Sensitivity setting

[JHM]

I have struggled with this but I think I have it figured out. Hopefully this might help someone else. Sensitivity is the most miss-adjusted setting on most detectors. This is especially true of the sovereign and explorer. Too much sensitivity is a lot worse than too little. The key indicator is the reset time after an iron null. Find and average size isolated iron object and sweep the target. If it takes longer than 1 second for the threshold to return, the detector is overpowered. This will cause depth loss and missed targets. It will also cause you to have to hunt at a snail's pace to keep a threshold. I think a lot of people give up on the sovereign because of this. In most situations the sovereign has all the depth I need. An amp for me would be something else to lug around in the woods and I don't need any more sensitivity. I can see where it could provide and advantage on the beach. But I'm lazier than I used to be and don't want to dig 2 foot holes.

 

[goodmore]

A lack of threshold return is a sure sign of too much sensitivity. I have an amp and would never use it in the dirt. Strictly for the beach. I also have started to use auto sensitivity in places that give me trouble like EMI and heavy mineral soil.

 

[synthnut]

Goodmore,
Normally I would say the same thing about an amp .....I went upstate NY to hunt in this farm field that was pretty clean ....I remember saying to my buddy " Did this guy win the tidy farmer of the year award ? " .....It was pretty neutral soil .........I don't run across area's like this often , but when I do , I run my sensitivity up !!...... Then again , I had my bigger shovel with me too !!.....You know if you hear a faint signal that you are going down past a foot in the ground !!.... Jim

 

[Jiminsandiego]

You got me thinking JHM. I'll take a steel washer to the beach to experiment with "reset time after a null". Here we have some beaches I can go 2:00 (on my gt) and others I go down to 5:00 before switching to auto. I've been wondering if I get better performance at the lower (4:00 - 6:00) sensitivity range or auto. Clive's book seems to say that in auto, the detector has to process frequencies as well as signals giving a slower more erratic signal, So I've been cranking down the sens instead of switching over to auto at 3:00. (Some spots nothing but auto will work). I like these mineralized,"black sand" beaches because I know the GT is made for em.
Any insight on 4:00 - 6:00 verses auto (at the beach) would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Jim

 

[JHM]

I can see where the amp would help on the beach. I wish I had one close by but it isn't allowed on TN state parks. I live in the world of old rusty beer cans and nails with an occasional good coin thrown in.

 

[JHM]

I don't have any beaches close by so. I can only say what works in my area. Closest thing I can relate to is rusty iron and iron ore. Which we do have. If you find an isolated piece of iron and test the reset time. If it's over 1 second I lower the sensitivity. If I turn mine up, it can take 2 or 3 seconds to reset. At this point the detector struggles to process the signals. If there is so much iron I still get a solid null then I will opt for a smaller coil. This might help you due to the fact that the detector has to analyze less dirt or black sand at once. I do know the sovereign will pick up a good target while nulled. But not as deep. I don't use auto much but i get good depth at the 3 o'clock position. Wish I could help more but this is something I've never dealt with. I guess I would bury a coin in the black sand and experiment to see what works.

 

[Critterhunter]

I have struggled with this but I think I have it figured out. Hopefully this might help someone else. Sensitivity is the most miss-adjusted setting on most detectors. This is especially true of the sovereign and explorer. Too much sensitivity is a lot worse than too little. The key indicator is the reset time after an iron null. Find and average size isolated iron object and sweep the target. If it takes longer than 1 second for the threshold to return, the detector is overpowered. This will cause depth loss and missed targets. It will also cause you to have to hunt at a snail's pace to keep a threshold. I think a lot of people give up on the sovereign because of this. In most situations the sovereign has all the depth I need. An amp for me would be something else to lug around in the woods and I don't need any more sensitivity. I can see where it could provide and advantage on the beach. But I'm lazier than I used to be and don't want to dig 2 foot holes.

See the "Null" thread. My feeling is too that too high sensitivity is much worse than being too low. Next time your in the field stick a dime at say 7 or 8" and then try sensitivity at 3PM. Chances are it will pick it up that low or perhaps at 2PM. Now crank it over to around 10PM and it will hit no better on it most of the time. Going that high or even higher can in fact start causing a hard to hold ID (unstable) and it might even start nulling over the coin if your soil has minerals like mine. I believe a target being present can push the machine over the edge and into a null if sensitivity is too high. Point is I don't see much if any difference in depth between say 3PM and 1PM or perhaps noon. Same deal with say 1PM and around 10PM. I always figure roughly a 3 digit spread of numbers doesn't really show me any depth difference that I can see, so if 10AM is a bit unstable then I don't feel I'm losing any depth by running at 1PM while getting much more in the way of advantages.

We have to remember one thing about sensitivity- Changing it does NOT change the strength of the signal or depth it's going in the ground. Adjusting sensitivity is only changing the gain on the RX signal being received from the coil, so going higher in sensitivity does nothing to the signal being transmitted. It's still going just as deep at 3PM as it is at full blast. It's only that we are raising or lowering how much the received signal is being amplified. The more it's amped the more noise is introduced into that signal (circuit noise, RF in the air, ground "glare" or mineral reflection, and so on). There comes a point where the higher gain magnifies too much of the bad things in the signal and the machine can no longer identify the good target signal through all that static.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

i have found that for in land hunting getting your gt sensetivity set to the optimum setting is the biggest challenge ,, mainly because conditions are constantly changing ,,for example wet or saturated soil does not seem allow the signal to penetrate as deep as normal moist soil .... i base this on experience and the test garden in my back yard....i have a dime and a quarter buried at about 6 inches ..... i usually scan the test garden prior to hitting the local colonial sites ... some days those test garden coins sceam and other days i can hardly get a signal..... i use this test garden as a sort of tune up ... if i set my sensetivity to read the coins in my test garden i find im close to optimum sensetivity setting at the colonial site as the mineralization in my area does not change too much... i .find that when the soil is just slightly damp i can turn the sensetivity up higher mainly because the machine is less sensetive to iron usually creating a smaller null when swept over iron there by allowing those targets close to the iron to sound off ... i hunt the same places many times over ,, some days you just cant get dialed in and other days you come home with several good finds... when in the field i often make. slight sensetivity adjustments prior to digging up target just to see if i can make the signal come in smoother... it can be a challenge but once you know.youre sensetivity is at the sweet spot dont touch it...

 

[chuck ky]

i haven't used my sovereign for awhile but i do remember checking the sensitivity on targets. i got pretty good results up to 12'oclock but it dropped off after that and at 3 o'clock the signal was completely gone.