Hey Mick in Dubbo

[Furious T]

G'day Mick,
Read your post on another thread that you have your Omega. I cant help with the stem, or the grip, but may be able to offer some support on a couple of other issues.
When I use the Omega ( or any of my VID machines) I only ever discriminate (or notch) out iron. Sometimes, with a couple of my other machines I have raised the disc.
but I find that I locate more good stuff when I am using minimum disc. and it is less frustrating. Soooo, the notch (width thereof) hasn't been a problem for me. I figure that if
I am going to use a VID detector, it is the best opportunity to find gold rings etc.
In relation to the tones: Yes, I too was put off by the 3 and 4 tone modes. I am used to other detectors which go up the scale from low to high, and I had the same thoughts as you
"good for US coins, not much chop for ours". I almost always use d1 or d2. I find this works really well, and you can make good use of the VCO to identify shallow (or not so deep)
coins. I find that the Omega gives "that signal" on coins deeper than it does on most trash. i.e. the higher pitched variable signal that you can get in say, d2 is very helpful if you are going
after stuff either just in the grass or in the first 1" or 2" of dirt. Of course it also sounds off on larger objects, but these can be readily identified in Pinpoint mode, the press of a pad.
I've found that I can run the sensitivity higher on the Omega without sending myself nuts than I can on some of my other machines, and Dave Johnson actually recommended running
sensitivity high, though I think it's always horses for courses when it comes to sensitivity.
Good luck with it Mick. You have to completely forget about what the X Terra does or how it performs when you are using the Omega, but I am finding, head to head, it finds just as much stuff,
and in some areas it is now my preferred machine. I read on one of Monte's posts that he said the Omega can easily become the machine that you grab first when going on a hunt, and
I can relate to those sentiments. It's a beaut machine, just different to most other machines I've used.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

G'day Furious
It sure is a different beast. I finally got a brief hunt in yesterday, punctuated by running the home taxi service. Two 50 minute hunts. Yeah; I was first put off by the tones plus the very loud volume. This detector really needs a volume control. I've got 4 layers of gaffer tape over the speaker, (I'm not a headphone type hunter). I'll see how much the volume decreases as the battery runs down and may consider getting the speaker replaced with a smaller one or look into getting a volume control installed somewhere.
I found that hunting with the Omega is going to require a different mind set. The overload feature seems to be a useful discrimination tool on surface targets. I did start out in the autotune mode but quickly went over to the 4 tones. I'll try the other settings out. I ran the sens at 72 and played around with several pinpointing methods.
I'm not sure what the goldies should read, but they did seem to vary somewhat in the sixties and 70's on the hunt. The pull tabs and 10c pieces were more predictable. I found that I was correctly calling them most times before I recovered them. I was only wrong once. These are normally difficult targets to tell apart.
I'm tossing up whether to use it on Wednesday or not. Got the day off work and the show was in town at the week-end. I might take it with a familiar back up.
Thanks for taking the time to give me the heads up!
Mick Evans.
P.S. If I have to pull it apart, then I think that a bit of emery paper will take care of the tight fit. I might even start with a file and give the top end a bit of a file down.

 

[Furious T]

Hi Mick,
I recall going through the same considerations as you, as to when to start using the Omega. I put off taking it on one hunt because I felt I needed a detector that was familiar, rather than be learning the oddities of a new machine when time is very much of the essence. In my case, I feel I made the right decision. However, by taking it slowly at first and trying out different settings I very much like the machine... yes, you do have to change your mindset from when you use other machines. nearly 12 months ago I bought a Fisher F4, and I am so glad I did as, although it is not one of the high end detectors in that line, it gave me some idea about the new breed of First Texas detectors.
With the Omega, $2 coins on or near the surface come in on mine at 77. If the coils is very close to the coins, it could be 78 or 79. $1 coins come in at 78 and sometimes 79 and if very close to the coil, 80.
Did you take up the offer of the 3 coils. If you use the 11"DD coil, serrated bottle caps give a very nice tone and come in at 84 or 85 (sometimes higher, depending on rust). If using the concentric coil said bottle caps will jump from 77-80 and then down to 64-65. As you experiment you'll find all this out, I'm sure. Good luck with it, you'll probably find that the visual readings are not quite as accurate at 6" to 8" in mineralised soil, but then that is my experience with my other visual ID units.
Hope that the finger is getting better and not too painful. I didn't have the same problems as you have with the stem fitting. Check on the inside of the tube as well as the outside of the other part of the stem. A little gentle filing can work wonders. All the Best, and good luck at the showground.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

I didn't buy any of the extra coils. They were offering a special on the DD coil but not the 5in coil.
Funny you should comment on the F4. I was thinking along the same line. Thought it would be a good starting point to get to know the F style of detectors; just went when the Omega instead.
Thanks for the heads up for the numbers on the goldies.
Mick Evans.