12" Hothead on old Whites

[sparkydog]

12" Hothead on old White's

I have an old White's Eagle Spectrum II from '89-'90. I use it with the stock coil as my coin machine when I go to the parks, etc. It was a year old when I picked it up from a guy who couldn't figure it out. It came with a 12" Hothead coil marked "Dayton electronics". It was bought with the machine and never used. I just came across it the other day and I'm curious about it. Can anyone out there who has used this set-up or has knowledge of it tell me what to expect and how to set up my machine with it for deep coins? With the stock coil I just use the programmed coin and jewelry setting and only vary the sensitivity as needed to keep it stable. I have watched the white's video that came with it with the book on my lap and I have to confess that I'm a little overwhelmed by all the settings and would have to use it right after watching the video to do much more than use the default c&j settings so please keep the answers basic.

 

[dale68]

Re: 12" Hothead on old White's

I had a 12 in hothead on a 90 eagle2sl. The coil is a bit heavy, works decently, not great in trashy areas. It does cover ground well, more useful at a beach than in a park. Pinpoints ok but not like a smaller coil. If you can find an 8 in blue max for that machine you'll have a real coin killer. I really liked the tone id on my machine.

 

[U.K. Brian]

Re: 12" Hothead on old White's

The only detector that I found the "Hotheads" (as distinct from Hotshots) to work well on was an old Fisher.

They all mask to much. Even the stock 9.5 inch was always known as "the airtest coil". Great for the dealer to demonstrate in his shop but not that good in ground.
As Dale says an 8 inch is a great coil size for the Spectrums and XLT's. Many sites it will improve performance over that of the 9.5 and bigger. In heavy trash then the Whites 6" or J.S. Eliminator coil are better again.

Not much to say about settings for the Hothead coil apart from its going to pick up more ground effect and have more targets both good and bad under it at the same time skewing the results. As its larger you should find what sounds like a good target and sweep over it to find the best sweep speed which should be a little faster than normal which is the opposite of most detectors. Also try adjusting the recovery speed for best results.

Main problem always seemed to be that you had to reduce sensitivity to keep the detector stable so the extra depth gained from the increased size could be lost by the reduction in sensitivity.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Re: 12" Hothead on old White's

Brian is right. The hotheads were over-hyped. In fact, their advertising back in those days was downright deceptive. If you looked closely at the old ads, they'd invariably be comparing the depth of a manufacturer's stock coil, with their own LARGER coil. Well duh, of course you go deeper with a larger coil (with all the inherent drawbacks of going to a larger coil). SO TOO WILL YOU GO DEEPER WITH THE MANUFACTURER'S OWN LARGER COILS.

And of course, there's inherent drawbacks with going to any larger coil: more masking, fishier performance (esp. in trashy sites), more minerals to hack through, etc.... And of course, a point of diminishing returns were there comes a point with increasing coil sizes, that you don't actually pick up coin sized targets any deeper, and begin to loose sensitivity to smaller items.

But a lot of people fell for the deceptive advertising, as if there were some sort of superior guts or electronics inside of hothead coils. But think of it: If there WERE some sort of "superior mousetrap" type of coil, don't you think the manufacturer would have been "all over themselves" to buy it up, and market it stock on their own machines? On the contrary, most of the users complained of staticky performance, no practical (in field actual conditions) depth gains, etc... If someone did have added depth and liked them, then my hunch is they could have attained the same results by merely moving up to the manufacturer's own larger coils.

 

[sparkydog]

Re: 12" Hothead on old White's

Well, to Dale, Brian and Tom. Thank you for the information. It may not have been what I wanted to hear but it did in fact confirm my suspicions as to why I let it sit in the basement for the last ten years.
My machine works just fine with it's white's supplied standard coil and I'm reassured now that I should spend my time watching the video and reading the book to learn more about utilizing all the features of this machine instead of clouding the waters with an unknown commodity (Hothead) before I have even learned to employ the capabilities of this machine.
My other machines are a Surf II and a GMT...these are uber-simple machines that do their thing with minimal tweeking. The old Eagle seems to give me more creative overide to tune the unit for existing conditions while the Surf is simple and the GMT has a computer brain that eases my workload.
I occasionally hunt with a friend who has an MXT and on coins in Pennsylvania loamy soil I seem to have equal depth and pinpointing ability while identifying targets perhaps even a little quicker. Although I have only scratched the surface of this machines flexibility, I have used it long enough to identify it's sounds, interpret the VDI numbers and check targets with and without discrimination to predict before I dig.
After I nail down all the information in the White's video and manual I guess my final exam will be to read Jimmy Seirra's "Prospecting with the Eagle II" booklet. I doubt I'll ever use it in place of the GMT for prospecting but now that I'm retired I have found a renewed intrest in learning everything I can about how these machines work and how to optimise them (before I buy the pulse unit and go snorkeling). Heh, heh, heh!
Anyone in the market for a never used Hothead?