Older detector with high freq.

[wingmaster]

Does anyone know of an older detector with a high operating frequency, I seen a post before where the person said they would hunt an area with another detector and then go over high iron area's with this detector to pick out the good stuff. Thanks for any info

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

What do you consider high? My Musketeer is 7KHz and my Fisher is adjustable between 12.8KHz to 13.1KHz. Some call the 13KHz "high".

 

[Tom_in_CA]

wingmaster, I believe the detector they're talking about is the Compass 77b. Several other all-metal TR units of the early 1970s could do the same thing, but the 77b was amongst the smoothest/best of them. Even though they were "all-metal", yet they had the inherent ability to null out on small iron (nails). They can see through perhaps 3 or 4 nails at a time, to see a conductive target underneath. But the benefits end there though. In all other ways they are a dinasour. They lack depth (5 or 6" max on a coin sized target, if you really pushed it). They didn't work in mineralized soil to well. They were a bear to keep balanced. They were weak on larger iron (cast iron, larger spike sized stuff, etc..) And they lacked any other form of disc. (ie.: foil up to silver dollars all sounded the same).

A close-second for iron ridden ghost-town type sites, is a modern 2-filter machine like the Silver Sabre, or the Compass "classic" series, etc.... They can see through perhaps up to 2 nails to get a conductor underneath (as opposed to power-house deepseeker machines which will tend to mask). And they're much friendlier to use than the 77b (albeit with not *quite* as much see-through ability as the 77b).

 

[Cleetus]

A Fisher Gold Bug Pro will see through iron trash , 3 or 4 nails at a time and such. Quietly too,.. in Disc mode without losing much depth using the 5" coil. Works great in all Metal Mode too. It operates at 19 Khz

 

[U.K. Brian]

True high frequency is above 50 kHz. The Minelab Eureka Gold has 6.4, 20 and 60 kHz selectable at the flick of a switch. Got a feeling the Compass 77b, Auto and Legends were at 99 kHz. The Aussies had a version of the Garrett Groundhog that ran at 100 kHz.

Mainly designed for either high iron areas (Compass) or for small gold with bad mineralisation.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

cleetus, I'd have to see the Fisher Gold Bug Pro do it, to believe it. The reason is this: About 10 yrs. ago, I was travelling through Los Banos, CA, and decided to stop and see the Fisher factory museum (since I like vintage detectors). After seeing their museum, I decided to ask the rep. there, at the desk, this very question: I asked him:

"Why, in this modern day and age of electronic marvels, that someone can't make a machine that can see through iron, like the old 77b could?" The attendant there fielding my question didn't know what I was talking about (he wasn't aware of earlier 1970's machines, etc...). So I invited him out to my truck, in the parking lot, to SHOW him what I was talking about. I set up about 3 nails over a coin. First I used a standard discriminator, and .... of course, it masked. Then I pulled out my 77b, and went over the same pile, and it gave a "beep". And just to make my point, I removed the coin, went over the pile again, and no beep! The Fisher rep. was intrigued, but quickly said "We have a machine that can do that", and went back in to the factory to get a Fisher Gold Bug pro. He came back out and tried and tried to get it to do it. But anytime he could adjust it to get a signal on the 3-nails-over-a-coin, then invariably, it would also get a signal off the 3 nails alone (with no coin). Turns out he was going on what he was told by others, that "it will do it". Yet he had never actually seen it or had need to do it, himself. Several more times we compared the 77b against his Fisher, on this parking lot test. And he came away seeing that his machine in no way compared to the 77b.

At least I think it was Gold Bug Pro he fetched that day. Is the Gold Bug Pro 10 or more years old? If so, then that was the one. And no, it couldn't do it.

Brian, the Groundhog's TR might have been "100kHz", but that was TR disc, not TR all-metal. And the disc. setting could not be reduced low enough down, in the factory preset calibrations, to do what the 77b could. In other words: yes, at the lowest settings it did knock out nails, of course, when in disc. mode. But at a high enough level that it also disc'd out whatever was underneath the nails too (ie.: masked). So that TR "disc" was different than the TR "all-metal".

 

[U.K. Brian]

Your mixing topics, I didn't mention iron see through just iron ground and high mineralisation though if iron see through is required at a low price Whites did it with their blue plastic cased Savo-Whites Beachcomber induction balance, also Viking/Sol Invictus/Rimertron and Saxon which is why so many hold on to these detectors.

 

[Smudge]

The Fisher Gold Bug 2, at 71 kHz, is the highest I've seen.

 

[Treasure finder]

I believe some of the other 1970's Compass machines like the 94 and the 99 also
operated at 100Khz and could see coins amidst iron. Cheaper and fewer knobs.
All of these were TR circuits and didn't ground balance so they had to be kept a
constant height above the ground, but were some of the best and most popular
machines of their time. I currently have a Compass Gold Scanner Pro which is a
much superior detector to the earlier Co0mpass units. It operates at 13.77 Khz
and is pretty good at finding coins close to nails, but I would also like to have
one of the 1970's units again.
Another high frequency machine is the Fisher Gemini Two Box Cache detector
and i believe it operates at 82 Khz, but it is not a coin shooter.
Then there is the Falcon MD 20 operating at 300 Khz, but it doesn't have a loop,
just a handheld probe. http://www.falconmetaldetectors.com/
Hope that adds a few points to the discussion
Rich

 

[goldentruth]

Wingmaster: I have seen the older "Whites" GMT with manual ground balance rate it at 50 Khz which is not the same system as Minelab Pulse type. The Whites can find gold in quartz while others pass over it.
I was suprised to go to the "Whites" Video on the newer GMT Goldmaster E-Series out now. The Whites Rep "Jimmy Sierra" does a super Video Demo that answers all questions and actually shows making "Hot Rocks" cancel out. and hit a super small nugget "Under" the hot rock! Also under "Black Sand" too!
I am not a dealer or rep for Whites, I am just a honest consumer in search for what is a productive MD at a reasonable price. Check out this video on the whites site, you will be happy you did and you will see actual gold finds he is happy to share to viewers. It looks like we have what was made before but this may be quicker in ground balancing which is a major concern with the many changing soil types. Good luck friend.