Iron affect

[Anonymous]

Just got me first Minelab Explorer XS last week. I had to take it out immediatly but soon gave up chipping away at the frozen tundra here in WI and headed indoors for air testing.
My question is when I place a nail next to a silver dime the threshold goes silent and the dime doesnt respond at all or unless VERY close to the coil. W/O the nail the dime registered at around 6 plus inches.
My settings where, Iron Mask -10, Fast and Deep On, audio 1; Manual 13 Sens.
So in the field, if your threshold goes quiet, do you lose sensitivity to targets like air testing. If so, what is the best settings/solutions?
Thanks!!!
Tom

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Tom,
Where in Wisconsin are you?
Here is the deal with the nails and good targets; I've done a bit of playing around inside and think that it helps in the field.
First open your discrimination wide open: iron mask -16 or no discrimination selected in regular mode. Also go to ferrous sounds so the dime sounds different than the nail. Then you'll need to be in Normal audio. Any other audio in open screen and ferrous is a disaster. For inside Fast and Deep can go off, and you might need to lower your sensitivity to minimize interference from TVs and PCs, etc.
If you run the nail and dime across the coil with the nail perpendicular to the center web you will get a null, or iron sound. If you rotate the nail so it is parallel with the center web you can pick up the dime, even if the dime is under the nail and straddling it. Hitting the targets with the nail at a slight angle to the center web will give a signal in the upper left part of the screen, aka target averaging. Any time there is iron all the way across the center web it will mask any other target. (depends somewhat on relative size and depth of the targets) This is why you need to detect from different angles. It is also why smaller coils are better in trash, the shorter center web means less chance for a trash target to mask a good one. If you don't have a smaller coil overlapping swings can help.
The short answer is that you do not lose sensitivity, it just means the detector is seeing something and can't see your target at the same time. In real heavy trash sometimes it helps to turn your sensitivity down so deeper pieces of junk do now mask out shallower targets.
Hope this helps
Chris

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks alot for the help and I will definitly give it a try soon. I will be travelling to Florida for work this week so the weather should be a little more cooperative.
I am in the Wauwatosa/Brookfield area of Mwk. Where in WI are you located?
Tom