Frustrating Day Out

[RobNC]

Well it was indeed cold today and had some wind but wanted to take the Equinox 600 out. This is my third time out with it.
The previous hunts were nice. Today, not so much.
So I'm looking for some ideas and assistance on what could have been the deal today.

The first place I went was to an old farmhouse. While the exact date is unknown I believe it to be mid 1930's. The area is in a field unfortunately surrounded by electric fence. I tried all modes and noise cancel in each along with attempts to ground balance. I had to crank the sensitivity all the way down to 10 but went no lower. Even then I still received random garbage falsing below ground or above. The amount of iron was also unreal. I did manage to find an old porcelain top from a jar. There were remnants of the metal lid over it and I could see "Ball" written on it. Found some other garbage, got frustrated and left the site.

The second place was back to a school I hunted on the second time out. The detector was much quieter here however the signals were extremely bleeding today. It did rain a whole lot 2 days ago and the ground is fairly saturated. Things that are 4-5" down sound like they are on top of the ground. I used Park 1, running at 20 sensitivity. Found some foil, some can slaw and thankfully 1 quarter, a penny, and a dime.

What has me annoyed is all the noise I was getting from the first site. Does anyone have some tips or ideas on how to deal with sites that are heavily iron or trashy in nature and that may have EMI/RFI (electric fence,etc.) around?

The Equinox 600 is perhaps the most sensitive machine I've ever owned. It's sensitivity to things above and below ground is nothing short of amazing, however it might be a bit too hot at times. I don't think with this detector you need to wait for the ground to be saturated with moisture. That may be some of the issue I'm seeing, so much moisture in the ground is causing problems.
Open to ideas here and welcome them

Used Multi Frequency only today.

 

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[vferrari]

Sometimes you are just going to have those days...

With respect to EMI - Here's how to best attack it with the Equinox

Keep your phone or other RF radiating devices away from the Equinox control head.

Noise Cancel - Obviously, this did not help much due to the nature of whatever the source of EMI was at your site. The 800 has manual EMI channel selection, sometimes this helps overcome shortcomings in the auto noise cancel process.

Ground Balance - Not really an EMI mitigator, but you don't need extra ground noise on top of the EMI. GB as a matter of habit or if you notice a lot -9/-8 ground noise blips when in All Metal (Horseshoe Button).

Lower Sensitivity to get rid of chatter. You did this, but really had to go pretty low.

If I get into a situation that requires me to lower Sensitivty down to lower than 15, I take the following steps:

First - try a mode different than the one you planned on using. You may be going for silver using Park 1, but perhaps the EMI was really interfering with the Park 1 frequency profile, Try Park 2 or Field 2. For the Park and Field modes the "1's" are associated with lower weighted frequency profiles optimized for higher conductors. The problem with lower frequencies is that they are more susceptible to EMI. Park 2 and Field 2 have higher weighted frequency profiles (as they are optimized for mid-conductors and small targets like jewelry) and may be less susceptible to the site's EMI. Of course the "new" mode needs to be noise cancelled and ground balanced all its own, too. Try that and see how it goes. For the 800, the gold modes are also worth a shot.

Second - Go to single frequency. Sometimes single frequency will be less susceptible to broad based EMI. As I mentioned earlier, try to stay away from the lower frequencies and go for 15 khz (better yet 20 or 40 khz if you have an 800 as they will be least susceptible). For the PARK and FIELD modes, it really doesn't matter which mode you are in when you decide to go to single because MultiIQ is what really defines the mode personality. Once you go to single, the only thing that differentiates Park and Field are the different default user settings associated with the disc and tone breakpoints and recovery speed. Note that iron bias does not work in single frequency mode.

Again for the above you are just trying to best balance detector performance with reducing chattiness which means doing all the usual stuff (noise cancel, GB, and lower sensitivity). Sometimes it is just not going to work out and you are going to have to walk away. Sometimes the time of day and/or amount of humidity in the air are going to make a difference.

As you can see, the 800 has a few more options for high EMI situations, but the 600 can still get it done with a little patience, tweaking, and luck.

HTH

 

[RobNC]

Sometimes you are just going to have those days...

With respect to EMI - Here's how to best attack it with the Equinox

Keep your phone or other RF radiating devices away from the Equinox control head.

Noise Cancel - Obviously, this did not help much due to the nature of whatever the source of EMI was at your site. The 800 has manual EMI channel selection, sometimes this helps overcome shortcomings in the auto noise cancel process.

Ground Balance - Not really an EMI mitigator, but you don't need extra ground noise on top of the EMI. GB as a matter of habit or if you notice a lot -9/-8 ground noise blips when in All Metal (Horseshoe Button).

Lower Sensitivity to get rid of chatter. You did this, but really had to go pretty low.

If I get into a situation that requires me to lower Sensitivty down to lower than 15, I take the following steps:

First - try a mode different than the one you planned on using. You may be going for silver using Park 1, but perhaps the EMI was really interfering with the Park 1 frequency profile, Try Park 2 or Field 2. For the Park and Field modes the "1's" are associated with lower weighted frequency profiles optimized for higher conductors. The problem with lower frequencies is that they are more susceptible to EMI. Park 2 and Field 2 have higher weighted frequency profiles (as they are optimized for mid-conductors and small targets like jewelry) and may be less susceptible to the site's EMI. Of course the "new" mode needs to be noise cancelled and ground balanced all its own, too. Try that and see how it goes. For the 800, the gold modes are also worth a shot.

Second - Go to single frequency. Sometimes single frequency will be less susceptible to broad based EMI. As I mentioned earlier, try to stay away from the lower frequencies and go for 15 khz (better yet 20 or 40 khz if you have an 800 as they will be least susceptible). For the PARK and FIELD modes, it really doesn't matter which mode you are in when you decide to go to single because MultiIQ is what really defines the mode personality. Once you go to single, the only thing that differentiates Park and Field are the different default user settings associated with the disc and tone breakpoints and recovery speed. Note that iron bias does not work in single frequency mode.

Again for the above you are just trying to best balance detector performance with reducing chattiness which means doing all the usual stuff (noise cancel, GB, and lower sensitivity). Sometimes it is just not going to work out and you are going to have to walk away. Sometimes the time of day and/or amount of humidity in the air are going to make a difference.

As you can see, the 800 has a few more options for high EMI situations, but the 600 can still get it done with a little patience, tweaking, and luck.

HTH

Thank you. I will try the tips on next outing