Aquascan MC-5

[diverdown]

anybody use the Aquascan MC-5, I know there are out of production but have contacted Aquascan UK to see if they have some units for sale still. thanks diverdown.

 

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[ScubaFinder]

We have several, and use them fairly regularly. Depending on what you are trying to do, they are a great little machine. If you are looking for a pile of cannon, the MC-5 will show it to you. I prefer the Geometrics 882 (don't we all) for looking for smaller stuff and debris trails.

Jason

 

[Dinkydick]

All I hear is 822's and 821's can do it but, I don't see anyone working at recovering
anything.

A magnetic anomaly is a magnetic anomaly.

Granted that with the MC5 or the AX2000 you have to be a little closer they still
work. However, these units only readout to 0.1 nanotesla which was sufficient in the past, and still is.


Take a look at all the lease sites and tell me which ones were searched with a
proton mag and which with a cesium mag. I don't think you will find any NEW
locations that have been found with a cesium over the past years. How come?

Any mag search pattern has to be laid out to suit the conditions of the search
area. With the Aquascan's you just space your search lines a little closer. The
secret is in the post processing software. Here the numbers are manipulated to
indicate patterns such as dipoles and pipes. It's all up to WHO interprets the
overall results and what is the next plan of attack. I always recommend that a
more intense secondary mag search be done in the areas detected while conducting the primary search.

It's a lot cheaper to conduct a thorough mag search than dig holes in the bottom of the ocean only to find a lost rusty bobby pin (AKA debris trail).

I have yet to see anyone sporting a Geometrics 822 on their shoulder with money
bulging out of their pockets. Maybe it would be more like a mortgage paper for their
home to pay for the Geometrics.

I await your flames. Bring it on, I got mine you got yours?

Dinkydick

 

[ScubaDude]

Dick a lot of the groups that use the 882's probably and simply just don't boast of their finds on Tnet. Think about it, if your out surveying for the location of a new wreck site do you really want to advertise that fact here? Especially if your search is in an area that doesn't require permits.

There are some other huge differences in the equipment, with the cesium mags your getting 10 Hz sample rates (10 readings each second), vs. 1 to .25 Hz for protons, and they are far more sensitive. The biggest difference like you mentioned is in the software, not only does it help with a visual interpretation of the results, but it also aids in laying out the grids and following them. I've said it before though, a mag is not a plug and play tool. It takes time and experience to understand what the data is telling you and why. There is an art in itself to running a good survey and getting the best data possible. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. If your trying to locate the main pile of a site it's one thing, but trying to find or follow a tiny scatter pattern is another.

The other thing your paying for by getting a good unit is training, service, and support. If AquaScan quit making the things, that ought to tell you something. Who's gonna fix it when it breaks?

There are also other options for getting a good survey without being the one to buy all the equipment, boats, etc., like renting it or paying to have it done. At somepoint trying to micromanage a salvage operation and doing everything in house on a small scale does not make economic or common sense.

 

[signumops]

I whole-heartedly agree with DinkyDick, and I have an MC-5 that I have used with great success. Mine has some extra stuff like the GPS interface, and, I use it with a data logger that I wrote in Visual Basic. I tow mine suspended under a foam noodle to avoid damage to the old fish and signal cable. I have used it successfully out to about 30 feet of seawater. Never towed it in deeper water.

You MUST have the correct tuning module for your area in the machine, or, you have to have the one already in place re-tuned for your area. If you use the logging interface (serial port) and the GPS interface, setup can be a little tricky, but, aside from that, the thing works pretty well until you get into magnetic sands.

The logger and GPS interface works well with the 2 second burst mode, so I tow REAL slow for good coverage (less than a very brisk walking speed). Also, in my area I have to travel parallel to the Florida eastern shoreline which is not true North to South, nor East to West as would be more desirable. Still you can get predictable results, and you can test it on land before you go to sea.

 

[mad4wrecks]

Listen here Scubadude, when I was a young whippersnapper, way back in the early 1990's, we found many an old wreck using "Arto",
Art Hartman's proton mag. (which he may have gotten from Faye Field, which Michaelangelo designed the circuit board for...that's how ancient it was)

We found galleons galore, without any fancy schmantzy software...just endless days and weeks of mowing the lawn, waiting for that needle to start scratchin the paper, then.......MAG HIT- THROW THE BUOY!!!!!!. Then we had to dig down thru 16 feet of sand with our bare hands to bring up the booty.

We got sunburned and skin cancer, went bankrupt and delirious, drank like fishes, got divorced and aliented our children AND THATS THE WAY IT WAS AND WE LIKED IT!

Tom

 

[Darren in NC]

...we found many an old wreck using "Arto", Art Hartman's proton mag. (which he may have gotten from Faye Field, which Michaelangelo designed the circuit board for...that's how ancient it was)

Not Fay - unless he worked later for GeoMetrics. Look at their name at the top of the control unit.

 

[Salvor6]

Hey Scubadude, what did Odyssey use to find the "Black Swan?" A Geometrics 883?

 

[Dinkydick]

Sounds like we need a proton versus cesium mag shootout.

A thought just came to me. The next time we conduct a mag survey I would
like for you to run your Geometrics 821/822 over the search area. I will resurvey
the same search area but limit my search lanes to the overlap areas between your lanes. Then we can see what we can expect in future surveys. And just to add
some additional problems let's conduct the search lanes on the bias such as
Southwest and Northeast or Northwest and Southeast. Doing a search going due
East/West or North/South is too easy.

I will admit that the Geometrics has got the MC5 beat in deep water searches.
However, Aquascan says that my toroid sensor will go to 100 feet. I would have to
lengthen the tow cable to operate at this depth. Not much of a problem.

FWIW Aquascan will still repair my MC5 as I was told a few weeks past.

Thanks Tom. I also own an AN/SQS-3 fluxgate mag built by Western Electric in 1941. This equipment was flown in military airplanes and was used to locate submerged submarines in WWII. This equipment was government classified but
later declassified.

Did you get the disks?

Dinkydick

 

[ScubaDude]

Salvor - It wasn't a mag, I believe they use Edge Tech sonar equipment. We can save the side scan discussion for the other thread that you seem to have taken offence to.

Geometrics does not make an 883 (yet).

Dick - your on, you buy the fuel, I'll supply the boat.

Honest, I'm not trying to sell the things. I have used them, and others and they are good instruments. When combined with their software they make for a deadly combo. I have located a lot of "stuff" with them, and I can consistently put divers dead on target with it. They don't require any extra code to be written, or radio shack contraptions to build to interface & log data. Or a trunk full of third party software to process the data into something usable. Some people run it through Hypack with other sensors, but off the shelf it is worth the money. Keep in mind too that they get used for a lot more than treasure hunting. It's also off the shelf rated for 9000'. Lastly, they really aren't that expensive in the big scheme of things, not when fuel is $4 a gal. One of the biggest single Proton Vs. Cesium arguments is the lack of external noise with the cesium.

 

[mad4wrecks]

I was on a few '24 hour" mag surveys with Scubadude last summer and I can confirm that the Geometrics survey software and the post-processing software is pretty damn impressive. We were dropping buoys in 90 feet of water on the coordinates and on more than a few occassions, the anomaly was within a few feet of our marker. Sometimes, it was a rocket part, other times just a little WWII era shell. We did manage to locate 2 shipwrecks and parts of an F16.

 

[jeff k]

scuba... Odyssey was using an Edgetech Chirp side-scan sonar and integrated Seaspy Overhauser magnetometer technology, but that was several years ago. They could have upgraded since then.