the thing about whisper signals...

[GRAY GHOST]

hi everyone. i've received some questions lately through pm's and on here about the existence of "whisper" signals. i truly did not believe in them until about 10 years ago. as i get older, i've noticed i've slowed my hunts down,bought better equipment, - - headphones, diggers and machines- and learned to listen to what it is the machine is really trying to tell me. half of what we do and consequently, the finds we recover are 100% dependent on three factors - sight, hearing, and judgement. the failure of any one of these three factors during a hunt can make the difference between a poor day [aerating the worms] to a very good day [the happy dance thing.] i get a stong "gut feeling" on a good silver hit or good relic hit. it's those quieter and deeper hits that really get my attention.
a lot of whisper signals are generated just beyond the depth capabilities of your particular machine and coil combination. theyr'e like a half or quarter of an actual signal. theyr'e also quiet and fleeting, but theyr'e there. you will probably never dig a whisper signal without a good set of headphones. most people just don't realize how important a good set of headphones are. i've seen many times where someone would detect a great area without headphones on, and not finding much if anything, only to see someone else go there and find a boatload of stuff with a comparable machine using headphones.
it's almost a phenomenom in our hobby; quite often, the whisper signals i dug were deep old coins on edge or at a skewed angle, small gold, or very deep flatbuttons and relics. and it doesn't matter one bit if the ground is wet or not - of course, damp ground does help a lot - it's very easy to miss a whisper. theyr'e very difficult to pinpoint, which invariably makes the hole bigger and deeper. the whisper signals seem to come through better with low or reduced discrimination, and often are detected only on one side of your swing. but, theyr'e there.
i hope this short post will help you all in some way. i don't completely understand the entire idea of it either, but i do know that whisper signals do exist, contrary to what some people say, and are often really good finds. as always, i welcome your comments, suggestions, and perhaps more info or insight into this odd phenomenom. thanks for reading, and hh,

 

[Beale]

Very good post Gray! I have had signals that would not ID (just heard) they also would not pinpoint. I will naow hae to dig one of these signals to see what is there. I had always thought it was just my bad hearing,I do use good headphones always, Beale.

 

[pmike]

Interesting post and timing for this post... I just received a set of Ratphones for use with my DFX. Until using the phones I had no idea that my DFX had a solid audible threshold. I was not hearing it at all without the headphones. I also noticed that before using the phones, I would notice a bit of a blip on my display even though I sometimes heard no tone. With the headphones I have noticed almost the opposite in that with the headphones on I have heard a few slight signals, even when they failed to or before they registered on the display. Some of the marginal tones were associated with iron which the DFX was for the most part set to exclude.

Mike

 

[R-n-R Magnolia SpringsAla]

Good headphones make a big diff. On my BHID I've noticed really deep stuff when working with the all metal mode won't id just makes that wonderful soft sound!! Hell I'm still using my Fisher 1265X for really deep relic area with some iron trash. When I run it wide open I'm lookiing for a break in the feedback ( like threshold) ='s Super Deep Target. Without great headphones you can miss alot. I've been using grey ghosts for about 10 years now and love em.

 

[Hombre]

Howdy GreyGhost

Every once in a while I will run into one of those whisper signals. I will raise my coil slowly as I am sweeping over the target and see how far above the ground I will still get a signal. If the signal drops out after raising the coil an inch or two above the ground, I will dig a plug and see if the signal improves. If the signal disappears or breaks up it is usually ground minerals or trash. Sometimes though the signal becomes better after I take a plug out, the audio gets better and if useing a metered machine the meter will lock on better. Some of my better finds have come about by digging those whisper signals! Thats the way it is with those " iffy" signals, but I allways check them out! Good luck.
...............Hombre

 

[R-n-R Magnolia SpringsAla]

Be careful Hombre, as I'm sure you know, if using a WS coil sometimes the signal stops on a deep one if you open the hole. I've dug lots o deep civil war minis and silver dimes like that. Makes me feel bad that a hunter missed it as I know how much of a moral booster it is to recover a ggodie, esp when your new at hunting.

 

[Hombre]

Howdy R-n-R

I'm sure I miss some deepies' as doing it that way, although I have'nt used a widescan or double d coil in the past. Thanks for your observation.I have opened up lots of dry holes in the last 14 years in the hobby, at least I try to investigate those type of signals. Later........Hombre

 

[tabdog]

Odd you should bring this up right now.

As you know I went on a tot lot benge
that lasted until I cleaned out tha places
I could find with in reasonable drivin range.

I learned a lot by doing all that beep and
dig stuff.

I am now hearing more faint signals.

I am also digging deeper targets.

As a mater of fact, I practice thinking about
tha way they sound when I am not detectin.
I imagin tha coil passing over them and pretend
to hear them.

Now I ask you. Am I nuts, or what????

