What to Call This?

[Cody]

Back in the late sixties and early seventies we had some very good debates over TR and IB detectors. Those discussions and debates are always part of the transition and learning process as technologies advance. They are good and constructive! Anyhow a purist would argue that a TR was a two box detector. One box had the transmitter and the other had the receiver. An IB was a detector that had two coils in the same search head that was inductively balanced such as our standard hand held detector we now refer to as VLF.

We also had the BFO, Beat Frequency Oscillator, detectors and PI, Pulse Inductance, machines. We add to the mix TD (Time Domain) FD (Frequency Domain) or also called (Fourier Domain) SF (Single Frequency), CW (Continuous Wave), MF (Multiple Frequency) and on we go. We have Concentric Coils, Double D Coils, Mono Coils, and on we go.

My guess is most people could care less just as my wife has no interest in how the washing machine works as long as it does. It is when it does not work that I hear about it. Now do we call the place where we keep our soda and or beer a refrigerator, ice box, or cooler? Our stove went bad after over thirty years and I had to replace it with a range.

We are indeed fortunate to live in America where we can have access to the great technologies that change so fast our computer is outdated before we get out of the store. Ha

Well my wife just brought me back to reality by telling me to take the trash out.

Have a great day

 

[Ralph Bryant]

I wouldn't be surprised to see all of this eventually evolve into machines using most of these technologies, or components of them, all in a single machine. That seems to be the direction some are going.

 

[Cody]

With the discussion going on I was thinking about this and wanting to throw several of the detector in a bag and come out with the best of all the features. I am really going to get excited when they come out with an Explorer that does not require motion for discrimination and will give a true indication of target shape. From the posts it is going to take a while to get away from the older ideas of what each detector is. You really nailed it with hybrid detector. I once had a Whites' TR that also had a BFO in the same box. I wish I had kept it for that reason even if it was a strange machine. There was a time when some manufactures thought every machine had to double for prospecting so they pushed the mineral mode of operation. Turn the tuning knob in one direction for metal and in the other for minerals. It took some time for them to get away from the fact that most guys that used the original detectors were prospectors.

I see Minleab as being in the front with the novel uses of the technology. I have read the patents for years and he is surly one of the greats. George Payne is another that was years ahead with the first VLF on the market for hobby use. I think they had them in the military years before they were marketed for hobby but not sure on this.

 

[Ralph Bryant]

You know my affinity for the Nautilus DMC-IIb, one of the true "functional hybrids" in my mind in many ways, though it is more a matter of combined or simultaneous function of what others have tended to use as single functions, moreso than a combination of different newer technologies. The secondary TR mode also does much of what those old mineral/metal machines did. There really is alot of the old technology contained in the box of the IIb, but it continues to prove itself for what it was back then, as well as what it still can be today, and always one of my favorite "get serious" machines.

BFO......hummmmm? I think that is where alot of us started back in the 60s. Remember the little Jetco "Mustang" detectors ? Lots of memories with that little detector. I still get a kick out of looking through some of the old treasure rags and reading the field tests and advertisements bragging about the amazing 3 and 4 inch depths some of the "better" machines were accomplishing. haha

Ralph

 

[Cody]

My first machine was a Jetco and right off I found a half dollar and two buffalo nickles so was hooked. I did not need to dig the two nickels as I used my foot to push the soil around at the bottom of a slide. Then it was a tube type Whites, then a Coinmaster4, then 66TR and then so many I long ago lost count.