Your help, patience and understanding requested please

[Tenn-Coinhunter]

I have been using my Etrac now for a year and I just do not understand all of this pattern and discrimination program stuff everyone talks about. I have the book by Andy S. and I have downloaded all the patterns and things and plugged them into my machine but that is as far as I can figure out what to do. I try to choose a program and a pattern but I never can figure out if it is loaded or not. Half the time I might find a coin or two and then another time same place I will find several. Is there some way to know exactly which pattern and program you have loaded? I get so frustrated I usually just go and try to load the factory default program just so I can find something at least. Can you give each program and pattern a name or fix it so when you select one program the pattern is automatically loaded and then is there a way for the machine to show you by name what you have loaded? I have used a Whites machine for ever and I really really really want to learn the Etrac but right now it is plain kicking my butt. Can someone provide pointers please?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[beerguy]

I get to say "Get the Sabisch book" first! Haha!

 

[RobRieman]

I get to say "Get the Sabisch book" first! Haha!

He said he already had it in the second sentence [emoji4]

 

[RobRieman]

I have been using my Etrac now for a year and I just do not understand all of this pattern and discrimination program stuff everyone talks about. I have the book by Andy S. and I have downloaded all the patterns and things and plugged them into my machine but that is as far as I can figure out what to do. I try to choose a program and a pattern but I never can figure out if it is loaded or not. Half the time I might find a coin or two and then another time same place I will find several. Is there some way to know exactly which pattern and program you have loaded? I get so frustrated I usually just go and try to load the factory default program just so I can find something at least. Can you give each program and pattern a name or fix it so when you select one program the pattern is automatically loaded and then is there a way for the machine to show you by name what you have loaded? I have used a Whites machine for ever and I really really really want to learn the Etrac but right now it is plain kicking my butt. Can someone provide pointers please?

Unfortunately you can't name the program you have stored you have to remember where you stored it. I agree it's pretty lame for today's technology.

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

Is there anyone nearby that could do a hands on with you?

I don't know the eTrac controls, but suspect it is similar enough to the CTX that I might be able to help a bit. I am also in east TN. Which town are you in/near? PM me if you don't want to post that info publically.
(btw, if you are near Johnson City, Andy Sabish has a store near the mall. he or Charlene would be the ideal way to get some pointers. there is also what sounds like a good club centered around JC.)

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

You can store the program as one of your "My Modes", you just have to remember your program is "Mode 1" as example

 

[Tenn-Coinhunter]

So in Minelab speak a program is a "Mode." So a pattern is also a program/mode/discrimination and you have to select one of them also unless you just want to use the best guess method. So what happens when one selects a preset Minelab program? Does it automatically select a defaul discrimination pattern or are you supposed to choose one of them also? And if you do how do you know what to select? Also what is this thing in Andy's book where you create some kind of main discrimination pattern?

 

[cudamark]

Yes, you have a choice between the minelab programs and your own custom ones. Like TH said, you just have to remember which program is #1, #2, #3, etc. Unless it's a real junky area, I personally use a modified open screen (like quickmask), and go by sound, numbers, and depth. I kill a few numbers that are always false signals or junk, but, otherwise, all numbers including iron. I have it in 2 tone ferrous to weed out the iron sounds, but, I still like to hear them before disregarding. Real iron infested or junky sites, I use the Andy Sabisch coin pattern that I've slightly modified. You can kind of tell which pattern you have loaded (without going through the menus) by looking at the screen. You can see the blacked out areas on the display.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

You should consider buying Andy Sabish ETrac book "The Explorer and ETrac Handbook", it will help you a lot...

Sabisch Books - Minelab

 

[Tenn-Coinhunter]

I Have the book and I have read it cover to cover more than once or twice. I keep getting confused with all the different terminology used.. Guess I have just been a Whites man for so long I can't make my brain decipher what the book is telling me. I guess after dying twice and being brought back both times, being put to sleep more times than I have fingers for surgery, and being thrown through a windshield as a child, not to mention all the pounding from football this old brain is due for a memory upgrade. LOL Let me ask a different type question. In watching hunting videos of folks using Etracs and after reading Andy S's book he talks about the ferrous and non ferrous line for coins and how they always seem to fall on the 12 line and coins of course fall determined by their size, shape, angle of burial, composition etc. I interpreted that to mean a coin will always be a 12........something etc etc. Yet in videos I see folks saying and then digging up coins that the 12 line isn't always 12. It bounces all over while the coin reading may only change 2 or 3 digits. I have skipped digging many many signals because of this. Should I dig everything that gives me a reading on the non ferrous side that indicates a coin or gold etc? If so I have really been passing up some potential goodies.

You should consider buying Andy Sabish ETrac book "The Explorer and ETrac Handbook", it will help you a lot...

