Locking in at 50

[Jeff Foster]

<b>" Ok yesterday where I was hunting the ground read a 38. So at those readings am I loosing anything by locking in at 50???"</b>

The short answer is maybe.

A brief review of how the "ground-balance" feature works may be helpful.

There are two important points:

Point #1:

Everything to which the MXT responds (with sufficient strength), generates a VDI number. The ground mineralization is no exception. When the MXT is ground-balanced properly to the local ground, the MXT sniffs out the ground's VDI number and sets the MXT's circuitry to lose sensitivity to targets with that VDI number. (The GND scale is just a different version of the VDI scale

 

[Jeff Foster]

Hi Monte,

I think you probably appreciate the reservations I have with the quote in question. No feather ruffling intended.

Jeff

 

[Mikel]

OK-- WHAT IF-- you have manual ground balance set all the way minus
and the coil still gets louder as it approaches the ground? I've got a coil on a manual gb machine that does this in some places and I don't believe there is large metal under the ground. In most places it behaves like it ought to, whats going on? too low minerals to make adjustments?

 

[Jeff Foster]

What you're describing is why the MXT has a <b>SALT</b> setting for the <b>[TRAC]</b> switch. On the MXT, if the ground-balance procedure, with the <b>[TRAC]</b> switch set to <b>GROUND</b>, results in the coil getting notably "louder as it approaches the ground," as you describe, it is an indication that the VDI number is above the range allowed by the <b>GROUND</b> tracking range.

For the machine you mention, it appears that its gb range is limited to the extent that it cannot balance to soils in which electrical conductivity (dissolved salts such as fertilizer, road salt, seawater, hard water, water concentrated in plant roots, etc.) is a significant component of the ground mineralization response.

The ground-balance point (VDI number, GND number, signal delay, phase, whatever you want to call it) is not an indication of how high or low the mineral level is. It is an indication of the <em>relative</em> amount of iron-based (magnetic) stuff versus the amount of electrically conductive (often moisture in which types of salts have dissolved rendering the moisture electrically conductive) stuff in the soil.

Enjoy.