Sovereign sounds

[William1221]

When salt water beach hunting I frequently get a an absence of sound from threshold only lasts for a second or 2 . It is not a null ,does not change the tone of the threshold , the sov. wiggle seldom effects the sound. I go slowly keep my sensitivity at 12 or one. Are they minerals in the sand ? Ive investigated several of them but seem to come up with out anything Am I wasting my time ?

 

[kered]

if its repeatable in the same place i would say its a null, however short, if the threashold is not being affected(coming back as iron) maybe something big real deep and out of range(once you open the hole it disapears as its real deep)but gives the impresion its out of the hole.

If its a random silence for less than a second not repeatable in the same place, a sure sign of too fast a swing

Could also be a loose contact somewhere and is switching off/on momentarily

 

[Neil]

yep to fast a swing and to high a sens setting also, both with do it.

 

[Neil]

n/t

 

[Critterhunter]

If the null keeps repeating in the same spot then you're just passing over iron. If it's randomly coming and going over the same spot and not always a null then your sensitivity is too high or you are swinging too fast.

 

[otlew]

If the null keeps repeating in the same spot then you're just passing over iron. If it's randomly coming and going over the same spot and not always a null then your sensitivity is too high or you are swinging too fast.

OK I'll bite, what is too fast in feet per second? In the manual it explains height, coverage and overlapping passes. No mention of speed. In fact only detector instruction manual I have read that mentions sweep speed is Garrett. My Ace 250 and the Sea Hunter Mark II have stated sweep speeds in feet per second.

 

[goodmore]

Sweep speed depends on the amount of targets good and bad. I start out with my normal slow swing of like 2 seconds each way. It works for me.

 

[Critterhunter]

I swing at something that most would say is a medium speed. I feel it gives the GT most depth with the way I set up sensitivity (lower than most people would). Most say the higher you set sensitivity the slower you need to swing the coil. Here's how to see what's too fast...

Raise your sensitivity to around 2PM to 11PM or so. Move the coil around in a clean spot very slowly and maintain even height when doing so (moving the coil up and down will cause it to null so keep it level). Once you've found a spot that is clean (lower the sensitivity until it doesn't randomly null out anymore) then keep sweeping over the same spot back and fourth and slowly increase your sweep speed from ultra slow to medium and then to fast. You'll know when you are going to fast when the threshold starts to null. At whatever speed that occurs you can figure to go a good bit slower than that to keep the Sovereign working in top form (best depth and unmasking). Many Sovereign owners go as slow as possible. I lean towards a medium sweep speed giving me best depth with say a 11PM or lower sensitivity (it goes counter clockwise from lowest to highest).

Another handy way to figure out the best sweep speed is to stick a dime in the ground and adjust your sensitivity for best response while doing the Sovereign wiggle (as short and as fast of a wiggle over the target as possible). Once you've got your sensitivity set for best response over that target then sweep over it in normal "search mode" fashion like you are looking for the next target. Start off super slow and slowly increase your sweep speed (don't wiggle, swing over it in like 3 foot passes like you are looking for the next target). Note what speed the target gives the best response at. Also note when the speed gets too fast and starts to null or degrade the target. Whatever speed (probably near medium) gives you the best hit while "looking" for that target and pretending you don't know it's there is the speed you should try to use while hunting.

If you turn sensitivity higher than this expect to slow your sweep down. If you go lower expect to speed it up. Silent Search also is said to allow you to increase your sweep speed. You'll never sweep this machine as fast as a Whites can be, but IMO you don't have to crawl like a snail with it either. Still, max separation is going to happen when you either slow down real slow or wiggle over the target. That's why if I do get ANY kind of change in threshold I've then do the Sovereign wiggle over the target to get best ID at depth and also to separate targets better. Some say when working iron they like to go real slow and listen for high tones that could be coins. I prefer to "wiggle" through that patch of iron and try to find the coins that way. Either has it's merits.

 

[otlew]

There are certainly some good guidelines for sweep speed being listed. I probably sweep too slow as I try to keep my coil right on the deck without digging into the sand. I just need to spend more time with this rascal. Time and patience. I wonder if the Sovereign will ever be upgraded to a faster processor, or if based on its design a faster processor would not be an improvement.

I have an Omega 8K which you can swing across multiple targets at a good clip and it doesn't miss a single target.

 

[Critterhunter]

But the big advantage to a slow recovery machine is it's speed can be compensated for by slowing down or wiggling between the targets. The one big problem with fast recovery machines is they are constantly trying to cut a target short. For maximum depth I believe a slow recovery machine has more time to see and lock onto a deep fringe target, or at the very least you have much more of a chance to notice the target at depth due to the longer drawn out response. Ever wonder why some machines have deep and fast settings. They may not work in exactly the same manner but the theory is the same. Same deal with adjustable SAT speeds. Cranking the speed of that up can help with bad ground (but thanks to BBS the Sovereign doesn't need that help) for normal VLF machines in that it re-tunes the threshold faster to keep up with changing ground conditions. Problem is it's also prone to tuning out deep/fringe coins. Sort of like what hot rock reject does on some units or ground tracking in a way. That's why I won't use either of them features on machines that offer those options. Only time I'd use tracking in all metal mode on the GT is when nothing else will work. Usually if I feel like playing with All Metal I'll run track for a few minutes and then throw it over into fixed.

