I took my D2, with underwater antenna attached, to Cocoa Beach for its maiden run after updating it. My primary objective was to test the stability in salt water and develop a custom program I could use as a start point on subsequent salt water beach hunts. I used the factory Beach program as the base and made adjustments from there. After doing a frequency scan, adjusting sensitivity for EMI and staying in the Tracking mode since our beaches are very much uniform in mineralization levels, I started off in the dry sand and progressed to the damp and then the wet sand. As expected, it was solid...quiet and stable.
I then got into the surf and it started to chirp as the waves washed over the coil. I began to make adjustments to the Salt Sensitivity and Reactivity settings which began to noticeably improve the stability. As I continued to experiment with the settings, I found the following was optimal at this beach on this day:
Discrimination = 6.5
Bottle Caps = 3
Silencer = 0
Sensitivity = 93
Salt Sensitivity = 4-5
Reactivity = 2
When the coil was initially exposed to the first wave action washing over it, there was chirping. However, when the coil was fully submerged to about 1 foot or even less, the chirping originally caused by that wave action, was gone. I began to sweep the coil for targets and all was quiet except for the occasional blip now and then.
All in all, 0.71 was solid in all salt water environments...dry, damp and wet sand and surf. The above settings were saved to a custom program that I'll use as my start point for salt water hunting.
Remaining settings are just personal preference such as iron volume, audio response, audio out and 4 tones modified to 3 tones.
My next objective for submerged operation is to develop a custom program for fresh water hunting since our Seminole War site is in a fresh water lake.
One personal nit picky point; installing the antenna and removing it for after operation cleaning is somewhat of a pain I could do without. I'd prefer another approach but I understand wireless limitations so I'll live with it.
I then got into the surf and it started to chirp as the waves washed over the coil. I began to make adjustments to the Salt Sensitivity and Reactivity settings which began to noticeably improve the stability. As I continued to experiment with the settings, I found the following was optimal at this beach on this day:
Discrimination = 6.5
Bottle Caps = 3
Silencer = 0
Sensitivity = 93
Salt Sensitivity = 4-5
Reactivity = 2
When the coil was initially exposed to the first wave action washing over it, there was chirping. However, when the coil was fully submerged to about 1 foot or even less, the chirping originally caused by that wave action, was gone. I began to sweep the coil for targets and all was quiet except for the occasional blip now and then.
All in all, 0.71 was solid in all salt water environments...dry, damp and wet sand and surf. The above settings were saved to a custom program that I'll use as my start point for salt water hunting.
Remaining settings are just personal preference such as iron volume, audio response, audio out and 4 tones modified to 3 tones.
My next objective for submerged operation is to develop a custom program for fresh water hunting since our Seminole War site is in a fresh water lake.
One personal nit picky point; installing the antenna and removing it for after operation cleaning is somewhat of a pain I could do without. I'd prefer another approach but I understand wireless limitations so I'll live with it.
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