Cellar holes...

[RonNH]

I tried my XS out yesterday at a cellar hole. I was using Quickstart, cleared the screen as was suggested and ran Iron Mask at 15. All I got was a bunch of noise, so bad that I went back to the Factory Pre-Set and left it there. I got quite a bit of nulling, so much that I barely got a threshold sound at all. I know when the detector is nulling, it's not picking up a signal. I'm a little confused about Iron Mask, is this a setting all it's own with it's own screen? I have been adjusting the Iron Mask and going back to the Smart Screen, does this cancel Iron Mask and put the machine back to Discrim. mode? The manual is not very clear on this or maybe I'm just not getting something right. In the fields, I have had no problem with this machine, but hunting cellars has been frustrating. Ron

 

[Steve(MS)]

About the null, it will give a signal on non-ferrous items even while in a null provided there are not too many items under the coil at one time. The iron mask button will give you 3 positions, iron mask, program disc and the iron mask adjustment. If -15 is allowing more signals to come thru than you can process, keep lowering it till you have a comfortable setting, maybe -14 or -13 or lower. No doubt cellar hunting is very challenging so take your time to learn what the Exp. is telling you. Expect chirps and squeals as you are in a iron infested area, most of the trash signals will not repeat well and especially at a diff. angle. Use slow sweeps, dig some questionable targets and make a mental note of the signal before you dig and that will give you an idea of what similar targets are likely to be. Search the outer area around the cellar location to get a feel of how the unit performs in somewhat less trashy areas. Hunt the cellar and area multiple times if possible. Look at the depth meter often as it will give you an idea of how shallow and how much stuff is under the coil at a particular time. Hope this helps and feel free send a PM if I can be of further assistance. HH
Steve(MS)

 

[Rick(ND)]

When you are in iron mask you are not in your pattern, when you go back to your pattern in disc you are not in iron mask as it don't carry over into the disc pattern. What I like to do is built my own pattern for the area I am going to hunt, then if I get a questionable signal I will hit the iron mask button where I have it set at a -15 or -16 and can hear anything close to the target i am trying to ID as it will respond to everything.
Just remember iron mask is its own mode of operation and when you are in your disc mode iron mask is not on.

Rick