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There is a method to the madness methinks.

Arkie John

Active member
New Excal II received.
New 390 Brownie Hookah purchased, to be delivered Wednesday.

New mask, depth gauge, pony tank, hyperstretch wetsuit; still looking. (all in due season)

Yup, methinks it will be a great summer. Maybe I can even squeeze a story or three out of it. :biggrin:


poised and ready to launch,

aj
 
n/t
 
I should say talk to the people you went to school with:rofl: I have gotten my best tips from Geezers.

There are a lot of virgin places out there for a diver
 
still do it, I'd be doing the same thing. Got to be a gold mine just out of reach of the average water detectorist. I know I have a buddy who can still dive he wants to do the same thing. Good luck with it. I bet your will be impress.... I am always thinking. Jeese there used to be a raft here or there and the path out to it should be littered also as well as where the raft was.

Don't forget pictures.....

George-CT
 
...and they are all untouched. I have only seen ONE water detector in Arkansas besides the Sea Hunter I bought in the 80's and the new Excal.

I have NEVER seen a Brownie hookah--or an hookah of any kind in Arkansas. They'd all rather pay the BS $7 -$12 bucks a fill at the dive shop. I just am not in to that. Been there and done that. I want to stay on the bottom for three continuous hours if I want and not have to lose time and money by feeding the compressor at the dive shop. So I made the plunge.

I'm 60 now. I don't know how much time I have left, but I'll dive until it is no longer fun.

Thanks for the post.

aj
 
...the first thing out of my mouth just about is "Hey! Where'd you swim when you were a pup?

Plus, I have the advantage of interviewing the old heads that have been retired from the Corps for eons, at certain functions. I just happen to carry certain lake maps to the "Engineer Day" picnic and let the old lake managers mark them up as to where the ORIGINAL swim beaches once were and where the swim platforms of the '50's were anchored.

I don't know where to begin...but I WILL, as soon as I get the farmer john. Thanks for postin' buddy.

aj
 
Are you looking at gas or battery?
 
... with a 4.5 hp honda engine that will support four divers to 80 feet (+/-). I won't be diving near that deep and rarely with more than just me so it will be working well within its design spectrum.

I don't know anyone else crazy enough to cough up the bux for a water machine, so they'd be bored watching me raid Davy Jones' locker after an hour. Can't blame them. So it looks like a solo, above the thermocline/one atmosphere gig for me for now.

It will surely be much fun and I look forward to getting back into the water and learning the Excal. (I have a lot to learn) Right now, to my untrained ear, all coinage, except for nickles, sound 99% the same. Gold is all over the spectrum, except for white 14k which gives off the expected low nickle-like tone. 10k and 14k yellow gold sound just like a pulltab or penny-dime-quarter. Geeesh! So for now I'm gonna dig all high and mid tones when on the bottom. I don't know what else to do. I just have to put the time in and learn the machine. One thing's for sure, it will be much better than the old Sea Hunter.

Currently I am air testing dimes at about 12-14 inches with the 8 inch coil. This is just amazing. I can only imagine what it will do with a coin or ring that has set up shop in the sand for years, with that big ole halo around it!

Take care.

aj
 
...and spent weeks doing research. I was all set to purchase the Keene system when a regular on the treasure dive forum put his up for sale on ebay. I pm'd him and asked why and he said because it just didn't cut the mustard. It is way underpowered and will support only one diver. So...

I reconsidered and decided to adopt my hero (Royal's) philosophy: don't take chances and just get a good Brownie and dive in inclement weather at the beach sos you don't bother folks with the noise.

I found a 390, used less than 20 hours (the guy's afraid of the water and probably not certified) and picked it up for a song! It looks stellar and will arrive at my doorstep probably late next week. The guy paid $4,200 for it new and had it on ebay for buy it now $2,500. I made one bid 30 seconds before the close and although I was the high bidder at $2,025.00, it was not above the reserve. I said to myself, well, I'll just buy me a NEW 280 then. Bout two minutes later a message came on to me from ebay saying that the seller (a 100% feedbacker) was offering me a second chance...at my high bid of $2,025.00. Ka-ching!

This all happened at work today (my lunch hour, of course) :rolleyes: so all I had to do was go the Credit Union down the hall and pull out the bux. I will money order him tomorrow and my new toy will be on its way soon.

I have until it arrives to find a decent farmer john, new mask/snorkel and pony tank.

It just will open up an untapped resource. I hope it reminds me of metal detecting in the late '70's in San Diego. Silver was everywhere.

Thanks for posting.

aj
 
if it was dropped a hundred years ago, it is still there
 
But time and tides were good to be so that now, I can tell a silver coin from a penny [there is only a SLIGHT upper change in tone]. In all metal, if you hear a double blip, you can be almost always certain that it is a nail or some such long item.

I still prefer my tanks... but that is just me.

good luck

Calm seas

Mikie
 
Any idea on that? Cheers
 
Plus, it's just good, clean fun!! Yup I gotta be on the lookout for those old rotted posts that were once docks. I'll bet there is a mountain of junk around most of them, especially when the lake/river is not drained on a regular basis. But, at the bottom of the pile the good stuff should be there.

I'm not expecting too much to begin with since I have to learn the Excal's language. I don't know why it couldn't have a simple language like my little Ace 250! It 's not nearly as bad as the Explorer was though. Getting used to a detector with no visual readout is a pain in itself. BUT...I suspect that by the end of the summer I will be a solid convert to the Excal II.

I'm gonna start draggin' my travel trailer with me and stayin' overnight at these rec areas so I can have two whole days to work any certain area on a particular lake. In eight months and 12 days, I can do this full time--except for turkey season! :biggrin:

aj
 
...I'm going to look into doing just that. It seems that since this society has put men on the moon and robots on Mars that they could manufacture a quiet muffler for a lawn mower engine!

There's got to be a way to quieten it down. I'll let you know how it turns out.

aj
 
Mine just purrs along for hours. I have never had a complaint and can easily talk when it is running right next to me. Not an issue unless the new ones are noisy:shrug:
 
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