Just discovered an interesting thing about the MX Sport...

[John in Nawth Carolina]

In the Coins and jewelry mode, turning the audio modulation on will result in a 1"-1.5" better air test. It's a soft but very discernible signal.

 

[Monte]

In the Coins and jewelry mode, turning the audio modulation on will result in a 1"-1.5" better air test. It's a soft but very discernible signal.

I believe some differences in performance results can be discerned based upon the Sensitivity, the settings, and search coil used. Naturally the sweep speed of the coil or air-test hand-held sample used can make a difference.

I just checked and on my MX-7's, in the Coin & Jewelry program using the 6½ Inch Concentric and 950 Concentric coils mounted on them, I get slightly better discernible depth with a 'saturated' audio [size=small](Audio Modulation 'Off')[/size] than I do with a modulated response [size=small](Audio Mod 'On')[/size]. Oh yes, I can't forget our personal hearing abilities, and since I have impaired hearing, aka as being a bit deaf, I prefer a saturated audio because I have difficulty with faint, weak sounds.

Monte

 

[Old California]

Hello John,

Thanks for sharing, always good to hear from other user's using same type equipment.

Interesting, Using Coin/Jewelry mode my MX Sport looses about an inch with Audio Modulation on. Unless I have it backward, Zero (0) for audio modulation OFF and one (1) for audio modulation ON that's how I use the feature.

Enjoy the Sport, still have mine.

HH, Paul

 

[Monte]

of my MX-7's in the Coin & Jewelry program [size=small](White's term for 'mode')[/size], which I have Audio Modulation set at '00' for 'Off' because I can hear it better when it is more saturated, and in most places I have hunted so far, as well as doing 'air tests' I get ±1" better discernible depth than I do with a setting of '01' for Audio Modulation 'On.'

The nice thing is that White's provided that function for us to choose for different wants and needs at various hunt sites.

Monte

 

[John in Nawth Carolina]

You 'old' guys are ganging up on us young(66) folks.......

I will retest. Roads are icy so I'm stuck inside for a while...

 

[Monte]

You 'old' uys are ganging up on us young(66) folks.......

I will retest. Roads are icy so I'm stuck inside for a while...

I'm over 68½ so I'm closing in, kind of, of 69. I'm still young and energetic, at least between my ears, but the rest of me has out-aged my years. My mobility stinks due to a number of different health related issues, and even with my cane, which I've had since two months before I turned 44, I have moments when trying to defy the act of stumbling or falling is a real challenge.

We've had a skiff of snow a couple of times the past two weeks and the sunny and drier days earlier in the week wiped out almost all the snow from even the shadowed spots. Christmas Eve Sunday started out mostly clear and the blue skies and sunshine above, and green grass in the yards, sure had a depressing feeling for Christmas, until about 2 PM after it soon clouded up. We already had chilly temps since it was 11° F at 6:05 in the morning, yesterday, but the snow started close to 3PM and my oldest son stopped by [size=small](with cookies and candy)[/size] and shoveled. I went out about 9 PM and shoveled again so I wouldn't pack it down when I backed out to take an evening drive around town. My dog, Rikki, and I looked at all the places in our small town of Vale Oregon that had Christmas lights because they look so much better with a fresh fallen white snow.

To break my 'old guy' boredom while on the computer this morning, we went back out so I could one-hand shovel again and had it cleared off by 3 AM. What could be better than fresh white snow on Christmas Day? Not much I can think of, other than to let it hang around for maybe a week to ten days, then start hoping for an early arrival of springtime weather to get back out detecting.

Now I'm just snacking on Diet Dr. Pepper and an assortment of cookies I sat out for Santa [size=small]( I get to enjoy them as he and his team of critters do a fly-by as they only deliver to kids, not us young-at-heart 'old guys' any more)[/size] here on the edge of the desk in my den.

Be careful on those icy roads if you are out and about this Christmas Day, and enjoy the season while holding out for spring to arrive.

Monte

 

[Silverbackbob]

Ahhhhh, a Christmas Day "old guys" thread. Just what the Dr. ordered. I'm 64, does that count?? I did have a triple bypass in 2012 to help up my credentials a little.

Guys, I have a lot of hobbies I like to pursue and what I've found these last 5 years is that I'm better at them, and enjoy them more, when I pay attention to what I eat and drink, get sufficient sleep and don't party to much(not a big problem anymore!!) but...even 4 drinks leaves me feeling crappy the next day.

So.....weight training, yoga, walking and other cardio, clean healthy diet, proper supplementation, and just staying active all make me feel better and keeps me from getting sick.

Try it, you'll like it. I promise. Merry Christmas and have a Great New Year. Bob

 

[Old California]

Hello John,

With the MX Sport, I prefer using no modulation. Tried it a couple of times but always switched it off, I'll give it another try next time I'll out using it.

