Nokta Fors Core salt water tests

[SouthFLdigger]

Well I was finally able to get out and do some salt water testing for my Nokta Fors Core here in Miami Beach. I have had many VLF machines and have attempted to use them all in the salt water just to see which one best deals with the salty sand here. While many of us are aware that different beaches have varying degrees of impact on VLF and multi-frequency machines, many don’t know exactly why. Miami Beach and Florida beaches In general have very little concentrations of Magnetite or Maghemite . However salt water concentration in Miami Beach are very high. For example the saltiest water (40 o/oo) -- parts per thousand), for which the symbol o/oo is used. That is, a salinity of 35 o/oo means 35 pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of sea water ) occurs in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where rates of evaporation are very high. The salinity of the ocean water off Miami Beach, Fla., varies from about 34.8 o/oo in October to 36.4 o/oo in May and June. As a result of these very high concentrations of salt, Miami Beach is the gauntlet of salty sand testing for VLF machines. The beaches up north from the Carolinas and up have much less salt concentrations. Very high salt levels like these have a very high tangent loss on the VLF signals sent down and very high loss coefficients. Needless to say, the G2, AT-pro, Gamma, Omega, T2 and Whites MXT pro, GTI2500 I’ve tried all chattered and suffered greatly when attempting to keep gain at a level allowing at least 7-9” of detecting depth on dime/nickels and similar size objects. I purchased the Nokta in hopes of having a machine that works very well on dry land and “good” in salty sand without the pitfalls associated with multi-frequency machines such as deafness to smaller gold, cost and complexity. The very positive reviews of this machine on dry land are quite accurate.

I took the Fors Core out to my usual spot here after reading the manual and giving it a good 20 hours of use on dry land and air testing. As many of you heard the mechanical quality of this machine is very good and the details of its operation have been discussed plenty on the boards.

I started the test by ground balancing the CoRe and as expected a ground balance of 0.0 was imperative for quiet operation even a ground balance of 1-2 would result in noise! I pushed the sensitivity up to 95 with perfectly quiet operation in this very salty wet sand. At sensitivity levels of 97-98, small pieces of very rusted metal would result in 98-99 signal IDs, while scanning the sand, similar to what a hot rock would yield and resulted in instability in some portions of the beach.All air tests match the results posted by Nokta on youtube in DI2 turn on preset just to confirm a properly functioning unit.

I placed a nickel at 8”, 10”, and 12” inches in soaking wet sand and began testing. I did not simply bury the nickel I dug a hole and inserted the nickel through the side of the hole into the sand at these different depth.
At 95 sens, ID mask at 30, COG mode and 0.0 GB the 8” nickel was clear and audible, at 10” it was too faint and resembled noise at 12” no chance. Ground balance this low (0.0) has a significant effect on depth, even a manual ground balance of 12 or higher resulted in 2” improvement in depth on the buried nickels at the same sensitivity however the noise/chatter was unbearable while sweeping over the sand.

At 97 sens ID mask at 30, COG mode and GB at 0.0 the 9” 10” nickels were clearly heard but no ID on the 10” nickel. At 98 Sens the 10” was loud and clear with ID.

At 98-99 sens, stability of the machine suffered greatly and chatter was too much making detecting impossible. However at this sens (99) the 12” nickel was very audible with a very jumpy ID to no id.

So at 95 sens at a GB of 0.0 expect 8” of depth on a gold ring or a nickel with the Fors Core. At 97 sens GB 0.0 expect 10” in wet salty sand. These result are very good for a single frequency VLF machine, almost matching my DFX.

For dry sand this machine in DI2 mode GB at 60, sens at 97-98, mask 30, it will ping a quarter at 12" with the 7x11" coil in my dry sand here in Florida with ID and loud.

 

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[Phantasman]

Great review and info, my friend. South Florida beaches are brutal with salt. I always expected it was because of the warmer water, which makes the fish taste fishier and lobsters not as sweet as cold water areas of the north. It sounds like the CoRe is a great land and beach machine. Since I only get to see the ocean once every two years, guess I'll just stay with what works on the dry sand.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I did a beach test with Fors CoRe at Daytona, after a manual ground balancing I found the Fors CoRe was very stable, even when moving from shallow water to wet sand...

 

[greaser]

Nice write up thanks, good to here they also do well in heavy salt.

 

[SouthFLdigger]

I did a beach test with Fors CoRe at Daytona, after a manual ground balancing I found the Fors CoRe was very stable, even when moving from shallow water to wet sand...

