When we hunt we can detect in consistency or intensity and they will affect what we see on the Spectragraph. Most of us hunt in intensity because the factory programs use intensity. Consistency is an alternative and it works great in air tests and very mild soil. In more mineralized soil, the harder it is to use.
People have referred to programs listed on another forum. These programs use consistency rather than intensity. Just remember these programs were developed in Florida which has very, very, low mineral soil. So with that in mind, what is the difference between the two methods? As I remember, it was Jeff Kelley who wrote the following explanation.
The V3I looks at targets hundreds of times a second. If VDI's on our spectragraph were animals, and the detector saw 99 lap dogs (99 small targets) and one tiger (one large Target) then...
Using Consistency, you would see a very tall bar for "dog" and a tiny blip for "cat". The most consistent reading would be "dog". How many of the same phase it sees (grows based on the amount of same phase readings there are)
Using Intensity, you would see a very tall bar for "cat" and a tiny blip for "dog" because the tiger is much bigger than the biggest lap dog. The biggest, most intense, reading is "cat". Grows based on how strong the target signal is (voltage, not phase).
So consistency shows how OFTEN each VDI is being seen. You can set the number of "sees" required to build a signal bar to a max number. 25 seems to be a good number. You can watch the Spectragraph get a hit on a good target, watch the bars build as you sweep, verify the target with pinpoint, and dig. Or, you can see that little surface target that is just making a blip in 22.5 kHz only.
To accommodate the increased sensitivity you'll be able to run at, FADE RATE = 2. This will immediately get rid of any "smears" that are caused by ground noise, but won't wipe out the repeated hits of a good target as it builds up.
So, if you are in an area where ground won't affect your target's phases, then consistency should work well because you will get more of the same VDI reading for good targets. But, if ground is affecting your phase readings on your targets, then intensity will be much easier to use to spot your target.
Bottle caps and iron targets like bottle caps will have varying phases as you sweep across them. A coin (in good soil) should give fairly consistent VDI readings. If you are running Consistency and hunting among bottle caps, your coin will stand out because it will get multiple hits on that VDI as you sweep across the coin. But the bottle caps won't.
Just something else to try, not good or bad but different.
People have referred to programs listed on another forum. These programs use consistency rather than intensity. Just remember these programs were developed in Florida which has very, very, low mineral soil. So with that in mind, what is the difference between the two methods? As I remember, it was Jeff Kelley who wrote the following explanation.
The V3I looks at targets hundreds of times a second. If VDI's on our spectragraph were animals, and the detector saw 99 lap dogs (99 small targets) and one tiger (one large Target) then...
Using Consistency, you would see a very tall bar for "dog" and a tiny blip for "cat". The most consistent reading would be "dog". How many of the same phase it sees (grows based on the amount of same phase readings there are)
Using Intensity, you would see a very tall bar for "cat" and a tiny blip for "dog" because the tiger is much bigger than the biggest lap dog. The biggest, most intense, reading is "cat". Grows based on how strong the target signal is (voltage, not phase).
So consistency shows how OFTEN each VDI is being seen. You can set the number of "sees" required to build a signal bar to a max number. 25 seems to be a good number. You can watch the Spectragraph get a hit on a good target, watch the bars build as you sweep, verify the target with pinpoint, and dig. Or, you can see that little surface target that is just making a blip in 22.5 kHz only.
To accommodate the increased sensitivity you'll be able to run at, FADE RATE = 2. This will immediately get rid of any "smears" that are caused by ground noise, but won't wipe out the repeated hits of a good target as it builds up.
So, if you are in an area where ground won't affect your target's phases, then consistency should work well because you will get more of the same VDI reading for good targets. But, if ground is affecting your phase readings on your targets, then intensity will be much easier to use to spot your target.
Bottle caps and iron targets like bottle caps will have varying phases as you sweep across them. A coin (in good soil) should give fairly consistent VDI readings. If you are running Consistency and hunting among bottle caps, your coin will stand out because it will get multiple hits on that VDI as you sweep across the coin. But the bottle caps won't.
Just something else to try, not good or bad but different.
