You know it is time for a detector upgrade when......

[bakergeol]

You know it is time for a detector upgrade when..........

1. You notice a few people in the line at the Antique Roadshow are carrying your brand detector.
2. You notice the police are using your brand detector in reruns of "Hawaii 5-O"
3. Your detector has only one knob.
4. People laugh behind your back at MD club outings
5. Your detector is a veteran of WW11
6. Your backup detector is a Relco
7. You have found more silver in the last 5 years in change at the 7-11 then with your detector.
8. Your friends look puzzled when you brag that"This baby can detect a dime at 3 inches"

George

 

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[1320]

LMAO!

 

[jeff of pa]

HAY my first detector was a RELCO.? what a mistake that was COOL POST

 

[xXx]

What's a Relco? Is that like the first detectors? :P
Good one bakergeol.
xXx

 

[jeff of pa]

Mine was a $9.95 kit, you rapped your own coil, it looked like a SCI-FI style Flying Saucer, and a handheld AM radio hung from a basket on the handle. you tuned the radio to a particular dead channel & a little tuner,with 1 knob, you also had to build, made a High pich sound over the radio (BFO type) when you went over a CAR SIZE OBJECT, it sounded like a MOOG SYNTHISIZER? mid 1960's during the DARK AGES

 

[stoney56]

don't forget the ones w/the weird size batteries that even Radio Shack can't order anymore.

 

[czman]

Hey I had one of those with a radio hung on the handle...BFO...I could find a horse shoe at 3 inches....LOL

 

[bakergeol]

Relco was an early manufacturer of beat frequency detectors in the 60's. I once paid $10 for a used one and was taken. The guy who sold it to me was probably laughing all the way home. Other popular brands at the time were D-Tex and Jetco. They went belly up(like a lot of other detector companies) when the TRs came out in the 70's. My main BFO at that time was the "Little Monster" designed by Karl Von Mueller and built by Whites. I remember it cost $90. BFO's lacked discrimination and were quite insensitive by todays standards. If you could detect a dime at 4 or 5 onches you will doing OK. Experienced users could distinguish rusted iron by the sounds but it was not foolproof. Pull tabs were not that big of a problem as they were a recent invention in the 60's. The real pain was small pieces of tin foil which sounded like a deep coin. So you dug everything which meant you were not discriminating out any gold jewelry but you quickly obtained one heck of an iron collection.

In short the finds were terrific but the detectors ?really sucked in the 60's.

George