tony (Orlando FL)
New member
I couldnt stand it anymore, I just had to know how the F70 was going to handle situations like wet salt. I headed out to Cocoa Beach and ran the F70 through its paces.
The inland areas I have detected had a GB value of approx 78ish. As I got onto the dry sand as far from the water as possible, maybe 400 ft or so, I performed the GB and the ground reading was 68.
I rechecked the GB value every so often on the way to the wet sand and noted the GB value dropping the closer I got.
I then got to the point where the F70 wouldnt GB in the disc mode. There were only two dashes on the display no matter where I had the sens set. I then went to the AutoTune mode and performed the GB procedure again and without delay, the reading was 31 and I was still not at the wet sand.
When I did get to the wet sand, instantly the display read 0 (zero) No need to bob the coil at all, in a blink of the eye it was already set as low as it was going to go. I was impressed.
Now came time to see how it reacted while on the wet salt near the waters edge. I had the sens set to 40 and only had Iron disc'd out. There was chatter that was easily corrected by lowering the sens to 20. If I swept parallel or perpendicular to the water, the F70 was pretty stable.
I switched to AutoTune mode and checked that out a while as well. With sens set to 30, I was able to sweep the sand at a good clip with an occasional groan of the low tone. Reducing the sens in the AT mode solved this too.
I dug a couple coins that were at the 5 inch range per the depth gauge of the F70. The F70 seemed to be more accurate on depth guesstimates on the wet salt than in land in my opinion. While nothing exciting was recovered, the few zinc cents and and qtrs were easily detected.
Before I left, I did a master reset on the F70 and tried the unit in its default GB setting of 90. (I did not check to see if it was 90 to confirm it, but that is the setting that it defaults to upon power up) I didnt want to chance having the unit try to GB to the wet salt, hence the reason for NOT confirming it was set to 90. Let assume it was though.
The unit was very chattery and had to reduce the sens to about 9-10. I had to increase the disc setting well into the foil range to stop the racket at this GB setting.
I dont have much more to report on this. My first impression is that I am VERY GLAD I still have my CZ6a. If I didnt, the F70 would be adequate if you just happen to be going to the beach and wanted to kill some time. If you seriously want to find goodies to bring home, well, I would not eagerly reach for the F70.
Bottom line is the F70 CAN balance to salt IF a gb of ZERO is true balance.
These were the results from Cocoa Beach FL, as someone mentioned in another post, your mileage will surely vary.
Tony
The inland areas I have detected had a GB value of approx 78ish. As I got onto the dry sand as far from the water as possible, maybe 400 ft or so, I performed the GB and the ground reading was 68.
I rechecked the GB value every so often on the way to the wet sand and noted the GB value dropping the closer I got.
I then got to the point where the F70 wouldnt GB in the disc mode. There were only two dashes on the display no matter where I had the sens set. I then went to the AutoTune mode and performed the GB procedure again and without delay, the reading was 31 and I was still not at the wet sand.
When I did get to the wet sand, instantly the display read 0 (zero) No need to bob the coil at all, in a blink of the eye it was already set as low as it was going to go. I was impressed.
Now came time to see how it reacted while on the wet salt near the waters edge. I had the sens set to 40 and only had Iron disc'd out. There was chatter that was easily corrected by lowering the sens to 20. If I swept parallel or perpendicular to the water, the F70 was pretty stable.
I switched to AutoTune mode and checked that out a while as well. With sens set to 30, I was able to sweep the sand at a good clip with an occasional groan of the low tone. Reducing the sens in the AT mode solved this too.
I dug a couple coins that were at the 5 inch range per the depth gauge of the F70. The F70 seemed to be more accurate on depth guesstimates on the wet salt than in land in my opinion. While nothing exciting was recovered, the few zinc cents and and qtrs were easily detected.
Before I left, I did a master reset on the F70 and tried the unit in its default GB setting of 90. (I did not check to see if it was 90 to confirm it, but that is the setting that it defaults to upon power up) I didnt want to chance having the unit try to GB to the wet salt, hence the reason for NOT confirming it was set to 90. Let assume it was though.
The unit was very chattery and had to reduce the sens to about 9-10. I had to increase the disc setting well into the foil range to stop the racket at this GB setting.
I dont have much more to report on this. My first impression is that I am VERY GLAD I still have my CZ6a. If I didnt, the F70 would be adequate if you just happen to be going to the beach and wanted to kill some time. If you seriously want to find goodies to bring home, well, I would not eagerly reach for the F70.
Bottom line is the F70 CAN balance to salt IF a gb of ZERO is true balance.
These were the results from Cocoa Beach FL, as someone mentioned in another post, your mileage will surely vary.
Tony
