GT Falsing

[bnthere]

Hi All

I am mostly a beach and shallow water hunter and the GT has been functioning great there. I tried it on land where a rural field had been mowed for hay. There is an old foundation there and the area was once farm style home in the early 1900s. The detector began falsing immediately with a pulse sound that changed the threshold tone at every false signal. It was like listening to a kid on a piano. I tried adjusting the sens, the band, all metal, iron mask, disc etc. and I finally gave it up. There are 2 cell towers within a mile or so but I suspect something else. I would appreciate any thoughts or comments...Thanks Bnthere

 

[ZOFCHAK]

Are you sure that it wasn't just an over abundance of junk/metal in the ground? Old farms are notoriously trashy, and if the building has been torn down, they're often worse. I've run into a few that were so trashy that it just was not worth the effort.
My suggestion is to go back to the spot and try running the detector with the coil a few feet off the ground. If you're still getting false signals it may be interference from power lines or other electrical signals. If the threshold stays constant, you're probably just picking up the thousands of rusty nails, and chunks of metal roofing that were buried when they bulldozed the place.

 

[bnthere]

Thanks ZOFCHAK. I'll give it a try again tomorrow elevating the coil. This is more of a regular pulse type (intermittent) signal that changed the threshold through all of the tone levels in sequence. I just don't know what would do that out in pasture/woods land. It could be trash but would the threshold tone return to a different sequential pitch each time the signal was generated? I hope it is trash and not aliens or something..

 

[GunnarMN]

was your pinponter on ? where was you r sensitivity? was the grass wet, I have found spots like that just really trashy dig down into the ground and pull a magnet thru it or wash it out it just may be trash

 

[bnthere]

The sens was set to auto then I moved it in increments to the least sensitive position in order to stop the pulsing. The grass was not wet but not completely dry either due to yesterdays t storms. It is about 2 inches long average after being mowed and baled. My pin pointer was off as I never had to even think about using it. This really seemed like a regular thing. I have run across large iron that nulled it out so bad that I had to reset but this was different and immediate once I turned it on. Thanks for the post. I don't want to give up on this site as I think it has potential but I have to admit there is nothing like this on the beach.

 

[JimmyCT]

Hey bnthere,

ironic you make this posting. Just last week I had a very similar incident. (I operate a sovereign GT) I was in an area detecting along just fine. About two hours into the hunt ( there are hundreds of homes in the area and some houses were right next to the property I was searching) I experienced this pulsing like what you are describing. I flipped the switch down to band 2 noise cancel and that didn't help either. ( sounded just like what you are describing - playing a tune in my headphones) I had a good feeling it was a wireless situation (WIFI) of some sort. I walked across the lot and it reduced the problem significantly. I have sinced used my GT at several different places and it was fine with no alien-like interference problems. This happened once before as well. Another neighborhood with lots of businesses & residences. It wasn't as bad at this location. At this 2nd location, I flipped to band 2 noise cancel and it cured the problem. In your situation I truly believe it is the cell phone towers. - Hope this sheds some light on the subject.

With the advent of cell towers / WIFI / Wireless etc going up all over the place, it surely can't be making things better. Just my .02

Hi All

I am mostly a beach and shallow water hunter and the GT has been functioning great there. I tried it on land where a rural field had been mowed for hay. There is an old foundation there and the area was once farm style home in the early 1900s. The detector began falsing immediately with a pulse sound that changed the threshold tone at every false signal. It was like listening to a kid on a piano. I tried adjusting the sens, the band, all metal, iron mask, disc etc. and I finally gave it up. There are 2 cell towers within a mile or so but I suspect something else. I would appreciate any thoughts or comments...Thanks Bnthere

 

[bnthere]

I agree that electronic interference is getting worse everywhere and I'm glad we have had a similar experience. The last beach area I hunted was Nags Head and north through Duck and the 4WD area north of there to the VA border. That area has many businesses etc. (not sure about towers) within 200 to 300 yds of the beach. This is similar to many beach areas in the States. The area I hunted today is countryfied all the way. There are power lines here and there and a tower or two on the far hills but certainly no neon signs, a/c units, elevators or even coffee pots. I'm still stumped. I wish I knew more about frequencies and such to help me figure this one. Tomorrow I'm going back there and to another site (soccer field) to find some answers. Thanks for the post.

