ground balance

[sube]

Well we have manually ground balance where we can set the gb to a certain # we have auto gb which lets the 800 set the value and then we have tracking which sets the value to what it sees in the ground changing as the ground changes .

What is the best way to set it I did a little test this week set ground balance manually 55 was the # I got same place moved to a area that's loaded with caps and nails where you can't ground balance so I removed all caps 6 of them and 3 nails from a small spot to balance the detector in the #s I got were 75 to 80 . When I would run the ctx here it would lower my sensitivity #s down from 23 to 15 .

So here's my theory I removed the iron but did not remove the iron oxide left by the caps and nails as you know this is what they mine to make iron that halo of red or orange around each iron target I would think would act as highly mineralize soil . So you have pockets of mineralize soil all over the place how can a fixed gb be set right when I get into a place like this then again they say to not use tracking at a park ?

I did read that they say weak signals could be tracked out if using tracking but if my ground balance is off by 25 I probably would not hear these signals anyway so how or what is a person to do in a situation as I have stated ? sube

 

[Digger]

I use Tracking all the time in my moderately mineralized soil as I'm convinced it provides the optimum GB setting as I wander around. The same thing was said about the X-TERRA, and I never lost a target signal due to tracking it out. And the EQINOX is much faster "catching up" than the X-TERRA. IMO, with a processor as fast as the EQUINOX, you'd have to set the coil directly above the target and not move it before it would think it were part of the soil matrix and track it out. HH Randy

 

[sube]

My thoughts are the same but why dose minelab use 0 for ground balance and says not to use tracking in the other modes but gold mold . sube

 

[Jason in Enid]

My thoughts are the same but why dose minelab use 0 for ground balance and says not to use tracking in the other modes but gold mold . sube

Because grounds that have native gold are almost always heavily mineralized also. The EQX is using the same ground cancelling tech as the FBS used and it has been well established that trying to use ground balance with FBS results in degraded performance unless it is absolutely required.

Minelab multi-freq tech does not see ground like any other metal detector and shouldn't be automatically treated like every other detector. Every user SHOULD conduct testing in their ground to see if they benefit from it or not.

 

[Digger]

If I am hunting an old home site where the house burned down, and the ground is totally littered with old rusty nails......so much so that you can't lay down your electronic probe without it going off.......I will wander off to where the soil matrix is void of nails and lock in the proper ground balance. Then I'll go back to the home site area and hunt. I know that the ground matrix is likely to change as I wander across the field. But I also realize that running in tracking with that many nails is not going to allow the detector to analyze the soil. I figure balancing to the soil without nails(and getting a target response from the nails) is about the best I am going to get at these types of sites. JMHO HH Randy

 

[Charlives]

Digger says he uses tracking all the time in moderate soil. Jason says he uses the default 0 as any other GB degrades the signal. I'm more confused for having read this thread
I did however check it in my test garden...Signals came in slightly better when I automatically GBed (it went to 5) as opposed to the 0 default. I didn't test the tracking.

 

[dewcon4414]

Then i got an Email from a relic hunter who said ....... auto GB, then set it +2 to +4 above it??? I noticed the other day when wet sand hunting that i did an auto GB.... read something like 11, but i kept going back to see and it would drop to 3..... then go up to 7. BUT..... then i hit the - button taking it to 3....... and it never changed again. So i guess you just have to hint the + or - and you manually set it too. Heard one guy auto set his..... then used a target in the ground........ did a + or - manually... each time checking it against the target. Problem with locking it manually ..... things change. If the machine has a good auto GB i say use it.