A mysterious target !

[ToddB64]

I had been hunting for about an hour in a park with my Teknetics Gamma 6000. I carry the manual along on every hunt for reference, to make sure I setup the detector correctly, not miss any steps and perform them in correct order, especially "Ground Grab" ground balancing.

Since acquiring the Gamma around Christmas time last year, I've been using it exclusively to gain proficiency, it being a very high-tech machine.

Moving to a different area in this park, I turned the Gamma back ON, set the detector temporarily in All Metal to find a metal-free "clean" spot and then performed the 6-step Ground Grab setup.

Next I set the detector into Discrimination mode and the Disc. level to 42, which is close to the "F" in Foil, so I don't miss any small gold jewelry. Then I set the Sensitivity to a modest 70 because the ground in this park is loaded with trash and I like to "cherry-pick" the shallow coins from ground surface down to 4-5 inches deep. I will dig deeper if I get a good "lock-on" signal on a coin or what I suspect might be jewelry.

Last, I set the Tones to #3. However, in the future, I am going to try Tones #2 which is basically VCO audio feedback (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) to see if I like that just as well on higher conductivity targets like Dimes and Quarters. So far though, I'm doing well with the #3 Tones finding a good amount of Nickels, Dimes and Quarters. In fact, on one recent hunt at this park I recovered (9) Dimes, plus other coins.

OK, I know you want me to get to the issue in the title. After I arrived at the "different area" and finished with the machine setups, I started hunting and found a few targets and the Gamma was working fine, with normal feedback from the audio and visual circuitry. Then I got a high-pitched audio signal, but absolutely no visual data appeared anywhere on the screen ! I was completly dumbfounded ! Nothing I tried made any difference, so I moved away from this mysterious target and didn't even want to dig it, finished my hunt with the Gamma working fine after that and went home.

Yes, my curiosity will force me to dig that target to see what it is and I'll post the results after my next hunt, probably within the next 6 days. But at the moment, I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this (audio working fine over a particular target, but no visual data on the screen.).

Your ideas on what might have caused this problem will be appreciated.

Thanks.

ToddB64

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

I don't know your detector. But if it is like the related Fisher then the target is deeper than the TID circuits will acknowledge, or it is trash that your masking has edited out. Some units use seperate circuits (I think a great feature). Likely it is deep and large. A hub-cap or old conductive junk. "X" the target and see if it reads or sounds different from different directions. If it is analog rather than just a digital "beep" circuit you can also sometimes tell before digging the nature of the object. If it chatters or crackles in one direction it could be a rough edge. Coins usually have smooth signals. Unless they're small, deep silver. Jewlery is tiugher. Dig no trash and you'll miss a lot of jewelry. It usually reads in the foil and pulltab range.

I hunt an old park that is beside a river and has areas of "fill" that have all kinds of crap buried. I dug down 18" on a great signal and it was an old wiper motor from a 50's era car.

The only way you will know is dig.

I set my detector just over iron (7 out of 100) and take the signals and decide myself rather than use notches or masks with the detector. They're good, but they are machines and only compare targets to the surrounding soil. They don't know a coin from a similar sized and similarly conductive non-coin.

 

[ToddB64]

Thanks Charlie, for your comments and suggestions. I'll be posting again after digging the "mystery" target.

ToddB64