Sudden bad wavering syndrome. What is this?

[fueller]

Something happened today that I've seen before a few times but never this bad. I had been detecting for several hours, everything was about normal as far as signals go, when almost at once I started getting an almost continuous strong wavering. Sometimes I find this near strong power sources or around saturated, drying ground and can usually get rid of with a combination of ground balancing and lowering the sensitivity a bit but this time I could only stop it by turning the sensitivity waaaay down, so much that I could only hit surface signals and even then they were hard to pick out. I tried all the combinations of settings I could and nothing worked. I quit for the day (after trying another spot across town with the same results) but I'm curious if this happens to any of you? It rained pretty good recently, I wonder if the ground saturation/power line/atmospheric dust/sun spot/ufo/aurora levels all were just right to create this kind of interference or if it's something else at work. I don't think (cross fingers) it's a detector problem, although I suppose I can't rule that out. I'll try again tomorrow evening and hopefully the problem will be gone. Oh, using a Minelab Musketter if anyone is curious.

 

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[Chiz]

I'd go with the UFO theory! LOL....

Seriously.... depending on the time of day and location, power companies sometimes bury their auxillary power cables. if it is a high demand time, they might kick in, thus creating a power field that you don't know is there. Also, if you use your detector constantly, they are just like a radio. Give it a break for a while and let everything cool down. My MXT does that at the beach sometimes when I have it set really sensative and get too deep in the water.

Chiz
8)

if all else fails, stick to the alien story!!!!

 

[Fred]

Have you ever heard of "tingle voltage". It is a real phenomone(sp) and could be the problem. It would also go hand in hand with the buried cable idea that Chiz puts forth. Fred

 

[fueller]

Problem solved

Thanks for the input. I tried again today and it was 0% better, so I knew I had some kind of detector problem. After playing around with the different connections, I found I could clear up the problem by pushing the coil cord in by hand where it connects with the detector unit. So, I took the cord end apart and sure enough one of the wires had worked loose from the solder. Not wanting to wait for a warranty repair, I carefully re-connected the wire with a soldering gun and put everything back together. So far it is holding. I'll have to be more careful in the future, hopefully it will not happen again.

 

[wayne]

fueller = sometimes it happens if there is another metal detector too nearby - sometimes when the other detectorist is 30 or 40 feet away. if they are any closer than that i have to shut my detector down. wayne

 

[coinshooter]

I get that around crop circles. My detector starts to go haywire, until I put on my foil hat! lol

 

[Chiz]

SEE SEE !!!!!! Aliens I tell you!!!! LOL

Well..... you fixed it, now show us some finds!!! Good luck!

Chiz
8)