Hello from SW Washington

[flysar]

I ran into and had a great conversation with a fellow member, Skamaniac, and he suggested I join American Detectorist.

I bought a Garrett Ghostowner in 1972, I was 12, and I detected our old homestead and any where my bike or mom/dad would take me. I found the oldest and most unique items with that ghostowner; no discrimination, no screen or tones to talk me out of digging, and no pin-pointer (how did I manage). From 76-2013 I got away from the hobby and thinking back I may have missed my best days since silver was still circulating/lost and I was east of the Mississippi for 11 of those years.

After retiring from the military and making our last move (maybe) I unpacked the Ghostowner and the fever began again. After 14+ moves the Ghostowner still worked but I found a club 2 hours away and joined them for a weekend hunt. I quickly retired my Ghostowner for more modern equipment and since then have helped a couple people find their rings, recovered clad and a little silver and gold, and tons of tabs, foil, lead, etc. My recent interest is freshwater Hookah & SNUBA diving for coins and jewelry. I have a DC Hookah setup and have used it a couple times this summer; it's fun getting underwater again after my initial certification in 82'.

Happy Hunting & thank you for a great forum to learn and discuss our hobby.

[Skamaniac]

Welcome aboard! I think you'll like it here; it's a friendly place. I'm looking forward to getting in few hunts with you soon.

[Digger_O'Dell]

Welcome fringe Wisconsin, and welcome back to the hobby! Looking forward to seeing some great finds!
I was just wondering what equipment you upgraded to?

[flysar]

Welcome fringe Wisconsin, and welcome back to the hobby! Looking forward to seeing some great finds!
I was just wondering what equipment you upgraded to?

My go-to is the CTX 3030, 2nd choice Tesoro, very different machines for sure, but they handle my local soil conditions best. Iron discrim and stability on the Tesoro is top notch but it doesn't have the depth nor ID of my CTX.

I found out real quick that my rocky, ironized and highly mineralized soil was hard on detectors. I could move to one part of my yard with 6" of top soil and all machines ran stable and would reliably ID coins. But as soon as I moved to an area with less top soil most fell short, either to erratic in ID or so unstable I'd have trouble telling a coin from falsing, and dropping the sensitivity didn't improve much. I see you run a CTX so you'll have an idea of how bad my ground is; many times suggested sensitivity is 8-10 and I'm lucky to see 16. I can bump it up manually a little but not much.

Long answer to your question and thanks for the welcome.

[Digger_O'Dell]

..

[Digger_O'Dell]

I love the CTX-I just got it recently but have learned it pretty well rather quickly. Not as complicated as people make it out to be, but I guess it helped to have countless hours with my X-Terra.

I know about bad ground. I have some of that in my area as well-stones that stick to magnets and lots of nasty deep black sand at the beach. But I have learned recently how to tune the CTX for the extreme mineralization and have had great luck with it. Quite deep, and running around 23 on the auto sensitivity +3. Try doing a noise cancel with the coil on the ground (As opposed to being in the air like the manual says to do). You may have to do it 2 or 3 times to get the best results, but that will eliminate maybe 97% of the problem.

[aloldstuff]

Welcome from western MA and back to the hobby. Thank you for your service, what branch? Looking forward to seeing your finds.

[flysar]

Welcome from western MA and back to the hobby. Thank you for your service, what branch? Looking forward to seeing your finds.

Army - 9 years, Coast Guard - 17 years, I have very fond memories of both!

Thank you for the welcome

[flysar]

I know about bad ground. Try doing a noise cancel with the coil on the ground (As opposed to being in the air like the manual says to do). You may have to do it 2 or 3 times to get the best results, but that will eliminate maybe 97% of the problem.

I thought you need to pump the coil when using Manual GB, I guess not, I'll have to give it a shot. Thank you

[Digger_O'Dell]

I thought you need to pump the coil when using Manual GB, I guess not, I'll have to give it a shot. Thank you

GB and noise reduction are different (Pages 19 and 21 in your instruction book) -You should use auto GB, but only if needed, and that is usually only in the most difficult areas. Noise reduction is used to cancel out "chatter" or other interference by selecting which channel offset is quietest. The book says to use noise cancel with the coil in the air, but according to Andy Sabisch in his book, he suggests canceling with coil to ground to eliminate ground noise. I find this works really good!

[flysar]

GB and noise reduction are different (Pages 19 and 21 in your instruction book) -You should use auto GB, but only if needed, and that is usually only in the most difficult areas. Noise reduction is used to cancel out "chatter" or other interference by selecting which channel offset is quietest. The book says to use noise cancel with the coil in the air, but according to Andy Sabisch in his book, he suggests canceling with coil to ground to eliminate ground noise. I find this works really good!

I read, or thought I read, Ground Balance not Noise Cancel thank you for clearing that up.

I suppose I better look into picking up Andy's book. From other books I've read (not Andy's) they seem to cater to normal/mild conditions and rarely highlight the extremes that I'm encountering.

[del]

Hello and welcome to the forum flysar shallow diving with the hookah system sounds very interesting and I heard of some "old-times" doing it around here years ago and were very productive . I wish you the best and hope to see some pictures of your set up and adventures doing it . Happy detecting !

Dan

[Fire Fighter 43]

Thank you for your service, I wish you all the best in your retirement. Also, welcome back to the hobby and to the forum from SE Wisconsin.