Weird fluctuation in power line interference. Any lineman in here?

[tigerbeetle]

I'm 1,000 percent into my new F75 Fisher. It's insanely good at ferreting out good readings among ferrous material. However, it is highly sensitive to electrical power wires. And that got kinda weird yesterday when I returned to a hot site I had successfully worked a few days earlier, near a busy road. This time, when I turned on my machine, it went gonzo. It was so chattery and jumpy the numbers on the screen where going crazy. I even unplugged the loop. The racket continued. It was totally unusable. As noted, only days before I experienced only a bare minimum of power line interference there.

I assumed the worst: My F75 had turned against me. I was heading to this forum to see where I should send it for repairs.

It was on a fluke that I first headed into some nearby woods to try bottle digging. There, just for the hell of it, I tried the F75. It worked like a charm. I wasn't real far from the first site so I worked my way back, while swinging the machine. Sure enough, the closer I got, the crazier the detector became, quickly reaching unusableness.

Anyone conversant on power line energy fluctuations? Can the same power lines emit (greatly) varying amounts of electromagnetic energy at different times of the day/week/month? That's kinda important to know with so many finer detectors being so highly sensitive to electronic interference.

 

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[RobRieman]

I work for the power company and the load can change drastically during the day depending on demand. It's very high during extreme hot and cold weather as well because the demand for heating and cooling is high. Also an area with industry will draw much more current on the lines.

 

[etechdigger]

Hi tigerbeetle what RobRieman said is correct. I myself also use an F75 and have had the same problem that you describe. I have found that shifting the frequency that you are operating your detector at helps solve this problem. Its simple to do and instructions for this are in your users manual. It also helps to lower your sensitivity. Hope this helps.

David in TN.