SovGT with Sun Ray S-12 question. Threshold changing and falsing...

[jbow]

I touched on this in another thread but I want to know more so I am asking in a seperate thread...

I was at a site on Friday hunting relics. It is a construction site that has been cut but not cleared and graded so there are roots, twigs, trees, clumps of dirt and everything imaginable all over the ground. I found that the S-12 changed the threshold or falsed everytime I bumped something and it is impossible to stay near the ground and not bump stuff.
I finally switched to All Metal, set the GB and went to fixed, switched to silent with the tone just barely past audible and found that I could run the sensitivity at or near max. It did indeed run silent this way but is this a good way to run in this situation? I checked it now and again with a coin or a can if I came across one and it would sing out when I did, so it was working. I am asking because I always run in disc and have no experience with AM mode. In any other site I would just use disc and take more care but on this site it was not an option.
Did I lose targets by running my machine this way?

Thanks,

Julien

 

[Art (NWOH)]

No answer, but maybe a way to figure one out........

First a comment on silent search....
Should have no effect in all metal.
Running your threshold turned down to just silent does not hurt in disc mode, but be careful in all metal. The audio is not boosted and compressed as in disc mode. This makes weak hits very hard to hear even when you do have a threshold.

The threshold control has a "danger zone". Don't get into the lower third of the adjustment range or you will lose depth. Not because you really lose depth, but because the audio won't come through on weak signals......you just won't hear it.

A test you can do to illustrate this......
Air test or with an object on the ground. Let's say you can pick up coins to 10" (example). Turn the threshold and volume both ALL the way down full CCW. This will really knock the stuffings out of your "depth". Note that there is no AUDIO response unless you get the coil and the objects much closer together, but if you watch the meter you will still see the correct ID pop up in disc mode or see the meter flicker in all metal in this "dead" zone.

Disc/AM depth.......
In some locations you will get better depth in disc, while others in AM. Some are a tossup. Determine this for yourself.......
Get on a weak target or plant one yourself. See how high you can lift the coil in disc and AM without losing the object. NOTE....if it's an iron object such as a nail, a null in disc mode should be considered a "hit". You have to have a threshold to determine this or you will never see it in disc mode with small iron.

Sensitivity setting.......
This gets tricky. I like a setting that gives me the strongest hits and the best meter readings as long as ground conditions and electrical interference allow it.
You can turn the sensitivity too high without falsing in some locations to the point that you lose depth. You can lose a LOT of depth with some coils when you do this.
Another gremlin is here........
Let's say you are running sensitivity too high to the point that nails start "pinging" in disc mode. If you hunt in AM then switch to disc mode to check for ferrous/non-ferrous the nails will ping and you will dig them.

To sum it up........
You need to experiment a bit, and watch out for the pitfalls.

HH

 

[jbow]

when I first got the S-12 I put it on and went to adjust the meter on a quarter I keep in my pocket just for this purpose and the S-12 did not see the quarter until I got it within. Maybe it was just the "air" and it would have done better if the coin was buried but I don't know. The GT was set in disc like I mostly hunt when I did that test.

More to come...


J