E-Trac EMI channels

[Jason in Enid]

OK, I have been wondering about this since I first got my E-Trac. Every time I set the EMI reduction it almost always selects channel 6 or 9. Exactly how do these channels work? Does any channel have an advantage of the others for silver? What channel does your machine pick most often?

Anybody have any info?

[coinnut]

EMI reduction, the million dollar question. I have always wondered that myself. On mine, it seems to go random. Sometimes I'll hit it two times in a row, without moving and it will select two different channels. But I like channel 3 the best. Recently I haven't even been noise canceling. Some swear by it and state that it looses depth without canceling, but I don't know.

[Jason in Enid]

One of the great thigns about the E-Trac is that it can be a turn on and go detector. I can turn my machine off, then back on, and it retains the last settings. It would only make sense that it is holding the last EMI channel setting also.

Set it on a hunt. Look at the setting in the menu (it is user adjustable after all) then turn off the machine. Turn it back on. Is it still at the same channel?

[coinnut]

Yes, I would imagine it would retain the last settings including the Noise Cancel channel. But mine changes the channel almost every time I noise cancel, even if it's two or three times in a row, without moving. I think these channels are sometimes so close that it doesn't matter which channel it picks up provided that they are close to what interference it senses. Now I'm only assuming this, but having an incorrect noice cancel channel should only make the machine unstable and act more erratic and probably has nothing to do with depth?? I always assumed depth was proportional to signal strength in, then responce singal strength received back and (decay) time analysed. So this is why I haven't noise cancelled for a while now. Anyone else have any ideas on channel selection?

[angellionel]

I tend to manually select channel 9, but most of the time I'll stick with whatever the E-Trac selects for a given site. However, on several occasions I have performed the noise cancel at the same location while testing the setting, and the channel selection varied. I did not detect any difference in performance, though I could make out a subtle change in tone quality. I'm not so sure it has a major impact on depth though, if at all.