

Anonymous

Guest
This question often comes up about air test and detection depth. Most manufactures I have read or talked to state that air test will be 1" to 3" different than detection of coins in the soil. However, for the explorer when you see an air test of a dime at about 7" that is in Semi-auto. A dime will air test at about 10" in manual.
<span style="background-color:#ffff00;">This leads to confusion in thinking you get more depth in manual but the depends on external noise. </span>An air test in ones home or shop is going to be much less when in semi-auto for a number of reasons. The coil is highly directional and very sensitivity to the stray EMI in a building. The semi-auto senses this and reduces the sensitivity to a stable operating threshold. In manual there is no adjustment so the distance if further. The other problem is the coil is so directional that it needs to be flat on the ground and noise canceled for maximum depth or distance.
Some other detector are so dependent on the presence of the soil matrix that if there is none such as one gold machine I know of that you cannot really air test at all. The older detectors, TR, BFO, and early VLF could be air tested that were not motion discriminators and other than the halo were fairly accurate.
<STRONG>One can count on a good 8" on a dime with the Explorer in just about any conditions. I expect that all the time in this area and even to 10".</STRONG>
HH, Cody
 
Cody without getting into specifics Explorers do not air test well but will go 10 inches plus for those that are experienced in the field.I like you idea of a flat low level swing as Explorers hate air and doing so with coil just brushing ground takes weight off the swinging arm. Never thought much of air testing with any unit but it seems some other manufactures air test well but in the field do not match an Explorer.
 
Cody your right on the money with the air test info. I don't think some people consider why there is a difference when air testing in auto compared to manual on the explorer.
Keep the good and accurate info coming. I enjoy reading your indepth info. I have been hunting for 35 years.
 
Thanks, I enjoy helping and love the hobby. I look forward to the posts and learn from the good comments.
HH, Cody
 
Cody
Here is another experiment for you to try. I know you've already verified that the explorer backs off on sensitivity in Auto in high EMI environments.
My personal belief is that the explorer cannot differentiate between EMI and a high concentration of signals. If you are swinging the detector and there is lots of targets in the ground it seems to me that the explorer will also back off on sens in order to gain a more stable threshold. It will often reduce the sensitivity more than many of us feel is adequate for maxium depth. The downside of course is that in manual you must process more signals with BEDU(Between Ears Discrimination Unit).
See if you can come up with a test to verify this.
Chris
 
I frankly don't know on this but expect the Explorer to constantly update input data. What I am not at all sure of is the parameters used for the design of the noise cancel circuit. As an example if I have the sensitivity set to 28 and there is strong EMI so the sensitivity is reduced then what are the conditions for return to my setting of 28? It is clear that the EMI is a factor but are there others such as soil minerals. My personal opinion is it is signals that are not recognized as a constant target or soil minerals. This is kind of the top of my head as I have not given a lot of attention to understanding this area.
HH, Cody
 
One reason that I, for the likes of me, am unable to get myself to use semi-auto is the reference in the manual that if one gets well accustomed to the EX, one can switch to manual. This gives one the notion that semi-auto was formulated as a sort of newbie or EX lite mode.
It would help if minelab had detailed the workings of semi-auto or if the EX could come with a selectable semi-auto begginers and semi auto HOT switch.
Just my 2 cents.
 
You wonder about that and I have asked a similar question to another manufacture. I was told that user have to get use to digital pads and displays!
We would not see Semi-auto if not for the broadband noise problem associated with a TD detector. The major problem is not knowing where the sensitivity is depending on how much external noise there is in an area.
My personal way of dealing with this is to use manual if the threshold is stable. If not then use Semi-auto. The problem is most of the areas I hunt will not permit a stable threshold in manual and I don't wnat to mess with the threshold static. I just kick the Audio Gain up to 10 which is far more effective in getting deep targets than adjusting sensitivitiy. I prefer to fight co-located targets with a high Audio Gain.
HH, Cody
 
Wow, thats how Ive been using it. I still use manual for the most part, but when I start to notice that I have to thumb that SENS button too much, or a am below SENS 20, I switch to manual as there is no point fighting it. I guess I'll have to try GAIN 10 some more
HH
bing
 
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