Constant Beep Beep Beeping! Mineralization? Frequncy Pollution? Alien Transmission?

[ROIGuy]

Hello Minelabbers!

I was detecting a residential permission the other day in a residential neighborhood (with no large antennae, cell phone towers, nor huge power lines around).
EDITED to add: I left my cell phone in my car over at the neighbor's yard, which was a good 50-60 feet away from where I was detecting. I looked around to see if I could find any other sources of radio wave contamination either but found none.

I went through the normal process of ground balancing (leaving it with tracking on) and leaving the discrimination setting on default.

I then proceeded to detect for about an hour but had a hard time determining which signals were REAL SIGNALS because of a constant beep beep bbeeeep Beep BEEEP beePing in my ears. Until now I hadn't experienced a site with such a problem. I can only imagine it had something to do with some unseen force which was interfering with the normal operation of my Equinox 600. I went thru the process several times in different areas of the yard, where I re-ground balanced the machine...to no avail.

I gave up after about an hour and a half and walked back to my car which was parked on his neighbor's driveway. I figured I'd give it a try in that neighbor's yard just to be sure and there I had NO INTERFERENCE NOISE!

Any ideas what it could be? Mineralized ground? Some sort of radio wave contamination? Other ideas?

Note: the 2 homes are only about 50 feet apart from one another. They BOTH back up to a creek which is currently dry above land.

The home owner is a huge fan of history and was really excited to see what we'd find under his ground but the few targets I was able to discern from the constant noise were only junk.

If you've had this same problem and sort of figured out what it was, please let me (and others) know on this thread. Thanks in advance.

 

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[digger27]

WiFi will do it, other things too.
Just because you can't see a cause doesn't mean one isn't there.

When this happens to me I just turn down the sense as low as I need to quiet it down and go merrily along but you don't mention if you tried this.
Even on really low sense numbers the thing still goes deep enough to find most deeper targets I have come across which usually are 6-7" or less in depth.

 

[ROIGuy]

one thing I DID NOTICE upon digging in this yard was a lot of gravel underneath the lawn in a quite large area of this yard.
Could that be the problem?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Nearby "invisible" dog fence?

 

[ROIGuy]

WiFi will do it, other things too.
Just because you can't see a cause doesn't mean one is there.

When this happens to me I just turn down the sense and go merrily along but you don't mention if you tried this.
Even on really low sense numbers the thing still goes deep enough to find most targets I have come across which usually are 6-7" or less in depth.

Sorry about not mentioning doing that. I did lower the sensitivity a few times, but the interference was so strong that the bbeepebeepppbeeeeeEEEEEPing only went away when I lowered it almost to nothing. Targets were very hard to sense at that level.
Caveat: Again.. I'm a beginner. I've only been doing this for a month or two but this was a tough yard. I had no problem at all on his neighbor's yard.
Next time I go to this permission, I'll ask if they can unplug their WIFI in the house and see if that helps. I hope so.
Thanks for your comment.

 

[ROIGuy]

Nearby "invisible" dog fence?

Hmmm... Good question!! I don't know, but I'll check on that one too!!

 

[Bayoutalker]

On thing I didn't see was Noise Cancel. Did you try that? Another thing to try is different frequencies. One of those should help.

 

[wingmaster]

If it's an invisible dog fense you'll have to see if they can unplug it while you detect or it will really limit how deep of targets you will find. HH

 

[Clad2Silver]

I don't use a NOX but one time last year with my AT Pro I had the same problem that you describe and after trying every trick in the book to eliminate the problem I just gave up and moved on. No other site has ever given the Pro a problem so it just makes me wonder what the interference was caused by.

 

[djqix]

I've only encountered it 2x now. Once from an underground dog fence, and the 2nd time from an electric fence 50-60 yards away. I will pick noise from power lines as well, but those you can see in my area since they don't put them underground here. I did notice I get a LOT more noise on my Makro if I switch to 19kHz vs 14 or 5 kHz.

 

[usmcscorpio]

Hello! Helps if you can post which Program as well as Settings that you are using....lot's of folks here can assist you with Programs/Adjustments to those Settings. HH

 

[ROIGuy]

On thing I didn't see was Noise Cancel. Did you try that? Another thing to try is different frequencies. One of those should help.

Sorry Bayoutalker but yes I did that. Its the first thing I do after turning on the Nox 600 and selecting Mode (Park, Field or Beach).

 

[ROIGuy]

Hello! Helps if you can post which Program as well as Settings that you are using....lot's of folks here can assist you with Programs/Adjustments to those Settings. HH

Nox 600
I was on Park 1:

• Noise Canceled
• Ground balanced
• Default Discrimination
• Recovery Speed 1 (deepest on the 600)

 

[cudamark]

I assume you were in multi-frequency? If so, you might try the individual frequencies to see if one might be a better choice. On the 800 you can choose the 20mhz or 40mhz which usually will help if it's EMI causing the problem. With your 600, you'll be limited to the lower 3 frequencies. I also assume that these are non-repeating signals......as in, they're not actual targets, but, random signals......correct?

 

[Tpmetal]

sounds like a dog fence or electric cattle fence like mentioned previously

 

[ROIGuy]

Thanks cudamark. I'll see if I can choose frequencies with my 600. Not sure and I've really been using it in mostly default modes. Thanks for your suggestion and yes... they're not actual targets but the gosh darn noise drowned out all of the real targets. Only once in a while, I'd get some strong signal near the surface BONGING thru (like aluminum) but all the good stuff remained hidden.

I assume you were in multi-frequency? If so, you might try the individual frequencies to see if one might be a better choice. On the 800 you can choose the 20mhz or 40mhz which usually will help if it's EMI causing the problem. With your 600, you'll be limited to the lower 3 frequencies. I also assume that these are non-repeating signals......as in, they're not actual targets, but, random signals......correct?

 

[smokeythecat]

Sometimes even your cell phone may be the culprit. If you carry it, try turning it off. One of the guys I dig with has a 800 and simply cannot go near the underground lines due to EMI, but I can!

 

[ROIGuy]

Sometimes even your cell phone may be the culprit. If you carry it, try turning it off. One of the guys I dig with has a 800 and simply cannot go near the underground lines due to EMI, but I can!

Yep. thanks smokey.. This time I left it in the car. I'll try again this weekend and do just one frequency instead of multifrequency. I'll try all 3 one by one and see if that helps. i think it may help reduce or eliminate the problem

 

[Iron Buzz]

I suspect that some types of burglar alarms may cause EMI as well. Ask about that when you ask about dog fence etc.

 

[ROIGuy]

I suspect that some types of burglar alarms may cause EMI as well. Ask about that when you ask about dog fence etc.

I'll have to be cautious about how I ask that... "You don't have to have a burglar alarm do you?"


I asked about the dog fence and they have none... he does have WIFI but we'll see if we can turn it off when I go next time. I'm going to try one of the 3 frequencies at a time to see if that clears up the insane beeping.