NEL Tornado for Etrac - First Swings - Pretty Noisy!

[Vermonter]

I just got a new NEL Tornado for my Etrac. I'm looking for a little extra depth over the stock coil. I doubt I'll put it on for real trashy ground or iron-infested sites. I took it out the other day for a brief test. I did a reset and ground balance right off. Granted, it's early spring where I live, saturated muddy ground, some patches of snow ... but man was it ever chirpy. I had the Etrac running in my standard discrimination pattern. There was no way I could crank the manual sensitivity up any higher than 20, pretty much where it wanted to run in Auto +3. Even then, it was nulling a bunch from the discriminated falsing, and still pretty noisy. And at that lower sensitivity, I was getting quite underwhelming depth. At least just with the penny I threw down. I didn't spend too long out. I don't want to rush to judgement. I can wait until things dry out a bit and try a couple different sites. The NEL coils I know are sensitive, and like I said the conditions here were definitely not so good. Still, any Etrac owners with experiences running the Tornado coil? Or any Tornado users with similar experiences with excessive falsing?

 

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[sjvalleyhunter]

A friend of mine had a NEL Tornado that I borrowed for a bit for my E-Trac. I found that the site and dirt made a big difference. Some places it was nearly unusable while other places it ran substantially quieter. I never determined if it was EMI or the ground conditions that made the difference, but something certainly did. Overall, I wasn't overly impressed with it and I remember that it was also too heavy for my liking. But others do swear by that coil.

I ended up buying a Detech 13" Ultimate DD coil. For me, I can run the sensitivity higher on the Ultimate than I can with the stock coil while still maintaining stability. I feel that I get just a hair better depth too. It's still heavy, but manageable.

 

[Kurios1]

I own one for the Makro Racer 1 & 2 machines. I haven't got a lot of hours in with it but, have viewed others on YouTube who convinced me to get one. I would suggest reserving this coil for worked over spots that have had a lot of the trash removed and you want to maybe squeak out a few deep coins that might have been missed with stock coils. Pastures and fields that are not too iron infested would be other spots I will use mine. Right now I am busy working iron infested fields prior to planting so I am storing the Nel Tornado in my trunk. I also have the Nel Snake coil for my Racers and I really love that little coil for separation and depth. I hope it works for you. Might just have to be selective of your environments and learning it's strengths and weaknesses while tinkering with your settings. Peace.

 

[Catanza]

I got the thunder on my at pro . I always ground it turned down half way before I turn it up . Was having the same problem . Now I can run it full tilt

 

[Bayard]

I have this coil for my Etrac and am amazed by the deep finds made with it. I've had absolutely no problem with falsing and consistently run my sensitivity at 30. If this coil gives me a two way signal, I keep digging no matter how deep and always end up with a non-ferrous target. I strongly prefer the Tornado to the Ultimate coil.

 

[Vermonter]

Thanks for the responses. The ground is still super-saturated and muddy around here, but I took the Etrac and the new NEL Tornado out to a different site. I had a bit better experience. Again, noise cancel, etc. It was still too noisy to hunt in manual sensitivity above 26 though. Auto +3 was putting me at 25, just one notch lower, and a lot quieter. I alternated between if Auto dipped lower. I was in the Andy S pattern, still getting alot of false chirping over nulled targets. I'd hit Quickmask and every time reveal just the iron. For now, I'm going to put it down to saturated ground/iron effects coupled with a fairly light discrimination pattern. The one thing I can say is that when there's a good signal on the NEL, you really know it. Super banging signals vs the chirps. I didn't dig many targets, but for sure I seemed to be getting some good depth. So, feeling somewhat reassured about the Tornado, but I need to learn it more, figure out just how noisy it's going to be and where it can and can't be used.