This may sound surprising, Still use the older Whites BFO models of yesterday. For quick surface clad from school yards and local parks, here's this weeks haul before work. And a couple of pics of my favorite Whites BFO, all work except one. Have several other Whites BFO but these are the upper end model's, love them tube models.

People complain about the MX Sport weight, they need to swing one of these for a hour the MX Sport is a feather compared to one of these Sherman tanks.

Merry Christmas
Paul

 

[Old California]

Hello Monte,

Have a vacation coming up soon, going to use the MX Sport with modulation on, at least try too I I know in some area's it'll be beneficial.

Weather is nice here in California, cold but nothing like back East.

Merry Christmas,
Paul

 

[Monte]

That being a more understandable appreciation for how things used to be in this great sport, what we started with and where we've come, and just how functional or workable some of those old but reliable detectors can still be for some of our modern-day hunting. I read the other post you made earlier with some photos of detectors from "way back when ..." of which I had many but still keep a lookout for one specific old White's BFO. The summer of '68 my brother Ed & I started using our first White's detector, which was a Ghost Towner BFO with the 5" red wooden search coil. I still want to find one of those specimens in reasonably decent looking condition, and working properly.

Also, I note that you have a Compass Klondike model listed in you Signature. At one time I had all hand-held and hip-mounted versions but one of the Klondike series to include the single and dual coils offered. I had married and we made a move and were dealing with some tight money issues at the time, and that was when I had a serious surplus of detectors I would display. So I sold them off in the early '90s. Parted with all of my excess detectors except for a Compass TR or two, a Garrett Hunter BFO from the latter '60s, and kept the then-current detectors that I used on a regular basis.

Hello Monte,

Have a vacation coming up soon, going to use the MX Sport with modulation on, at least try too I I know in some area's it'll be beneficial.

I like a modulated audio, a lot of the time, and on certain models that work well that way. Tesoro's are a very good example, or the White's Classic ID or IDX Pro which have a 'functional' modulated audio. I like the modulation on the Makro Racer series and Nokta CoRe, Relic and Impact. But with both of my White's MX-7's, I haven't liked AudioMod 'On' with a setting of '01' and definitely prefer AudioMad turned 'Off' with a setting of '00'. Maybe in the months to come I'll find an application where I like it 'On' in the Coin & Jewelry Program, but for now I favor the 'Off' setting.

Don't know if you get out to old gold mining era ghost towns and those types of old sites often, but if you're interested in hitting places like that you are sure welcome to come and join a small bunch of active detector users on an annual Welcome-to-Hunt Outing. I coordinated two of them each year in 2015, '16 and '17, but we are working in Three WTHO's for 2018. All of them early era sites, with periods of activity starting in 1863/'64 for two of the three gold mining town sites we'll be hunting the last of April here in Eastern Oregon.

We have be averaging 17 to 25 participants per Outing, all coming from Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Quiet a few have been detecting for a while, and are savvy learners and fit into the Avid Detectorist category, but we still get some on just about every outing who are 'beginners' or Average Hobbyists just kind of starting out. Most of those have only Coin Hunted a little bit in their yard or a local park or school and the experience of hitting an old site with a lot of discarded debris to deal with is quite 'educational' for them. For us who have ample field experience over many, many years [size=small](decades)[/size] they can be quite enjoyable to hunt.

There will be the 7th WTHO on April 26th - 29th with our 'base point' here in Vale, Oregon, and the 8th & 9th WTHO's will be in Nevada in May, the 8th based out of Wells, and the 9th, on Memorial Day Weekend, based in Tonopah. A few of these old ghost towns still have a structure or two standing, but the majority of them you could drive right through them and not recognize they had much activity up to over a hundred-and-fifty years ago.

Weather is nice here in California, cold but nothing like back East.

Merry Christmas,
Paul

I hope you are enjoying a great Christmas Season as well, Paul, and looking forward to a productive and fun 2018 when you get out detecting.

As for weather, well, it is winter here in Eastern Oregon and we've had some cold weather to freeze the ground up and a couple of skiffs of snow come and go. Nothing, yet, like the record-setting winter of 2015/'16. We hit some lower 30° temps for a couple of days and by Friday evening or Saturday morning, grass was seen almost everywhere except a few very shadowed/shaded areas. Then Sunday started mostly clear, quickly clouded-up, and about 3 PM it started to snow. Did so right up to about 3 in the morning on Christmas Day when I finished shoveling, and we ended up with a beautiful fresh layer of about 3" of snow yesterday.