A fast recovery machine can't really gain the same advantages of a slow machine by trying to slow it's sweep speed way down so that it will hit harder or longer on a deep target. Often they start losing depth when you do that or target quality, and even if they don't the machine is still trying to cut the target short with it's shortened response (faster recovery speed). There are more important things that an ultra fast recovery speed. Namely, what matters more to me is the size of the coil's detection field. That's where really separation happens and proper investigation techniques with the coil will ferret out the good from the bad. Once both targets "become one" in that they are touching each other no amount of recovery speed matters anyway. That's when it's up to the machine's processor to try to separate the good from the bad. That's were Iron Mask comes in.

 

[synthnut]

It's funny to me how people describe something , and whether or not they like or dislike what they are describing ...... Sometmes words come hard when describing something that is more of a combination of hearing and feeling ...... It has taken me a while to understand some of the threads that Critter has written becuase sometimes it's hard to put into words what one is experiencing .... I am FINALLY understanding his connection to the Sovereign the more I use it ... Many folks described the Sovereign to me as " it's a machine that has tones that will drive you crazy " and also " It's really a slow machine , even slower than most other Minelab machines that are slower than a lot of machines on the market " ....... I've NEVER been called a patient person ....NEVER !!!..... When I first started detecting , I was the guy you saw FLYING down the beach, swinging my detector like I was leading an orchestra !!!.... This is what I have found over time using my Sovereign GT .....It's not nearly as slow as folks said it would be, and the tones speak like no other detector on the market , and they really DO tell a story .... I've used other detectors that really have noting more to say than BEEP !!.... You really have to listen so closely to other machines to hear any difference at all in the tones, and I think half the time you are telling yourself that you are hearing things that you're not ......The Sovereign will tell you when you are sweeping too fast or too slow .....You just have to learn what it's telling you .....The language that it speaks goes even further when you come up on an object ....It's language is slow enough that it will almost draw a line around the object that you are on !!....You won't find this with a number of other machines ....The language will tell you depth, as well as size , and conductiive properties of the target ....Taking your time, and sweeping from different angles will give you a good idea of what your target is .... and with a meter , you will be able to double check your thoughts .... After you learn the language of the Sovereign , you will realize that it's telling you exactly what you need to hear when deciding whether or not you are going to dig a target or not .... Most other machines are like machine guns that will "Beep" "Beep" "Beep " .......They tell you that something is there and give you a number to tell you what it might be ......The Sovereiegn will tell you how fast to swing , whats there , how big it is , and how deep it is , by all the tones that it has ......The tones are not just an abrupt BEEP .....They are smooth and round and stretch out and sing out to you as to what's in the ground ..... All you have to do is learn the language and you're in !!.....Jim

 

[Rick(ND)]

The toughest thing is getting to know the Sovereign well is it take a little patience, after that it is real easy to use and to me all those different tones of trash you don't seem to notice, but those certain signals will stop you right now when you hear them.
Remember you learn more each time out with it plus it tells you more about the target than those beep and dig detectors.

 

[crazyman]

n/t

 

[kered]

Sounds like your getting there Jim, a pretty good description(almost poetry) for someone thats not good with words

 

[Art (NWOH)]

You have repeatedly checked out these responses and found nothing. So you might as well pass on these places and move on.
Whenever you find a response that is repeatedly junk or mineral you should just ignore it. But be wary of a response that is similar but just not quite the same. Investigate these, and if they are repeatedly bad as well, then pass them up too.
Al way dig anything that sounds different. You will get a lot of trash at first, but as your mind logs more and more response patterns they will become familiar to you and you will either dig or walk on without hesitation. You will learn to ignore them almost as if you never heard it in the first place.
Don't go by just sound pitch either. There is pattern to width, loudness, tone quality, and tone variation with every target. And it will be different with different coils and different speeds of coil movement. This makes up the complete picture of the target. Keep logging these away in your brain.

As a very short example....With some coils, my Sov will have trouble telling the difference between a small piece of foil or can slaw and an old brass button. With my S-12, the button sounds and feels a lot like a coin would, but the trash has a really twisted and sick sound. That's even though both can give about the same meter reading and have about the same general pitch in tone.
There are other ways to tell also, but involve more work and pattern analysis when using different coils.

Sound and motion .

HH

 

[plugger]

n/t

 

[plugger]

I found 6 rings and a coin cache while following a guy around who was using a DFX and constantly analyzing the info on his screen. The first target he ignored turned out to be 2 gold rings (a wedding set) with 38 diamonds (appraised at $6200). The next was about $15 worth of coins (mostly quarters) that must have spilled out of someone's purse (there are a lot of parking meters near this beach). I think he was confused about the readings jumping arond and the audio must have been going crazy on him! After these 2 finds, I just locked in on his footprints and worked my way along, about 100 feet back, but I kept my eye on him and if he spent alot of time on a particular spot, I made sure to check it out. The next good target he left for me was 3 silver rings on a silver bracelet, about 6" deep. Now, the DFX may be a good machine in the hands of someone who knows how to use it, but clearly, he didn't have a clue of what he was looking for.

 

[Rick(ND)]

About the only thing I would add is if it is a deep and repeatable signal I would dig these too as some great finds have been found on these signals.