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

 

[Tseeker]

Interesting timing indeed. I too was going to post a question on this very subject. I get a lot of quick tiny clicks and such. Sometimes they only happen during one direction of the sweep. and If I slow down they frequently disappear. I have tended to ignore them because life is short and I figure they are tiny pieces of iron trash or mineralization. Also I too frequently get what I will call falsing because I will open a hole and the signal will disappear. What is being referred do as a dry hole. The pinpoint tone is not always a sharp one. I just have to determin at what point in the sweep it seeems to be the loudest. I check the plug too of course. Now, I am using the 5.75 concentric coil on my Vaquero constantly. I generally keep my disc at just below nickel. The headphones I use are the cheap $25 ones from radioshack with dual volume controls. I have never had any reason to think they were'nt perfectly adequate, but I have not had experience with any of the more expensive ones to make a comparison. More input on this subject would be helpful.

 

[Deno]

Whispers do exist. I have only had one in 9 years, It was with a Garrett GTI 2500, a silver quarter laying flat at 7 ". If you hear one you will never forget it. Its a perfect coin hit, just a whole lot softer. I was never able to to reproduce one in a air test. Go figure.

 

[tabdog]

Hay T Seeker,

I noticed you said.

The headphones I use are the cheap $25 ones from radioshack with dual volume
controls. I have never had any reason to think they were'nt perfectly adequate, but
I have not had experience with any of the more expensive ones to make a comparison.
More input on this subject would be helpful.

I used different headphones that were not metal detector headphones for a while.
I spent a little here and there. My favorite was tha Radio Shack cordless, behind
tha head headphones. Here and there, I ended up spendin about $100 on a couple
of headphones and adapters & stuff. All that stuff hardly works, if at all now. Needs
to be totally replaced. That would be another $100 or more. That's more than I have
invested in my two quality Killer B's and Gray Ghost. About $50 at least. Cheep
headphones are expensive.

Monte convinced me that I should try better ones. Killer B's basic single volume.
At that time they were $76 with free shippin if I recall right.

It made a def finite difference right off. It became almost a necessity in s short while.

This summer I only used my cooler light weight cordless set one time. That was
in intense heat with briers and under brush. Just did not want to deal with tha cord.

One day I stood on my cord and yanked tha cord so hard it broke connetction.

I sent them back to Killer B's.

I could not stand to be without them. I immediately ordered a set of Gray Ghost.
I figgered tha dealer could get them to me before they fixed my Killer B's.

Wrong..... My Killer B's got back to me before tha dealer sent my Gray Ghost.

Now I have a back-up.

If you buy tha good ones they are fixed for tha price of shippin.

It's usually cheaper than cheep headphones, in tha long run. But tha quality is
worth so much more.

They are not only way more better. They are a good deal money wise.

If you want to get tha best depth and hear whisper signals, they are a must.

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

 

[tabdog]

Tha trick is to identify them.

I'm far from an authority on them.

I have just recently been increasing my depth.

That comes from persistence.

I visualize tha signals when not detecting.

They don't tend to react to discrimination tha

same as more shallow targets, and of course

they are faint and not short. If they are short,

It's tha effects of tha circuitry and/or settings used.

Or tha short signal could be masking by ground

or other conductors.

There are many variables to be considered.

But we all miss things that tha machine will

respond to and it's just too weak for us to notice.

The better I get tha less I miss.

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

 

[nw1886]

Once you get that sound down, a lot more stuff is found. Most area that I search don't require too much worry about them but when I get in old or loamy dirt, I listen.

 

[on-edge]

i've had a few that i almost walked away from,the only thing that made me stop and dig
was the small single spike on the signagraph,and surprise surprise
non coin find,but still a small religious charm1800's at 6"
had to go into all metal twice just to locate and see if it would repeat
and it did as a faint whisper every time
good head set definitely key

 

[I a thr]

This was one of the most amazing finds in my 35 years of hunting. I was hunting my local park as I have dozens of times. I will tell you that this park is very trashy and finds are few and far between but have made some good key date finds here, including a 1897 O barber dime and a 1909 VDB Lincoln. This day I was using my Sovereign GT which also had a meter on it. I got a very faint signal and tried to verify it with the meter I could get a very small, maybe 1/4" dia hit at 180 on the meter so suspected a deep dime, NOT, At about 4" out pops this beauty with a pull tab and a square nail. I couldn't believe this had not been found before. Many many detectors have hit this same area, including me, but the luck was with me that day and it was unmasked.
Bill

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Nice looking coin . Great find !!!

 

[tab-nabit]

I have always used headphones (did start with cheap years ago) - now - I have to have quality headphones, and always take a spare, although I haven't had any good ones let me down. But a spare is there, just like a spare detector, so to me, headphones, quality headphones are like just as important as batteries.
It used to bug me that some of the fellas I hunt with don't use headphone, I gave up trying to get them to use em, so now I just smile and go on my way. Some of the others did take up using headphones, now those continue to use headphones.

 

[R-n-R Magnolia SpringsAla]

That's something I've noticed about the Sov XS2, sometimes it will give a peep- null- peep (meter =180) always worth lookiing at. Usually in trashy areas.

 

[Tseeker]

Thanks Tabdog and everyone else. I appreciate the input. Another accessory on the long range want list.