detecting after thunderstorms and other subjects

[froggy38383]

I just read on another forum that after thundersorms finds were much higher and that this was attributed to the electrical activity as opposed to the moisture in the ground. Has anyone heard of this?

Also some one else posted that by planting metal rods in the ground and by attaching these to a 12v battery it would improve the detector's performance. Any comments would be appreciated...

[Jeffro]

I dunno about improving a detectors performance with the battery thing.... but its a great way to get earthworms for fishing!

[U.K. Brian]

Thunderstorms make no difference. If you spread a large groundsheet and protect the ground you will notice that damp ground gives better results than dry and that seems to be about it.
Re the battery (some use a generator) thing, putting a current through the soil will increase depth of detection. The Compass Depth Doubler did exactly that. As with all things in detecting there's a price to pay. All metal responds better especially all the iron. It could be that you might lose small items due to the incresed target masking from the iron outweighing the improvement on a coin or ring.

[U.K. Brian]

I think they were about $400 U.S. but double the price in Europe which didn't help sales.
There was a test report in 'Popular Mining' magazine years back.
Geotech forum had the circuit on their site some years ago. It might be worth doing a search.
The basics were probes to be inserted in the ground and a 12 volt battery to provide Dc current though I saw a Roman site being excavated on television and they had a generator power source and huge probes.
Depth performance was never double. I think if a coin or ring could be picked up at eight inches you might get fourteen but if it was bad ground you would not do that well.