AT Pro ground balance question

[Tucson Dan]

Everyone, my boy and I frequently hunt a vacant lot that used to have a 1940s house on it here in Tucson. This is the one spot that I have trouble balancing at. I have to take my sensitivity down to almost nothing in order to not hear CONSTANT chatter. There is usually chatter when just sitting grounded as well while I dig. I can usually balance my machine successfully at other sites but for some reason this site dictates I have to adjust freq, sens, and even disc to get it silent. How much depth am I losing by going to a low sens? Any ideas?

 

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[xr7ator]

Could be electrical interference. Try changing frequencies. You have four. I have had the same problem and sometimes being next to a pole or an electical box, I have trouble getting it to settle down as well. I just move away from the electrical or get out the minelab se pro for that lil area.

 

[Tucson Dan]

I have tried the diff frequencies and there is no house there anymore. Just a vacant lot. My son's MD is not a factor because he hunts away from me for interference reasons. There are some power lines in the area though. Maybe that's it! How much does changing the frequency do to search capability if anything? Anyone know?

 

[Potts]

Sandman once explained the leaching process of certain metals in the soils, don't if it would help you, but I do know that in the old days water lines wasn't deep.

 

[Pointman]

I have had the same thing happen. The only thing that I was able to do was determine if it was outside interference or junk in the ground and then turn the sensitivity down, adjust the discrimination and then ground balance. I've had some places where I simply could not get the detector to be quite and most places where it is manageable.

Being honest, I think that the AT Pro is a great detector, especially in the price range, but I quit using mine because the constant chatter at some places drove me nuts.

 

[DiggerinVA]

Have only experience this a few times and when i returned to hunt those areas another day all was fine and worked as it should....who knows

 

[Tucson Dan]

Well thanks guys. This is the only site this has happened to me. It really shouldn't bother me but I know it hasn't been hunt much because we're finding coins there. How much depth do I lose by turning my sens down?

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

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Hi Tucson Dan,

If you have the sensitivity way down and are discrimination half of everything out, you will be lucky to go down three inches with the AT Pro.

If you tried a manual ground balance and that doesn't work or a frequency change, you most likely have electrical interference with power lines, transformer near by, or underground wiring going on in that area.

 

[BJ in Okla.]

Everyone, my boy and I frequently hunt a vacant lot that used to have a 1940s house on it here in Tucson. This is the one spot that I have trouble balancing at. I have to take my sensitivity down to almost nothing in order to not hear CONSTANT chatter. There is usually chatter when just sitting grounded as well while I dig. I can usually balance my machine successfully at other sites but for some reason this site dictates I have to adjust freq, sens, and even disc to get it silent. How much depth am I losing by going to a low sens? Any ideas?

Sounds like EMI to me,,,some detectors are bothered by EMI more than others....The EMI could be coming from
something you don't see...
I have a place that has a building on it,, and when I get close,, my AT Pro goes nuts,,, and nothing helps,
and this is with the 5x8 coil...The 8 x 11" coil is worse,, coil size is a factor...
Lower sens. will cause you to loose depth,, but so will EMI....
There are so many things that cause EMI now days.....
What coil are you using ??
What are the other detector's being used ??
I had 2 bad coil's,, a 8x11 & A 4.5,,,they acted like EMI every place that I used them,,
Garrett replaced them,,, They are great...
HH...BJ

 

[Normsel]

Try to manually ground balance, that sometimes helps, set it down 5 to 10 points

 

[Tucson Dan]

I am using the stock 8x11 coil. My ground balance has me down in the mid 80s to low 90s. My sens has to be at almost nothing to stop the constant chatter. I am right where the house use to sit. Maybe there is some buried lines somewhere. I don't think I have a bad coil because I don't have any trouble anywhere else.

 

[RobRieman]

Hi Dan, old tear downs or burnt structures have a huge amount of trash in the ground. I would not be surprised at all if they are actual targets. Rusted metal roofing, nails, siding, etc will drive you nuts on an old site. Try digging and scanning with a pin pointer, I would bet there are small pieces of iron everywhere in the ground.

 

[Tnmountains]

I am on a site like that and getting the old furnace rocks reading in the 90's. Crazy. That and the square nails. The site was wet and I was digging to china on some finds. But I was hunting in zero mode going for good signals…..and wanted the iron cause I get some canister shot out of there.

 

[Tucson Dan]

Hi Dan, old tear downs or burnt structures have a huge amount of trash in the ground. I would not be surprised at all if they are actual targets. Rusted metal roofing, nails, siding, etc will drive you nuts on an old site. Try digging and scanning with a pin pointer, I would bet there are small pieces of iron everywhere in the ground.

I'll give that a shot with the pro pointer. Interesting thought. I'll do it and report back. Don't think I'll get to it this week though. That whole work thing keeps getting in the way of hunting.

 

[BJ in Okla.]

try holding your coil up about waste high and see if you still get it....Also, turn in a circle, see if you can pin point the direction it is coming from...

I have picked up EMI from things that I could not see....
One time with a ML X-70 and stock 9" coil and a ML 705 with the 10" high freq. coil,
the 705 went nuts with EMI and the X-70 was fine...About 3 hrs later, the EMI was gone..

 

[Tucson Dan]

try holding your coil up about waste high and see if you still get it....Also, turn in a circle, see if you can pin point the direction it is coming from...

I have picked up EMI from things that I could not see....
One time with a ML X-70 and stock 9" coil and a ML 705 with the 10" high freq. coil,
the 705 went nuts with EMI and the X-70 was fine...About 3 hrs later, the EMI was gone..

I have chatter whether on the ground or in the air. I haven't turned much to see if the chatter is more from certain directions though. Good thought. I'll give that a go. Thanks everyone for the ideas. Again, it's only this site out of all that I frequent. Just weird. My son's ACE350 has no problems either.

 

[Fletch88]

Have you cleaned the coil cover out? There may be mineralized dirt in the cover.

 

[rks1949]

I have chatter whether on the ground or in the air. I haven't turned much to see if the chatter is more from certain directions though. Good thought. I'll give that a go. Thanks everyone for the ideas. Again, it's only this site out of all that I frequent. Just weird. My son's ACE350 has no problems either.

You just answered your own question! Just use the ACE 350 in that location.

 

[BabyNeedsANewPairO'Shoes]

I have a new Garrett AT Gold. Just got out to a park yesterday for my first hunt with it. Found lots of coins in one of the children's playgrounds after I learned how to get rid of old bottle caps. Then I went to another play ground in the same park. I could not get the AT to settle down like it did in the other area. It was chattering away at everything. I tried different frequencies, ground balanced like crazy...discrim and no discrim...I threw coins on the ground and it was hard to read them. Finally gave up. Just don't know what was up with that area. I'm hoping that as I gain experience with the settings of the machine and the sounds coming out of it, I'll be able to make sense of places like that.
Best,
Bruce

 

[Tucson Dan]

You just answered your own question! Just use the ACE 350 in that location.

The ACE350 is a quality machine. Not a bad idea sir. Was it really that easy?