Static with the ATP on Wet Sand

[DiggerGal]

Hi everyone!
Looking for some tips as to the static on wet sand using the stock coil on the ATPRO.
Hunting on dry sand is no problem but the constant noise on the wet sand is driving my ears crazy.
I have tried the following;

Turning the sensitivity down
Changing frequencies
Changing from Pro all to standard

Your guidance would be appreciated as I want to go out after the Holiday weekend, however I believe that the shoreline after the recent storm along with the upcoming holiday traffic will yield higher results.

And....please no ATP haters, buying a different machine isn't an option.

THANKS!!!

 

[Phantasman]

I'm not an AT Pro user, but you didn't mention ground balancing. Wet sand is highly mineralized with salt and has to be ground balanced to it, maybe manually. GB number should be between 0-20 for salt.

From the manual:

"Manual Ground Balance:you may want to use the Manual
Ground Balance function to ground balance slightly positive
to enhance detection of small targets or balance slightly
negative to reduce detection of "hot rocks," terra cotta and
saltwater."

 

[rustyshovel]

I just had the same thing happen to me on the beach today with my new Ace 350 especially while pinpointing. Mine has the DD coil as well and guessed it had something to do with the wet sand or high minerals. Mine wasn't as bad as yours appears to be, I barely noticed it but was a bit annoying at times.

 

[DiggerGal]

I'm not an AT Pro user, but you didn't mention ground balancing. Wet sand is highly mineralized with salt and has to be ground balanced to it.

Thanks Pantasman! I forgot to mention ground balancing, and yes I tried that too. I have read that DD coils are best in highly mineralized ground, but perhaps I am wrong and I need a concentric coil? I am used to ground balancing to a 0 sound and then signals only coming through upon discovery of an item. This is my experience on land and dry sand anyway, but wet sand is at a constant static in the background.

 

[BigWaveDave]

I'm not an AT Pro user, but you didn't mention ground balancing. Wet sand is highly mineralized with salt and has to be ground balanced to it.

What he said...

Check your owners manual, as well as you tube user videos to learn how to ground balance.... Hold down the ground balance button, while you are over the wet sand, and raise and lower the coil until the chatter subsides.. the VDI number may get down to 5 to 15...11 on my sand here...the lower sensitivity, in conjunction with the ground balance will make all the difference. The factory preset frequency shouldn't make a difference, and the standard/pro modes are just a personal preference.... try this, and good luck.

 

[DiggerGal]

I just had the same thing happen to me on the beach today with my new Ace 350 especially while pinpointing. Mine has the DD coil as well and guessed it had something to do with the wet sand or high minerals. Mine wasn't as bad as yours appears to be, I barely noticed it but was a bit annoying at times.

Thanks Rusty. I have very sensitive ears so it's probably not as bad to someone else as it is to me lol. It's almost like radio static, when the station pops and squelches....crazy.....I don't think it's the detector at all, I think it's me, just need to learn how to hunt correctly on wet sand/salt water.

 

[Chestdiesel]

I have an AT Pro as well, and I've always heard they suck on salt water beaches. I've never taken mine to a salt water beach, but I had a similar problem on a lake beach. Super amount of chattering, and falsing on ghost signals. I couldn't stand it, literally drove me insane after like 20 minutes. I did everything you did as well, nothing helped. Please post if you get it figured out. Good luck.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

What part of CA are you in ?

 

[DiggerGal]

Tom,
Southern California. San Diego area.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Digger-Gal, one thing I would suggest then, is to go out with someone who's proficient on your beaches. And make sure they're using a discriminator machine (versus an all-metal beach pulse). If they're proficient with something like a Sov, or 3030, or Excal, or any such beach discriminator, then ask them to flag some deeper wet-sand beach signals. Then you try over it. See if you're getting it or not. And if so, is it discernable from other false signals all around it, at sens. levels/settings needed to "bring it in".

