HIGH TRASH DENSITY MODE

[jjwest]

Marc,I was thinking of what you said about having as many falsing/ground problems with a small coil as a big coil when the sensitivity is increased. l read some where that you will have less problems with the small coil just because it physically covers a smaller area of the ground at any time.

Another thing I have done to keep from going nuts in high trash areas and a headset is needed because of ambient noise(street noise) is to use a quality headset with over the ear cuffs. Turn the threshold volume control on the Quattro down as low as it will go and still be heard. Also turn the Quattro target volume low enough to still give a good target sound. The headset volume control is single adjustment for both the threshold and target volume. It's a little game to adjust all 3 things but once adjusted only the headset volume should need adjusting again because of ambient noises. Then I mentally try to tune out everything except high pitch sounds. All this helps from going nuts and noise fatigue.

Just a quick thing here about discrimination and all metal. It will be about oranges not just apples for comparison. I have a Whites DFX that was purchased to replace my Quattro. The DFX is my backup detector and I read DFX forums frequently. Recently a few of the DFX forum members have noticed new finds in areas that they had hunted out because they reduced a lot of discrimination of ferrous metals. They call it iron masking. By reducing ferrous discrimination they are able to hear good targets next to a iron/ferrous target that would normally be missed because of iron masking. Maybe our Quattros in all metal mode with a few tricks and adjustments and comparing oranges and apples we will have just as many finds at the end of the day as the highly technical DFX.

 

[backslyder]

Jj,---good stuff there on that post!!! It makes a lot of sense, what you said about being able to turn up the sens on the smaller coil, because there's so much less surface area it covers "per sweep". Also, and this is just a guess, I'm wondering if the fact that it separates trash better, probably because it's smaller, we may be able to crank up the sens more, but at any rate, looks like a plan to me.
I agree with you on the use of the good, closed headphones, and keeping the threshold just where you can start to hear it. ( I also read that concept in an old Garrett book too), and I know that Andy preaches it, but where I might question you is on the target level that you set on the detector. I thought we were supposed to set it at full volume and then control it with our headphone volume level, but you know, if there's no headphone volume knob, you'd be out of luck and would have to set it with the detector touch pad. Again, on the fine points of this, maybe your alluring to the possibility of lower target volume giving a better reading. I'm not sure about that one at all. Maybe it's true.?:O Let me know. I do agree, that if that "target volume" is too loud it can blow your head off.

Now, this last paragraph you wrote, is very interesting! I know that with the Explorer II, they used to have some kind of setting involving iron masking, so it must be a pretty "big deal", if Mine lab's "top of the line", coin detector has it. I need to go back over that section in Andy's book about the masking of good targets versus bad. Man that's very interesting to me about turning down the discrimination to get better good versus bad target separation. You know, again, I'm sort of "tying this all together" in my mind and what you just said, would tie in perfect with the idea of hunting in All Metal, using no discrimination, only using the tones and numbers to make a decision on whether to dig or not, pushing the sens as high as possible and ground balancing frequently enough. I'm not sure if I'm "man enough" to go through the "torment" of listening to all those signals, but it really does make sense to me, that if you want to "push the limits" this might be the way you need to do it. Marc.

 

[JohnA]

after reading this thread I tried the High Trash mode for an hour this AM after my X-Terra ran out of battery juice. Decided to use the Quattro instead of putting new batteries in. The recovery is a little faster, but still way slower than the X. However the park I was hunting has lots of trash and the 8" Minelab coil performed very well. ID numbers a little off, but not enough to screw up the dig or not dig decision.Will be doing the perpendicular grid with the Quattro as I briefly went over a spot that I hit with the X and found more targets. Anyway, thanks for the posts.

 

[jjwest]

Hi Marc, What I mean by using a lower target volume is not to mean a better reading on the Quattro but the ability to hear good high pitch target sounds and not go crazy with hearing everything in all metal mode. Saying it another way, in all metal we hear all targets and if the volume is low and you can still distinguish the good sounds from the trash sounds then your chances of being confused, saturated, quitting or going crazy is lessened.

Some buddy's of mine who prospect with metal detectors encouraged me to get a high quality headset. Their metal detectors have no discrimination thus they have to hear everything. They turn the volume as low as they can and still hear targets. They tried my $30 headset and felt it was junk. I thought the headset was okay, but I went ahead and purchased a Sun Ray Gold Pro headset. I was really surprised that I could really turn the volume down and still hear quality sounds and detect all day. There are many brands of high quality headsets out there. There was one place about a year ago that the trash was so heavy that I had to unplug the headset and use the Quattro's speaker.

I think what they are saying about this iron masking is that if you discriminate out iron then you may not hear a good target that is next to the iron. If you do not discriminate out iron then there is a better chance of hearing the good target but unfortunately have to hear the iron target also.

 

[backslyder]

That's good news, JohnA. Thanks for the "report" on that. I know we can talk about it all day long, but when you have an actual "field" report, to me that's where the "rubber hits the road". Thanks again. I forgot all bout that 8" coil, which seems to me could be a really good compromise between the standard 10.5", and that super small, 5". I like the idea that you would probably get better separation with the smaller 8", but still get some "surface area coverage", with it, whereas that little 5", has to be swinged a bunch of times just to cover the same amount of area. Gee, I wish the Quatro had quicker response, but like you say it's "livable", with the high trash setting even if it's off a few numbers, you can still get the job done. Marc.

 

[backslyder]

Thanks for the response, jjwest. Ok, I think I "get you" on this. I have a set of Koss phones, but one of the speakers isn't working. I need to send it back to the company, because they have a lifetime warranty. I think I get what your saying about turning down the volume enough with a "good set of phones" to be able to hear it all better, with less distraction.
I also thought that's what you probably meant about the iron mask, where you need to keep it in all metal in order to not mask the good target with the iron right next to it. You know I purpously burried a quarter next to a nail in the sand one time at the beach just to see if I could still hear the quarter, and I think it did mask the quarter out, but I honestly don't remember how deep I burried them or what mode I was in, so I'll have to try it again in All Metal, and see what I get. Interesting stuff. Marc.