Hello DP,
And congrats on getting your hands on the new detector.
On your ground balance question, yes always ground balance the detector before use even in the same location. Even though the location doesn't change, the conditions can. It may rain which changes the way the detector reacts to the ground or a new source of interference may appear.
The X70 has three ways of being ground balanced depending on your preferences:
1. Manual, this is Old School and may be like your Tesoro you're used to if it was not a fixed ground balance detector.
2. Auto which is like Lazy Man's Lobster, you push the button and pump the coil 1 to 8 inches above the ground over a clean piece of ground, and the detector will play a tune when it is done.
3. Tracking, push the Sine Wave button upper right and notice the Sine Wave icon appears upper right in the display. For the first five seconds or so the detector goes into a "Turbo" fast ground acquisition to adjust quickly and then turns down the tracking speed to not track out targets. To "you" the end user this is all transparent, you wouldn't even know it's going on unless you knew what to look for. This is Couch Potato mode.
It has the simplicity of a Turn on and Go fixed ground balance detector, but with the benefit of having an Expert Assistant ground balance the detector continuously for you while you just have fun.
The manual mode does have a secondary use if you decide to use it for such. That is to offset from the ground balance point that you arrived at Manually or through step # 2 the Auto method. Users do this for a variety of reasons, a little more depth, a little less noise in tough ground etc. As a new user I wouldn't even bother with it. But if you later on decide to putz with it on the X-Terras, "positive" adjustments are lower numbers and "negative" are higher. The X705 has the added ability to offset in "Tracking" which the X70 does not have. My advice to you, put it in Tracking till you get more used to the detector.
Later if you decide to muck about with Manual or Auto. Turn the sensitivity down initially, I usually get her down in the lower teens. There are a couple of reasons to turn her down initially:
1. If you are in a heavy interference area getting a good ground balance will be tough.
2. If there are other detectors being used nearby it lessens the chance they will interfere.
3. You lessen the chance that deep targets will cause problems.
4. Over tough ground an initial high sensitivity setting may prevent you from even being able to ground balance. i.e. On a saltwater beach with black sand a sensitivity setting of 28 is just not going to happen, you won't be able to hear whether the detector is ground balanced or not, just noise.
First Auto Noise Cancel while holding the detector out away from your body with the coil at waist height parallel to the ground. Make sure you are over clean ground and then Ground Balance using whatever method you choose. Staying in the same spot put her in All Metal and begin increasing the sensitivity while pumping the coil just like ground balancing. At a particular setting she should start to spit audio and show momentary varied ID's show on the screen. Go into the ground balance function and see if a tweek up or down quiets her down. If it doesn't, then back down the sensitivity a smidge to get a quiet detector. As a new user of this detector don't try to run her too hot, that is, with ground noise till you get a few miles on her.
HH
BarnacleBill