I did this with a Garrett user (but it was a different Garret, not the ATP like yours), and it became a real eye opener for him, as to A) what signals to be listening for, if the deeper ones were his objective, and B) What his limitations were, as in .... some that he might not even expect to hear, to begin with, or C) to the extent that he could "work on a signal , playing with his controls, to "bring in" a signal, did that simply cause the machine to end up being eratic and prone to falses everywhere else ?

If you get on the kinzli forum, there's some San Diego area beach hunters that chime in there.

 

[DiggerGal]

Digger-Gal, one thing I would suggest then, is to go out with someone who's proficient on your beaches. And make sure they're using a discriminator machine (versus an all-metal beach pulse). If they're proficient with something like a Sov, or 3030, or Excal, or any such beach discriminator, then ask them to flag some deeper wet-sand beach signals. Then you try over it. See if you're getting it or not. And if so, is it discernable from other false signals all around it, at sens. levels/settings needed to "bring it in".

I did this with a Garrett user (but it was a different Garret, not the ATP like yours), and it became a real eye opener for him, as to A) what signals to be listening for, if the deeper ones were his objective, and B) What his limitations were, as in .... some that he might not even expect to hear, to begin with, or C) to the extent that he could "work on a signal , playing with his controls, to "bring in" a signal, did that simply cause the machine to end up being eratic and prone to falses everywhere else ?

If you get on the kinzli forum, there's some San Diego area beach hunters that chime in there.

Thank You Tom!
One thing I was thinking about doing is taking a quarter, dime and nickel and burying it in the wet sand to see what type of tone I could get. It of course wouldn't be a seasoned coin garden but it may help me dial in like you stated closer to the target above the chatter.
Thanks again! I'll make sure to post my results. Taking the 5x8 coil with me as well.

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

I found my ATP "usually" won't GB on a salt beach by the pumping method, just as it won't near metal, and has to manually lowered, if you've done that that's about all you can do.

As Phantasman mentioed in reply #2 a number about 15-20

The noise, and falsing is more about heavy minerals, and hot rocks, than the salt, that's why guy (Girl) A on beach A will have not too much problem, and Girl B on beach B will have much problem. I've seen this happen in as little as only 100 yards down the same beach.

The thing to always remember if it beeps consistantly it is a target, and if it does not beep every time, "OR" the targets doesn't seem to beep in the same place every time, those are hot rocks. Some of those hot rocks if small can seem to beep in the same place, but the tell tale will be in the ID's.

Every place I go on dry land has hot rocks to some extent, I envy the people who have nice sandy "quiet" soil.

Good luck out there.

 

[BadM0nkey]

What part of CA are you in ?

Hey Tom. I think I either spoke to you or ran into you at one point when I lived in-between Monterey and Salinas at Corral De Tierra.

Did you ever hunt the Hilltown Ferry? I am not talking about the marker but the actual Ferry site? It is technically state park but it is totally un-managed and seriously overgrown which makes it a great hunting location since most folks would turn back immediately.

 

[DiggerGal]

I found my ATP "usually" won't GB by the pumping method, and has to manually lowered, if you've done that that's about all you can do.
The noise, and falsing is more about heavy minerals, and hot rocks, that the salt, that's why guy (Girl) A on beach A will have not too much problem, and Girl B on beach B will have much problem. I've seen this happen in only 100 yards or so.

The thing to always remember if it beeps consistantly it is a target, and if it does not beep every time, "OR" the targets doesn't seem to beep in the same place every time, those are hot rocks. Some of those hot rocks if small can seem to beep in the same place, but the tell tale will be in the ID's.

Every place I go on dry land has hot rocks to some extent, I envy the people who have nice sandy "quiet" soil.

Good luck out there.

Thank You Rick! I have never manually Ground Balanced the ATP. I will dig out the owners manual and look up how to do that and will be sure to try it out.
Thanks again!!!

