joeyrsmith said:
Hi guys,
Back to the sport again with a nice used XLT.
... back to it after 6yrs off. Relearning a lot. XLT is a new machine for me. Past include Whites and Fisher.
Welcome back to a really great outdoor sport, and especially welcome to the XLT. I am a loyal White's XLT fan, and it time you'll learn it, but it will take some time.
joeyrsmith said:
I live in the FL Keys. Alot of beach down here.
Yes, a LOT of beach, and I'd guess that most of the time you'll hunt it the sand will be dry, but there will be some learning when you hit the wet sand or pools of salty beach water.
joeyrsmith said:
Anyway, been using it for the past 3 weeks. Been getting alot of static on the wet sand.
I consider "static" to be an outside source such as EMI from a nearby electrical power source. Once you transition form the dry sand to the wet sand the noise or chatter you're getting isn't really 'static' as much as it is one or more of the following:
A.. Too much Sensitivity (AC) or too much Pre-Amp Gain.
B.. Improper Ground Balance, and this is really a key to the issue because the wet salts are actually very low conductive and not an iron mineralized type body.
C.. Discrimination level because wet salts are
low conductive, somewhat similar to small foil but spread out over an area.
The key to working the salt wet portion of beaches requires that you have enough Ground Balance to deal with the iron mineralization (no problem in Florida like here in NW Oregon), use just enough Discrimination to reject the low-conductive wet salts, and reducing the AC Sensitivity of the XLT so that it won't be noisy. With the XLT this can call for a little more 'time consumption' in order to make all the needed adjustments using the touch-pad controlled adjustment functions.
I used to hunt our beaches more often, when I was healthier, and I do quite well in both the dry sand as well as wet sand using a modified Classic III SL, modified IDX Pro, 5900 Di Pro SL and the XL Pro and XLT. The Classic's were easy because they have manual control of the Discrimination, Threshold and Ground Balance (they were modified), the 5900 Di Pro SL was a close 2nd because it, too, has manual controls. The I could handle the XL Pro better than the XLT. I haven't been to the beach for quite a while with an XLT but maybe I'll make a trip in the next few weeks and see what my tinkering can do.
joeyrsmith said:
Started using the beach/jewelry program, and have used the beach programs from JB's site for XLT. Dry sand its OK. Wet is killing me. I guess you call it falsing, ... Any Ideas please?
JB's website can be helpful, but I will caution you of two things:
1.. The listed information is older, quite old, and I know my personal Custom Programs have changed since he listed mine there.
2.. There are some helpful programs, for some people, but I have seen a lot of really messed-up programs and information that can result in really poor performance.
Make sure you know the XLT well, and continue to learn and master it. Matter of fact, I have been asked to discuss the XLT and our September detecting group meeting on the 10th, and I'll do that and share how some of the XLT adjustments relate to features on some other models, from White's and the competition. I'll also hand out my three Custom Programs as I explain why I DO
NOT use many adjustable functions on the XLT. It was way over-featured and a simpler XLT would have been a great addition. Fewer adjustments = Easier set-up. Fewer Adjustments = Less chance of screwing up the potential performance.
Work mainly with the Discrimination and Ground balance to get the salt water barely rejected and achieve a functional GB. Also, make sure you sweep the search coil about 1
But I have had great luck in the dry sand hunts, and did very well with single frequency detectors