E-Trac - kHz?

gunsil

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Dec 27, 2012
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Minelab FBS detectors (Safari, Etrac, Explorer), do not have the option to select a single frequency as do their Multi IQ machines.
 

cudamark

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With 28 frequencies, I'm sure there is a different mix depending on which mode you're in. The E-trac doesn't use all 28 at once in any mode. Sensitivity has to do with signal strength/processing, and noise cancel with EMI. There might be a slight frequency shift when you do a noise cancel, but not sensitivity.
 

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monkeys uncle

monkeys uncle

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I've heard (not verified) that lower kHz is best for silver, while higher kHz improves chances for 'honing' in on gold. Someone (who shall remain nameless) that I trust, 'thinks' lower Noise Control values may equate to lower kHz and vice versa.

I have not personally tested these ideas, but intend to do so. My ultimate plan - is to leave my vehicle set up to detect silver and when I eventually 'turn' to head back, reset my E-trac (disc. pattern, noise channel, etc.) for gold and basically re-trace my steps.

What do you think......"Dumb idea" or "Sounds good"?????
 

gunsil

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Dec 27, 2012
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lower hudson valley, N.Y.
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All Minelab FBS machines are known and proven "silver sniffers" right out of the box, no special "secret search modes" necessary. They are not the best at small gold by a long shot no matter how you set them up. It is 100% true that silver responds better to low frequency and that gold responds better to higher frequency, one of the reasons their 28 frequency FBS is so good, but the main benefit of BBS or FBS is the ability to hunt in mineralized soil and salt environments and still get great depth. You will never see a dedicated gold nugget hunter with an Etrac. The little lighter, cheaper Equinox will outhunt the FBS machines for gold any day any time and there are still better machines for finding small gold. Don't ever discount luck, plenty of fine gold jewelry has been found with entry level machines, one has to get their coil over a gold item before it can be detected. I do not think there is anything you can do to an FBS to make it find gold or silver better than it does in any of it's standard coin/jewelry modes. I seriously doubt that you will find anything you missed in the way of gold or silver going one way and back again by changing settings, they don''t miss much. Of course you have to have excellent search habits and overlap your swings. Even FBS gets fooled thinking a rusty nail is silver and aluminum and lead is gold, no machine made can discriminate between gold, aluminum, and lead. You wanna dig gold? Gotta dig more trash, period. That means no matter how many pull tabs you find, the next identical signal could be a gold ring, no way around it. Stop worrying, your etrac will find any silver objects or gold jewelry (maybe not tiny earring backs at depth) beneath the coil to a good depth in standard coins/jewelry mode. Maybe find the silver a little deeper but they don't miss much.
 

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marjam

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Nov 17, 2012
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Ditto on the frequencies. I have been detecting for about 25 years, and I have never found anything that will beat the FBS technology for silver. I have hunted with the etrac in places with alot of emi that has affected other machines, and the etrac stays relatively unaffected. It is a super machine for a coin shooter, and it loves nickels too. Its the best nickel machine I have ever owned. I can tell based on fe co and the sound if its a nickel. No other machine I have owned comes close to it for coins. But it runs all frequencies simultaneously as others have said and there are better gold machines that are found with the higher frequencies. You can find gold jewelry with the etrac, however.
 

malenkai

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May 4, 2016
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Each noise cancel channel sends out different frequencies. It does this because if there is EMI in the area, it wants to find a channel without the EMI frequencies.

Therefore, some channels will have lower frequencies than others, since they are different. People reportedly know which frequencies which channels send, but I
have never found a table online, tho I have not looked that hard. I imagine you could get an oscilloscope and figure it out; I have never bothered.

That said, I have proven noise cancel channel matters on live targets. This is easy to do. Get an iffy target and cycle thru the channels. You will notice this effect
in difficult dirt moreso than in clean dirt, in my experience. I play with the channel alot based on the site and how the machine sounds. May be BS, may be something
to it, but it has always worked out for me.
 

Bart@Big Boys Hobbies

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Ditto on the frequencies. I have been detecting for about 25 years, and I have never found anything that will beat the FBS technology for silver. I have hunted with the etrac in places with alot of emi that has affected other machines, and the etrac stays relatively unaffected. It is a super machine for a coin shooter, and it loves nickels too. Its the best nickel machine I have ever owned. I can tell based on fe co and the sound if its a nickel. No other machine I have owned comes close to it for coins. But it runs all frequencies simultaneously as others have said and there are better gold machines that are found with the higher frequencies. You can find gold jewelry with the etrac, however.
great post!
 

Kevvorush

Tenderfoot
Oct 31, 2021
5
1
Diggin4life said on one of his videos to manually set your noise cancel to 1 and it would be on the lowest kHz . His videos have helped me with the e-trac more than anything else has.
 

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