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Digger Gal, I just slightly edited my post.
And as Phantasman said in post #2 a GB of around 15-20 "should" work.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

digger-gal, a friend of mine in San Diego has been hunting the wet sand there, with a variety of standard discriminators (Sov, CTX, etc....) He says that if conditions at any beaches there start hinting at coins showing up in the wet, he is willing to flag targets to compare. I'll pm you his email address. Just be sure to pick times (sand eroding out?) where there's going to be numerous to choose from. Versus just "one here" and "one over there". Lest they be too infrequent to start to develop mental patterns.

If he shows you a deepie, then fiddle with the settings, balance, etc... to whatever brings that in best. And then double-check to make sure it's not simply so hot, that you false everywhere else. (ie.: adjust accordingly). And if he shows you a bunch that you simply can not hear, no matter what you do, then .... well ... that would just be a testament to the ATP versus others on wet salt. But at least you can try to max it for how it's going to work best given-the-situation.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

..........Did you ever hunt the Hilltown Ferry? I am not talking about the marker but the actual Ferry site? It is technically state park but it is totally un-managed and seriously overgrown which makes it a great hunting location since most folks would turn back immediately.

Bad-monkey: That spot is not state park. It's private land. And yes, it's all overgrown jungly river-side terrain. And the spots that aren't over-grown jungle , is a modern industrial agriculture business park. And that area has historically flooded (read: "silt") out every 30 yrs. or so (especially before the creation of the reservoirs in south county). So it's a no-go. All under asphalt or adjacent jungle.

An md'ing buddy of mine even has one of the industrial buildings there (that got flooeded out in the 1996 floods). He's a bottle digger, and believe me: He's even tried locating the bottle out-house pits of the old hotel/saloon that used to be there. To no avail. Just too messed up historically there.

 

[cudamark]

digger-gal, a friend of mine in San Diego has been hunting the wet sand there, with a variety of standard discriminators (Sov, CTX, etc....) He says that if conditions at any beaches there start hinting at coins showing up in the wet, he is willing to flag targets to compare. I'll pm you his email address. Just be sure to pick times (sand eroding out?) where there's going to be numerous to choose from. Versus just "one here" and "one over there". Lest they be too infrequent to start to develop mental patterns.

If he shows you a deepie, then fiddle with the settings, balance, etc... to whatever brings that in best. And then double-check to make sure it's not simply so hot, that you false everywhere else. (ie.: adjust accordingly). And if he shows you a bunch that you simply can not hear, no matter what you do, then .... well ... that would just be a testament to the ATP versus others on wet salt. But at least you can try to max it for how it's going to work best given-the-situation.

I can help with that too Tom, if plan A fails. Good luck getting an ATP stable at our beaches with black sand present. To get any decent depth at all, it will be pretty chatty.

 

[DiggerGal]

I can help with that too Tom, if plan A fails. Good luck getting an ATP stable at our beaches with black sand present. To get any decent depth at all, it will be pretty chatty.

Cudamark,

Thank you for chiming in! Am I ta assume that fresh water (streams, creeks, lakes etc) are best for the ATP?
As I stated in my original post that dry sand is not a problem, it's the shoreline that absolutely makes me want to chuck the headphones due to all of the chatter.
I have received some great tips on this thread, many I have already done to no avail, with the exception of "manually Ground Balancing" the unit v. Auto ground balancing in which I will try on my next trip out. It's either going to work one of 2 ways, it will be tolerable or I will be that girl diggin in the dry sand! Lol

 

[cudamark]

Yes, fresh water is not usually a problem with the ATP but most salt water beaches (wet sand and water) are. Some beaches with no mineralization and coral sand aren't too bad, but ours here in San Diego are not that forgiving. The one I borrowed to use finally balanced and was quiet but at those settings, I wasn't getting any depth so it defeated the purpose. The most successful detectorists here use mostly the Excalibur, CTX, Infinium LS, and CZ21. PI machines work fine too but there are lots of iron targets on our beaches that can drive you crazy. I love your Husky! Do you have any pups for sale?