 

[lloyd0161]

Thanks ZOFCHAK. I'll give it a try again tomorrow elevating the coil. This is more of a regular pulse type (intermittent) signal that changed the threshold through all of the tone levels in sequence. I just don't know what would do that out in pasture/woods land. It could be trash but would the threshold tone return to a different sequential pitch each time the signal was generated? I hope it is trash and not aliens or something..

ZOFCHAK is a friend of mine and sold me my GT. I love this detector. Try turning the sensitivity down to manual at 2 or 3 o'clock if you are getting electronic interference. The depth of detection will still be decent. I have found that my neighbor has some kind of radio or wireless game controller that has interfered with all of my detectors unless I reduce sensitivity. This will allow you to hunt in a high EMF interference area. Some times the sensitivity needs to be almost minimum. The GT will still find a 1/4" copper gas line in my yard which is 5 inches down at minimum with a good repeatable signal.

Also, I have taken others advice and use a very slow sweep speed (almost a crawl) with the GT due to the slow recovery of the Sovereign. This evening I found a chunk of copper on top of barbed wire pieces in my front yard which has been "hunted out" according to my wife The iron scraps were ignored but I found the copper chunk by moving slow and wiggling the coil once a "burb" or hint of a good signal was had. I was able to approximately pinpoint the copper in disc and dig a square plug flap out of my lawn. The pin-pointer proceeded to find all kinds of barb wire scrap and also the piece of copper which still had a high tone id with the iron being ignored.

 

[Birdseed]

If it is very regular pulse, say once per second or similar it could be an electric fence nearby. Electric fences can cause all sorts of strange effects. Even coupling into over head wires then popping up miles from where they are located. I am also a ham and recognize the symptoms occasionally in my Sov from my radio experiences.

Peter

 

[bnthere]

Peter You are the MAN!! It took me a while to find it but there is an e fence in the woods. It is over 300 yds away. I got tired stepping it off so that is just a guess. I had no idea how much em energy those things throw. I guess if it will put a 2k pound cow on its knees then it must be a lot. That mystery is solved thanks to the Tasmanian ham. Thank you Sir

 

[Birdseed]

Bnthere

Glad I could help.

Electric fences discharge a very high voltage extremely quickly resulting in a pulse of electromagnetic radiation, a bit like a miniature lightning strike. The magnetic pulse is extremely broadband and is easily detected at the frequencies our Sovs operate at. A nuisance, but a fact of life. Incidentally the cows are not injured by the operation. A bit like the static shocks you get off your car in dry conditions.

Peter

 

[Darkflamedesign]

Emi and rf interference are notorious with gt . I added rfi choke filter on cable ... Big difference !... The problem is the gt needs to be ground balanced , it is not really the turn on and go detector most people think.
I set all metal at waist level , power auto , band 2 , threshold just into silent but threshold switch in threshold position.
I then lower coil to hear what happens. It is best not to overdrive machine.
Pump at least 1 foot over ground , ground littered with junk or large iron will be a project to settle machine down.
If threshold screams then I lower coil to the ground without moving and steady the threshold sound as quietly as I can.
Then I switch to iron mask on . If high electronic interference is still to close then I go silent search , only targets strong enough will break threshold.

By allowing coil to "settle" on ground it can try to compensate better than pushing and pulling coil against bad ground . Try it.

 

[bnthere]

Thanks Dark. I still want to hunt the area and I can't unless that fence is turned off for a while. Does the filter void the warranty? Does it affect any functions? Is it difficult to install? Many questions I know but I am interested in how others get the most out of their machines. Thanks

 

[Critterhunter]

I use noise band 2 all the time because the ID numbers match better with the charts where as one will change them a bit. I've also heard some say they believe band 2 goes a bit deeper. But, there are times when I've had to switch to band 1 to quiet things down. My rule of thumb is that if band 1 won't allow a higher sensitivity setting without the interference then I switch back to 2 and lower it until things get stable. Underground cables as well as telephone poles can cause interference.