need advice on my Whites Spectrum and my use of it.

[mical66]

Quick History , i bought this MD around 8 months ago and love it , but being new to MDing i am still very confused by the signals i am getting.
i have used it maybe a dozen times now and at the ball field it never fails to find coins.
but recently i was given permision to hunt a 1820 yard becasue they are renotating the house and the back yard is tore all up with buildign materials from ages past.
3 weeks ago my son and i dug a CW button from the front yard and 2 wheats as well as 5 or 6 old square nails all rusted so bad they were hard to tell if they were round or square.
now my delima is this , at the ball field when iget a signal it stays consistant and tells me the % and item every time . in the yards i have checked i am digging up pieces of roffing tin that i got a 78% dime every reading , nails tell me pennie dime avery hit , so iu get discouraged and go in the back yard and my MD starts chattering like a bird , the whole back yard never got a repeat lock , just a constant chatter and if i tried to pinpoint 1 chirp i couldnt.

so does this tell you the back yard is nothing but alot of garbage or do i need to change to a smaller coil or chaneg my setting ?

or am i doing it right and there is nothing in the back yard and keep lokking for strong signals that repeat every swing ?

 

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[CleenSweep]

Rather new to this myself, but I have a V3I and if I were getting results like ur describing, first I might try re ground balancing in a clean area around there...then manually if necc with a frequency change.....check for EMI etc...
Then I'd have to maybe drop the gain a bit or finally open up the expert menu again and notch out select items (like those nails u kept diggin...unless your relic hunting). But to keep it simple, I'd re balance and run it in high trash mode....maybe one of the Eclipse small coin shooter coils...I know a nice smaller SEF butterfly is sold on Kellyco that's V rated (our machines)....
Good luck and happy hunting

 

[Mzjavert]

If you don't have an operator's manual, download a copy. Try reducing the sensitivity in that back yard. Especially if you may have electrical interference. As far as not getting exact display readings...well that's just part of a display machine. Not everything fits in neatly to the categories. So the machine takes a best guess based on conductivity. That's why I generally prefer a beep and dig machine. That aside you do have a first rate machine. In fact I owned one. I didn't get rid of it because it was a bad machine, but because it wasn't the right machine for all day beach hunts that I was doing at that time.

One thing you will find is that every site, or type of site, tends to have it's own personality and things you'll have to learn about it. So you know the tin roof pieces will give a dime reading. Great that's one part of the site's personality you've unlocked. Not sure why the nails are coming up as cents. It may be part of of the crust they've developed in that soil. Nails always came up as nails on my unit. Also if you get one signal and dig up another item...you might have something else in the hole. Always recheck holes before refilling.

Right now do not worry about what's on the screen. Dig every repeatable signal. At a dozen or so hunts, you've got so much to learn. Now that it's sorta spring, get out every chance you can. Everyday if possible...even if it's for 15 minutes before or after work. Listen to the signals as much or more than what the display tells you. You will find the sound of a target will tell you tons about it. You will get to the point where between the screen and sound you'll know if the display if right, wrong, or you have multiple targets. In fact you'll probably be able to tell between those tin roof pieces and a silver dime at some point in the near future.

Keep at it, have fun, and read that operator's manual (or read it again).

 

[63bkpkr]

As has already been suggested you can download a copy of the manual for your machine from the White's Electronic's site, look for user manuals. Next, from the White's blog 'd ole sly fox' has posted his programs for the machine using the stock 950 coil and these may be of use to you. In really trashy area's you will need a smaller coil either a concentric or a DD. In an area of some piece of ground you've detected and it does not have any targets left in it put down some known targets spaced apart by over 3'. Swing your coil over the targets to see what kind of reading you get with a clean target. How did your machine react with a clean target? Nice solid hits or noisy If noisy I would recommend sending the machine and coil('s) in to White's for a looks see. If nice clean target signals were received then the machine and cable from the coil to the detector box are ok.

Next with each clean target add a piece of junk to it: small/medium/large nail, aluminum foil, pull tab and other junk targets you've found from the "OLD" yard you want to detect. Now wave your detector over the composite targets and see what the machine does. These evaluation tests should help you to identify what is happening with your machine and will give you some idea of how to interpret what the machine is telling you. Heavy junk areas are really tough to detect, small coils help but heavy junk is just that a lot of trash in the way of good signals. Digging it all up is the only way to really clear out the junk to get to the good targets.

Hope this helps a little..............63bkpkr

 

[mical66]

thanks for the input guys, I know this is a top quality machine and i am very happy with it , i know it is my lack of experience that is the issue. the member i bought it off of threw in a extra coil and the owners manual , but honestly i have been afraid to mess with any settings due to i may make them worse . TNGUNS did me a hell of a deal on this unit and even showed me and my son how to use it for a couple hours , but i see this is something i am going to just have to over come with experience .

 

[Frankn]

I think it's time to explane the facts of metal detector life! Your detector really doesn't know what is down there! Whites calibrates the readings using coin responses as does every other detector with a display. A coin is made of a certain material and is a certain size. That amount of a certain material gives a return signal strength which the program is calibrated to display as that coin. The other indicators such as iron or aluminum are calibrated on a certain size piece of that material. So, what you are looking at is a programed guess as to what the target is. Things like rust and close proximity of targets change the game. No detector is going to give a reliable reading when picking up two targets or rust in the ground. When it gets as bad as you described, it is a beep and dig situation. I use an XLT also and have only found this to happen on two dump sites that I worked. Some times you just have to pay the dues! Frank...