The Alien wanted to play in the snow

[Rick(ND)]

It got tired of sitting in the closet while its brothers were out having fun, so we had to let it play in the snow for a while.
I took it 37 miles to a bigger town that has a dike where it is a sled hill in the winter months. Being it was around 35 degrees today it felt like summer and there was no one sledding so I felt would be a good time to see how the Alien would work in the bottom of the hill. The snow was packed down and it was almost like solid ice, but I had my pick with me. Thought I might get lucky and find some gold rings or any jewelry plus some clad.
Being my first time out and didn't need to go to deep as the packed snow was a good 6-7 inches deep and really didn't want to go deeper as the ground ifs froze solid below it, so I set the sensitivity at 40 the disc at 20 so I could hear everything and went for the 4 tones. I started swinging the Alien and wondered if it was working as I got no sounds no chatter, no nothing so I threw down a coin and sure enough it worked. I turned up the sensitivity to 60 and started detecting. got a few low tones then a good one and more low tones of iron. The Alien was working real nice and was finding a few coins, a bracelet and a key in the hour I was there. Total was 6 quarters, 5 dimes, 6 nickles and 12 memorials pennies. These were from 2 inches to over 7 inches as some as you see I had to chip though the snow and into the hard ground as these coins are the black ones.
The nickles reading only 1 wasn't a nickle and the rest were, the other ones usually locked on a number or 2 if it was a good target, those that jumped around a bit or changes tones were the trash targets which were far a few as most were good signals. I got a couple that were very weak I would have like to gone for, but knew they were very deep in the frozen ground and couldn't get them.
There was a few times it seem to chatter a bit and I tried the freq shift, but it didn't help and was going to lower the sensitivity, but it wasn't that bad, could tell the good targets even with the little chatter it has. I also must have bump the knob once as I only had signal tone for a while and checked and seen it was set for single tones even though I set if for 4 tones.
First time out was a very positive for the Alien and it did impress me with how smooth it run, how good the ID was, how light this detector is and the depth was impressive today in the hard packed snow. I do wish the audio was a bit louder for me and my hearing, but not bad by any means. I was using my UniProbe that is built into the headphones as i like a probe and being Sun Ray don't have one yet I will use second best.
Tried ground balance with the grab feature and it was 90 which is also default.
Got some very small pieces of alum foil that the uniprobe wouldn't see that were 4 inches down too.
Now to try it when the ground thaws and see what it can do.

Rick
[attachment 20661 tek2.jpg]

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Not too shabby, Rick! I've found digging in frozen woodchips is futile so my best clad area will have to wait. There is an old sled trail we used a few times as an older kid in the early 70's. It was more like a kamikazee bobsled trail without the berms. You had to avoid a couple trees and stop before you hit the fence at the bottom. Bound to be some good finds there!

hh-Ed

 

[BuckeyeBrad]

Something that you might have had happen when it went back to single tone is it may have shut itself off and back on. My first trip out with it I noticed that if you didn't set the detector down fairly gently, it would do what I mentioned. I suspect it's related to the loose fit of the batteries in the clips. If it should happen again, check to see if your settings are back to the power up defaults and then you'll know for sure if wjat I mentioned is happening.

 

[North Georgia Relics]

Hi Rick,
I have hearing problems also, so I bought a pair of Black Widow headphones and can hear much better with them. Just something that might help.
HH
Don

 

[Rick(ND)]

HI Don,

I have tried 4 sets of the Black Widow on my Explorer and Sovereigns in case a set was bad, but I never could get the volume I could with the Uniprobe headphones even though they are made by the same company. Many will say they are loud, but to me the Gray Ghost NDT, the Ultimates and the Gray Ghost Uniprobe seem to have better volume.
Before I went out the other day I tried my set of Timberwolf made for my Sovereign, but they were made for the Minelabs and didn't work, tried my Troy Pros and the sounded real nice, but same volume as my Uniprobe so I used the Uniprobe.
I will have to dig out my depth master set up and try once and see how that will work next.

Thanks for suggesting the Black Widows though, might have to try a set on the Alien as it may be different then my Minelabs.

Rick

 

[Mike Hillis]

So far the only time mine has shut off accidently is when I turn the knob on my hip when sweeping. Usually I'll notice it getting quieter on signals before I actually turn it off, though.

 

[North Georgia Relics]

I use the Black Widows on another machine and use my uniprobe on the T2. The uniprobe gets good depth and has the volume I need. Actually the T2 operates outside my hearing frequency loss, so I get good volume with the Uniprobe and can hear the signals better than any other detector I have.
Could you tell any difference when you changed frequencies?

 

[BobH]

n/t

 

[James N.D.]

Just think Rick, you have finds for the find of the month already. I wish I could have been there to detect also since it was so warm out. Just have to wait and see what the weather is like on Saturday and Sunday and if nice out, I will have to try and go out and beat your finds. Probably see you this weekend. Nice finds by the way!

 

[BuckeyeBrad]

I can rap the battery box with my hand and get it to do what I said. I gotta assume that it loses battery contact (power supply) and momentarily shuts off and right back on.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Changing freq makes no difference in the audio tones that i know of. I tried changing the freq a few times when I thought I was getting some interference.
My hearing is one reason I cant use the Minelab Quattro as the tones on silver is just too high pitch and to me it is almost a null. On my Explorer I can change the tones and that works much better. With the T-2 for me the volume could be a bit louder,but for others is can be too loud.

 

[North Georgia Relics]

Have you tried putting a piece of foam between the batteries and the door to place additional pressure on the batteries to hold them in place?

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Adding foam to the inside of the door will put the pressure on the latch. It might pop off in the field, probably at the worst moment. The thin foam on mine shows dents from compression so it fits fairly snugly.

I'd stretch the spring a bit or put a piece of foam inside the spring to make it push harder upwards. Or possibly wrap electrical tape once around the batteries middle (don't cover the contacts) so they have more of a friction fit against the sides of the battery box.

Or a thin strip of foam on the box sides with the same idea in mind, locking the batteries in place by friction or compression.

hh-Ed

 

[BuckeyeBrad]

tried that. I haven't even tried to stretch the springs to put a tad more pressure on the battery terminals. It's really not bothering me at this point and I'm just careful how I set the detector down when I start to dig, which I should be doing anyway. I appreciate your suggestion and I'll have to give it a try.

 

[North Georgia Relics]

n/t