Thin high clouds by our afternoon trip to my son's home for a Christmas dinner, and skies were clearing when we left. I went out for a few minutes just after midnight when my dog wanted to have a mother nature visit and it was totally clear with a star-filled sky .... and COLD! We dropped to 9° and had a 6 to 8 mph breeze. Now, at 4:55 this morning, it has 'warmed up' top 16° with a light wind and we have freezing fog. you don't have to go 'Back East' to enjoy wintry weather and get the 'cabin fever' treatment winter brings us.

Sure is good to hear you're doing well and have nicer weather down south. I plan to hook my camping trailer up and head off to somewhere in southern Nevada or into Arizona or California sometime in January to shake the chills and do some detecting to start the year off.

Have a great new year with both modern and old detectors.

Monte

 

[John in Nawth Carolina]

was a Garrett BFO. I knew nothing about detecting and didn't find anything so I returned it to kellyco and purchased a BH TR-550D. I found a few pennies on the base I was stationed at. They were all wheaties. After I returned to the US, I purchased a GEB Supreme from White"s. I ended up buying 2 of the hip mount versions too for water hunting. The automatic tuning was very helpful. I also ended up buying a White's TR water machine, the one where the electronics was mounted in a canister that always seem to leak. Paid for all of my detectors with that as I was probably the first water hunter in Puerto Rico.

I also was partners in a Treasure Hunting store. During our inauguration I met Charles Garrett. Nicest guy ever. We sold White's and Garrett. I ended up with a Groundhog and found many nice coins with it.

 

[Old California]

Thank you Monte and Happy New Years,

I've put serious thought with your Ghost Town hunts in the past, but things always come up. Have a parent now staying at home, and with work it's tough getting out for long trips especially now with mom getting up there in age. I'll try and make the April or May Hunt, I would love to make one of these hunt's, will have to make special arrangements at home to make the trip.

(Ghost Towner BFO). I'll keep my eyes open for a Ghost Towner BFO with 6" red wooden coil, I'm always on the scout for vintage detectors and hopefully find one for you before the next ghost town outing. The only change to my Ghost Towner BFO, it was once hip mount only so I added a handle and mounted the shaft with coil to control box now it is both hip mount or use with handle setup.

Whites electronics spoke highly on the Ghost Towner BFO, I can see why its much lighter than the earlier heavy metal Sherman tank box type and it's auctually deeper. But tuner needs to be adjusted more often, yet it is a nice operating BFO model with decent depth.

My Ghost Towner TR is a major step forward, extremely smooth more depth and very sensitive. Picked this up from Alan Cannon, and picked up two Compass Klondike BFO models from Alan. The Klondike 41-BFO with dual coils and Klondike 64-BFO model with one coil, Looks like my 41-BFO with dual coils was the same model you had. These are extremely rare, only a few exist today.

(Ghost Town outing) I'll try and make one of the two hunts early this year, my friend El from Ca. made one recently and I believe Brian (Cal Cobra) made one of the hunts as well.

Appreciate the invite, I'll try and make one of them.

Happy New Years!
Paul

 

[Monte]

I appreciate looking at your posted photos more than a lot of folks having owned or used most of what you have and photo. I'm sure your collection has some, however, that I haven't had, tpp. I moved around too much early in life, and even to the last four years, and early on it was just too much to pack-and-move and also having six children and everything going on to keep the collection I had. Even today I am down to only three old models, all working and in very decent condition, but age and health limits my enjoyment of them.

I do use my Compass Coin Hustler from time to time and it makes a very good TR for me to use in my seminars to show folks the type of detectors we used to use long before we progressed to where we are today. I'll maybe offer my Garrett Hunter BFO [size=small](I only have the 3"/8" dual coil for it)[/size] and Compass 99-B for sale or trade along with two or three current/recent models.

I almost bought the Ghost Towner TR back then, but ended up getting a new 63 TR instead.

Yes, both El and Brian have made one or more Welcome-to-Hunt Outings and I hope they can make one or more next year. Of the three planned Outings for 2018, I am more excited about the 7th WTHO here in Eastern Oregon. These are three gold mining era ghost towns that have a lot of potential, but like any site it takes patience and persistence to work them well while dealing with rusty tin and other debris in hopes of sweeping across a worthy target response. Same three townsites we planned to hunt this past June, but dense weedy growth prevented working 'Lost' and limited us to 'Lonesome Arch' and 'Lone Tree.'

Looking ahead to some good times afield in 2018 and hope you can make an outing or two.

Monte

[size=small]Again, I appreciate the photos of old favorites. Thanks.[/size]

We had some of the nicest old artifact finds from any outing made in 'Lone Tree' this year, to include a military belt buckle from the CW Era, and the oldest US Coin so far with Darby's 1836 Capped Bust Dime. As for gold coin finds, I would welcome another one any time! It's been a long time since my first, and only, gold coin found in 1978