It was indeed stable at 95 sens and in some parts at 97 sens, overall a great machine that is clearly rewriting the books when it comes to VLF performance in harsh environments like salt water beaches.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Well I was finally able to get out and do some salt water testing for my Nokta Fors Core here in Miami Beach. I have had many VLF machines and have attempted to use them all in the salt water just to see which one best deals with the salty sand here. While many of us are aware that different beaches have varying degrees of impact on VLF and multi-frequency machines, many don’t know exactly why. Miami Beach and Florida beaches In general have very little concentrations of Magnetite or Maghemite . However salt water concentration in Miami Beach are very high. For example the saltiest water (40 o/oo) -- parts per thousand), for which the symbol o/oo is used. That is, a salinity of 35 o/oo means 35 pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of sea water ) occurs in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where rates of evaporation are very high. The salinity of the ocean water off Miami Beach, Fla., varies from about 34.8 o/oo in October to 36.4 o/oo in May and June. As a result of these very high concentration of salt, Miami Beach is the gauntlet of salty sand testing for VLF machines. The beaches up north from the Carolinas and up have much less salt concentrations. Very high salt levels like these have a very high tangent loss on the VLF signals sent down and very high loss coefficients. Needless to say, the G2, AT-pro, Gamma, Omega, T2 and Whites MXT pro, GTI2500 I’ve tried all chattered and suffered greatly when attempting to keep gain at a level allowing at least 7-9” of detecting depth. I purchased the Nokta in hopes of having a machine that works very well on dry land and “good” in salty sand without the pitfalls associated with multi-frequency machines such as deafness to smaller gold, cost and complexity. The very positive reviews of this machine on dry land are quite accurate.

I took the Fors Core out to my usual spot here after reading the manual and giving it a good 20 hours of use on dry land and air testing. As many of you heard the mechanical quality of this machine is very good and the details of its operation have been discussed plenty on the boards.

I started the test by ground balancing the CoRe and as expected a ground balance of 0.0 was imperative for quiet operation even a ground balance of 1-2 would result in noise! I pushed the sensitivity up to 95 with perfectly quiet operation in this very salty wet sand. At sensitivity levels of 97-98, small pieces of very rusted metal would result in 98-99 signal IDs, while scanning the sand, similar to what a hot rock would yield and resulted in instability in some portions of the beach.All air tests match the results posted by Nokta on youtube in DI2 turn on preset just to confirm a properly functioning unit.

I placed a nickel at 8”, 10”, and 12” inches in soaking wet sand and began testing. I did not simply bury the nickel I dug a hole and inserted the nickel through the side of the hole into the sand at these different depth.
At 95 sens, ID mask at 30, COG mode and 0.0 GB the 8” nickel was clear and audible, at 9” it was too faint and resembled noise at 12” no chance. Ground balance this low (0.0) has a significant effect on depth, even a manual ground balance of 12 or higher resulted in 2” improvement in depth on the buried nickels at the same sensitivity however the noise/chatter was unbearable while sweeping over the sand.

At 97 sens ID mask at 30, COG mode and GB at 0.0 the 9” 10” nickels were clearly heard but no ID on the 10” nickel. At 98 Sens the 10” was loud and clear with ID.

At 98-99 sens, stability of the machine suffered greatly and chatter was too much making detecting impossible. However at this sens (99) the 12” nickel was very audible with a very jumpy ID.

So at 95 sens at a GB of 0.0 expect 8” of depth on a gold ring or a nickel with the Fors Core. At 97 sens GB 0.0 expect 10” in wet salty sand. These result are very good for a VLF machine, almost matching my DFX.

For dry sand this machine in DI2 mode GB at 60, sens at 97-98, mask 30, it will ping a quarter at 12" with the 7x11" coil in my dry sand here in Florida.

A recommendation: I think you'll see better performance at deeper depths if you'll leave ID mask at level 10. My test show ID mask levels above 17 and depth capability begins to suffer.

 

[SouthFLdigger]

A recommendation: I think you'll see better performance at deeper depths if you'll leave ID mask at level 10. My test show ID mask levels above 17 and depth capability begins to suffer.

I did try it but chatter begins to set in while scanning the wet sand with mask set so low. This notion works well in DI2 but not so in wet high salty sand beaches here, also EMI seems to increase with mask set at 10.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Okay, You might try leaving your ID mask at 10, but dial your sensitivity down, Around 75 in DI2 will actually provide max depth, In DI3 you should be able to go to 99 sens with ID mask at 10 and run pretty quiet. Granted you will notice a depth difference between DI2 and DI3.

 

[SouthFLdigger]

Okay, You might try leaving your ID mask at 10, but dial your sensitivity down, Around 75 in DI2 will actually provide max depth, In DI3 you should be able to go to 99 sens with ID mask at 10 and run pretty quiet. Granted you will notice a depth difference between DI2 and DI3.

I have not tried any other modes for salty wet sand but COG, i very much doubt any other mode will be stable. But i will try it.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

I have not tried any other modes for salty wet sand but COG, i very much doubt any other mode will be stable. But i will try it.

I'm sorry, forgot you were hunting on beach. Di2 and Di3 won't let you GB. But in COG, lower sens/gain at around 75 should get real good depth. I used my coRe over regular soil in DI2. Once the sens level is dialed above 95 things start to get noisy in a hurry. I look forward to seeing any further test you can provide. Your information thus far has been outstanding.

 

[SouthFLdigger]

I'm sorry, forgot you were hunting on beach. Di2 and Di3 won't let you GB. But in COG, lower sens/gain at around 75 should get real good depth. I used my coRe over regular soil in DI2. Once the sens level is dialed above 95 things start to get noisy in a hurry. I look forward to seeing any further test you can provide. Your information thus far has been outstanding.