Sabisch Books - Minelab

 

[RobRieman]

I Have the book and I have read it cover to cover more than once or twice. I keep getting confused with all the different terminology used.. Guess I have just been a Whites man for so long I can't make my brain decipher what the book is telling me. I guess after dying twice and being brought back both times, being put to sleep more times than I have fingers for surgery, and being thrown through a windshield as a child, not to mention all the pounding from football this old brain is due for a memory upgrade. LOL Let me ask a different type question. In watching hunting videos of folks using Etracs and after reading Andy S's book he talks about the ferrous and non ferrous line for coins and how they always seem to fall on the 12 line and coins of course fall determined by their size, shape, angle of burial, composition etc. I interpreted that to mean a coin will always be a 12........something etc etc. Yet in videos I see folks saying and then digging up coins that the 12 line isn't always 12. It bounces all over while the coin reading may only change 2 or 3 digits. I have skipped digging many many signals because of this. Should I dig everything that gives me a reading on the non ferrous side that indicates a coin or gold etc? If so I have really been passing up some potential goodies.

Try hunting in TTF for a while TC. That's two tone ferrous, it will ease you into multi tone if you ever decide to go that route. The 12 line is generally where coins will ring up but as always there are many factors that can change that like mineralization , depth , angle of coin , etc. Coins will usually only go a couple numbers under or a couple numbers over 12 except for big silver and that's a whole other beast. TTF makes it very easy to pick out good targets while swinging because you will not get the high tone on iron objects. I actually prefer to hunt in TTF with a wide open screen. I have never found anything I consider good over about 24. Rings will drop down to 6 or 7 some times. I don't dig iron unless I'm in an area that has some old history, and even then I personally don't like to keep the rusted iron but the items can help you date a site. Don't give up! You will get it, just start slow.

 

[Fourman110]

I may be wrong but I think the pattern is just the picture you see on the screen showing what's been descriminated out. If there's a black pixel in that pattern, the sound is suppressed. Technically that's not an accurate way of describing it but I think it gets my head to understand it.

The mode is the pattern plus settings like tones, ferrous vs conductive, etc. The mode controls more. Personally I use the modes a lot more than just the pattern settings. I primarily use two modes: one multi-tone with the AndyS coin program, the other Two Tone Ferrous with a pretty open screen.

I often use my coins mode then hit the "quick mask button" if I get a tone that kind of sounds good. More than once I've found another ferrous object that was half making the coin. The quick mask on my machine opens the screen completely allowing me to hear both ferrous and the potential coin.

Coins and "good stuff" like silver necklaces can have a ferrous number well above or below the 12 value depending on a variety of things. I've only now started to listen more to the sounds than look at the numbers but I still cross reference the numbers. I don't dig anything over a 22 ferrous unless I'm relic hunting on an old uncontaminated site.

 

[cudamark]

The 12 line is what was found to be a common trait on good targets when they were tested under lab conditions. Out in the real world, it's a different story. The numbers (both ferrous and non) can be all over the place depending on how corroded the target is, the ground mineralization, moisture, target angle, etc. In your typical urban park/school, ignore the common junk targets and dig everything else. At the beach, dig everything that isn't a drop dead iron target. Forget the actual numbers, unless you like to do what I do and try to guess what the target will be before I recover it!

 

[jimzz977]

I just got a etrac after upgrading from a T2 it's been hard learning it but have a friend who's been teaching me a few pointers and so far I've been using minelab coin mode just to use to sounds and numbers . I dig up all targets and see wg as y foil, pulltabs and other junk targets. I been lucky so far and found gold and silver with it

 

[MrMikeJackie]

This is big problem I see many new etrac/ctx/deus users making when they first get their machines. They assume(not nec you TC) that these downloadable programs are what is going to find them the goods. Seems to me that you are not familiar with the machine as yet, but already downloading programs. Trust me, use the stock program/modes on the etrac and learn the machine first. After a while you will create you're own programs to fit your hunting style, ground, area, etc. I have used many programs on my CTX only to find they don't work for me. Good luck and read the manual over and over.

 

[Tenn-Coinhunter]

hey folks, I have been using my machine and reading Andy's book again using it to reference every step, description, and setting page by page. . A bunch of you have been posting suggestions and trying to help me understand what I am seeing on the screen and helping me interpret it. Earlier i had asked about how to tell which mode I was in and I have now learned how to do this. I have also figured out how to determine which discrimination pattern I am using. I created me a cheat sheet on an index card and laminated it. Now I have a new question. I am up to the point where Andy discusses the combine feature in discrimination. I understand it can be used to combine 2 different patterns when you find you need to discriminate an added object you have a pattern for. My question is has anyone ever tried to combine a specific mode say Andy's deep silver one with a specific discrimination pattern using the combine feature. Seems like that would be a super easy method of creating a hybrid program. This may be a stupid question because I am thinking that this is done for you in the Minelab software program. Any way your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Scrappy]

I would try a different approach. Forget everything you read since its not working for you. I read nothing and did the following; Dig everything and memorize all the signals. "F"orget about discrimination and the rest, run wide open, and adjust your tones. Perhaps this is no help at all, but I know an excellent hunter anda personal bud by the name of "Cjon". He can perhaps help you with the etrac. Give him a PM.

good luck!