All-Metal Mode
When I first heard the flat, overtone sound of the Sovereign’s all-metal mode I was not impressed. Small items sounded enormous and I could not imagine how it was possible to accurately separate faint targets from this droning background hum. I now do a large portion of my hunting using this mode, because of its remarkable stability and depth. Like discriminate, the all-metal mode’s multiple frequency operation has characteristics that identify targets built-in. Getting the best performance using all-metal takes some practice and instruction. This practice involves learning to examine all features of a target response. These features are as follows:
Let’s start with signal size. Signal size is a key element of target examination. Because the Sovereign operates on multiple frequencies there is less of the “gain” effect that is common with other machines. By gain I mean the way that a signal will reflect the surrounding ground. This is most apparent with iron objects because they are similar to the ground’s signal. Single frequency machines “specialize” in recognizing different kinds of targets. Higher frequency detectors respond best to low-conductivity items like gold, whereas low frequency machines favor high-responding items like silver or copper. With many detectors those portions of a signal that are recognized poorly will be grouped in with the ground, causing the signal to appear larger. In effect the machine is also reading the signal’s “halo.” While all VLF detectors will indicate a non-ferrous target as a narrower response, this effect is more pronounced with the Sovereign, because its many frequencies are highly accurate--recognizing the entire signal. In many instances it is easier to tell an iron target by the all–metal response than that in discriminate. An iron target will be blaring, wide, drawn-out and will not be centered in the same spot on the ground, as it seemed to be in discriminate. Many hunters have described this response as “appearing to move” or “appearing to be lagging behind the coil, catching up slightly with the sweep”.
Bottle caps, because they are steel, will respond in several ways. Newer varieties on the ground’s surface will have a rough, overtone sound as the detector works to separate the iron and non-iron portions of the object. At depth, more rusted caps will be a longer sound, often with a “wow” in the middle as the machine recognizes the non-iron, but then attempts to balance out the rust, (as it would ground) producing this lag in the response.
A clean object such as a gold ring will have a more peaked classic “wave form” type sound. Nails, wire, and bobby pins will usually have a “double” sound as the Sovereign interprets the elongated shape as two separate targets.
Many of these iron objects will have an all-metal “carry over” response (see diagram below), which is a result of the machine responding to the area in the surrounding ground where it is reading both ground and target, because of their similarity. What makes these responses tricky is that this similarity can take two forms: Firstly, the signal can be iron-- causing the machine to give this drawn-out response as described above.
Secondly, the signal can also be a small object close to the surface that also reflects the signal out into the surrounding ground. This would be an object that was very close to the coil and very small, such as an earring.
While this is not that common, it is worth mentioning for anyone who wants to develop their skills as a specialized all metal hunter. My tests have shown that these targets are usually not the best signals but objects that have some steel or alloying to promote this carry-over effect by not conducting well. With a carry-over you have three sounds, the signal entering, the target itself and finally the leaving response. The larger the coil you are using, the more pronounced this effect will be as the coil picks up more of the surrounding ground. Listening to these “ramp up” and “ramp down” responses is the key to becoming an effective all metal hunter with the Minelab Sovereign.
Another very important aspect of discriminating in all-metal mode with the Sovereign is based upon the fact that iron conducts poorly, compared to any non-ferrous metal. Gold and silver are among the best conductors so these signals carry well. By this I mean that they will tend to sound clean at distance, whereas iron will break up and lose consistency. Although this can be considered advanced technique, with practice it’s possible to tell that a signal is of interest just by how consistent it is in relation to the perceived depth (faintness), because nothing but a good signal could carry that well. This is the same method used by pulse induction hunters, and learning it is of great value. In effect you are using the Sovereign as one would a pulse, identifying signals by how their size and strength correlate. This technique will allow you to be alerted to the most promising signals and get the most from your machine.
Good targets also have a different “voice” than does iron or steel. Gold in particular is a clean conductor. That is to say that a gold signal enters and leaves the detection field smoothly. The actual body of the audio response is different too, based upon this good conductivity. Iron is what could be called a “diverse” signal--that is, it is composed of many different points at which the detector makes the ground / not-ground distinction. This is audible in the “grainy” and slightly overtone sound that an iron target will produce. Quite often I have been hunting with the Sovereign in all-metal and heard a signal and known by its clean “voice” that it was for sure gold. As I learned this technique, I was quite surprised by how distinctive this sound is, you could say that it is the “cleanest tone the detector makes,” best described as “flat” (not in the musical sense but instead, unchanging) “full” and with an “even” tone. I should make note here that the reason for these detailed tonal descriptions is because of just how much information the signal tone can give you in both modes. It has been these kinds of descriptions that have helped me most to learn to get the best performance from the Sovereign.