TNS in COG mode with a ground balance of 0.0 at default mask level 40 and a sens of 75, depth would only be about 4-5" in wet sand. I studied this carefully, sensitivity at this ground balance level (0.0) and COG mode does not work like DI2, OR DI3. For depth to be reasonable one needs to be at 95 sens or higher in COG mode when approaching ground balance levels of 0.0. Spent a good 8 hours trying all kinds of variables.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

TNS in COG mode with a ground balance of 0.0 at default mask level 40 and a sens of 75, depth would only be about 4-5" in wet sand. I studied this carefully, sensitivity at this ground balance level (0.0) and COG mode does not work like DI2, OR DI3. For depth to be reasonable one needs to be at 95 sens or higher in COG mode when approaching ground balance levels of 0.0. Spent a good 8 hours trying all kinds of variables.

You know, you're the first person I've read about testing the COG mode. You have provided some great information. I have no experience with COG mode at all. I kinda figured it would work sorta like DI2 and DI3. Evidently it don't. Again thanks for the information. I have already seen some video showing the Racer, it seems it too performs well in the beach/salt water environment.

 

[SouthFLdigger]

You know, you're the first person I've read about testing the COG mode. You have provided some great information. I have no experience with COG mode at all. I kinda figured it would work sorta like DI2 and DI3. Evidently it don't. Again thanks for the information. I have already seen some video showing the Racer, it seems it too performs well in the beach/salt water environment.

I actually think the racer performs a bit better in Beach Mode, but i don't have one so i cant say for sure. That racer sure looks nice, the Nokta looks like a Pinto and the racer a Ferrari.

 

[TallTom]

I actually think the racer performs a bit better in Beach Mode, but i don't have one so i cant say for sure. That racer sure looks nice, the Nokta looks like a Pinto and the racer a Ferrari.

... or at least a six-cylinder Camaro.

 

[WNCsweeper]

Ordered pro pack late last week. Supposed to be in a recent shipment sitting in customs for ten days then four days to arrive. Its full on spring here in wnc so getting ansty. Sold my whites coinmaster gt that I've had for over a year to get this upgrade. I had that machine totally figured out and it was awesome. I do feel like I am upgraded. but it does seem like the depth that was reported is not there.
depth in centimetres seems like that will suck. But hell if i can get this one dialed in and figured out....I guess I will be better off almost double the frequency.....the GT would not signal on small gold. if I don't like it im pretty sure I could get most of my money back.....and try something around that price.

 

[WNCsweeper]

I had my heart set on the macro racer but I was told I would not get it until late May and I could not stand that.....middle summer might get that as a backup

 

[goldkey]

Ordered pro pack late last week. Supposed to be in a recent shipment sitting in customs for ten days then four days to arrive. Its full on spring here in wnc so getting ansty. Sold my whites coinmaster gt that I've had for over a year to get this upgrade. I had that machine totally figured out and it was awesome. I do feel like I am upgraded. but it does seem like the depth that was reported is not there.
depth in centimetres seems like that will suck. But hell if i can get this one dialed in and figured out....I guess I will be better off almost double the frequency.....the GT would not signal on small gold. if I don't like it im pretty sure I could get most of my money back.....and try something around that price.

From some videos I have looked at .....you should be able to switch from centimeters to inches on that machine.
* Update...perhaps it was another machine I was looking at. Excuse me....

 

[SouthFLdigger]

Ordered pro pack late last week. Supposed to be in a recent shipment sitting in customs for ten days then four days to arrive. Its full on spring here in wnc so getting ansty. Sold my whites coinmaster gt that I've had for over a year to get this upgrade. I had that machine totally figured out and it was awesome. I do feel like I am upgraded. but it does seem like the depth that was reported is not there.
depth in centimetres seems like that will suck. But hell if i can get this one dialed in and figured out....I guess I will be better off almost double the frequency.....the GT would not signal on small gold. if I don't like it im pretty sure I could get most of my money back.....and try something around that price.

Performance should be better than the Coinmaster GT on wet sand, even on small items with the Fors Core. Regarding the depth meter readings, they are fixed in cm for the Fors Core and are inaccurate. However just divide whatever number you get on the depth reading by 3, vs 2.5 and that will give you a more accurate number in inches. Also the sounds given by the Core convey lots of information, it will be no time before you have depth gauge on coin size objects by sound alone.

 

[WNCsweeper]

that sounds good thanks for the info

 

[Keppy]

Performance should be better than the GT on wet sand, even on small items with the Fors Core. Regarding the depth meter readings, they are fixed in cm for the Fors Core and are inaccurate. However just divide whatever number you get on the depth reading by 3, vs 2.5 and that will give you a more accurate number in inches. Also the sounds given by the Core convey lots of information, it will be no time before you can accurate gauge depth on coin size objects by sound alone.

Then are you saying that the Fors Core is better than the Sovereign ..