From: "Beach, Inland and Shallow Water Treasure Hunting with the Minelab Sovereign Series Metal Detectors" by Clive James Clynick
When I first heard the flat, overtone sound of the Sovereign’s all-metal mode I was not impressed. Small items sounded enormous and I could not imagine how it was possible to accurately separate faint targets from this droning background hum. I now do a large portion of my hunting using this mode, because of its remarkable stability and depth. Like discriminate, the all-metal mode’s multiple frequency operation has characteristics that identify targets built-in. Getting the best performance using all-metal takes some practice and instruction. This practice involves learning to examine all features of a target response. These features are as follows:
Let’s start with signal size. Signal size is a key element of target examination. Because the Sovereign operates on multiple frequencies there is less of the “gain” effect that is common with other machines. By gain I mean the way that a signal will reflect the surrounding ground. This is most apparent with iron objects because they are similar to the ground’s signal. Single frequency machines “specialize” in recognizing different kinds of targets. Higher frequency detectors respond best to low-conductivity items like gold, whereas low frequency machines favor high-responding items like silver or copper. With many detectors those portions of a signal that are recognized poorly will be grouped in with the ground, causing the signal to appear larger. In effect the machine is also reading the signal’s “halo.” While all VLF detectors will indicate a non-ferrous target as a narrower response, this effect is more pronounced with the Sovereign, because its many frequencies are highly accurate--recognizing the entire signal. In many instances it is easier to tell an iron target by the all–metal response than that in discriminate. An iron target will be blaring, wide, drawn-out and will not be centered in the same spot on the ground, as it seemed to be in discriminate. Many hunters have described this response as “appearing to move” or “appearing to be lagging behind the coil, catching up slightly with the sweep”.
Bottle caps, because they are steel, will respond in several ways. Newer varieties on the ground’s surface will have a rough, overtone sound as the detector works to separate the iron and non-iron portions of the object. At depth, more rusted caps will be a longer sound, often with a “wow” in the middle as the machine recognizes the non-iron, but then attempts to balance out the rust, (as it would ground) producing this lag in the response.
A clean object such as a gold ring will have a more peaked classic “wave form” type sound. Nails, wire, and bobby pins will usually have a “double” sound as the Sovereign interprets the elongated shape as two separate targets.
Many of these iron objects will have an all-metal “carry over” response (see diagram below), which is a result of the machine responding to the area in the surrounding ground where it is reading both ground and target, because of their similarity. What makes these responses tricky is that this similarity can take two forms: Firstly, the signal can be iron-- causing the machine to give this drawn-out response as described above.
Secondly, the signal can also be a small object close to the surface that also reflects the signal out into the surrounding ground. This would be an object that was very close to the coil and very small, such as an earring.
While this is not that common, it is worth mentioning for anyone who wants to develop their skills as a specialized all metal hunter. My tests have shown that these targets are usually not the best signals but objects that have some steel or alloying to promote this carry-over effect by not conducting well. With a carry-over you have three sounds, the signal entering, the target itself and finally the leaving response. The larger the coil you are using, the more pronounced this effect will be as the coil picks up more of the surrounding ground. Listening to these “ramp up” and “ramp down” responses is the key to becoming an effective all metal hunter with the Minelab Sovereign.
Another very important aspect of discriminating in all-metal mode with the Sovereign is based upon the fact that iron conducts poorly, compared to any non-ferrous metal. Gold and silver are among the best conductors so these signals carry well. By this I mean that they will tend to sound clean at distance, whereas iron will break up and lose consistency. Although this can be considered advanced technique, with practice it’s possible to tell that a signal is of interest just by how consistent it is in relation to the perceived depth (faintness), because nothing but a good signal could carry that well. This is the same method used by pulse induction hunters, and learning it is of great value. In effect you are using the Sovereign as one would a pulse, identifying signals by how their size and strength correlate. This technique will allow you to be alerted to the most promising signals and get the most from your machine.
Good targets also have a different “voice” than does iron or steel. Gold in particular is a clean conductor. That is to say that a gold signal enters and leaves the detection field smoothly. The actual body of the audio response is different too, based upon this good conductivity. Iron is what could be called a “diverse” signal--that is, it is composed of many different points at which the detector makes the ground / not-ground distinction. This is audible in the “grainy” and slightly overtone sound that an iron target will produce. Quite often I have been hunting with the Sovereign in all-metal and heard a signal and known by its clean “voice” that it was for sure gold. As I learned this technique, I was quite surprised by how distinctive this sound is, you could say that it is the “cleanest tone the detector makes,” best described as “flat” (not in the musical sense but instead, unchanging) “full” and with an “even” tone. I should make note here that the reason for these detailed tonal descriptions is because of just how much information the signal tone can give you in both modes. It has been these kinds of descriptions that have helped me most to learn to get the best performance from the Sovereign.
From: "Beach, Inland and Shallow Water Treasure Hunting with the Minelab Sovereign Series Metal Detectors" by Clive James Clynick
