understanding my e-tracs signals & sounds

[fbjr]

understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Well I bought my dream detector about a month ago, the minelab e-trac. The quality of this machine is second to none in my personal opinion. I started with a Garrett ace 250, then got a tesoro cortes and now the e-trac. I really love the cortes because it is so light weight, easy to understand and to use. There are a couple of reasons I wanted to to try another detector. First of all the cortes' quality is not quite up there with some of the other brands however it does have a life time warranty. The main reason I wanted something else was because I there are certain area's where I was getting way too much electrical interference, even with the depth/sensitivity turned all the way down. Don't get me wrong, I really love this detector and have had some great finds with it but I wanted something I can use without having to worry about this kind of problem. I've been using the e-trac for about a month now and have read as much as I can about it, including the book the minelab explorer & e-trac handbook by Andy sabisch. I have had a couple good finds so far but still don't feel as confident with the e-trac yet. I still can't seem to grasp the tones or numbers on the display and it gets frustrating. I've had a couple of days where it seems like I'm getting the hang of it and the next day I feel like I'm back to day 1. To all of you e-trac users, what would you recommend to help with this learning curve as I've read and re-read that book, watched tons of video's and even made a small cheat sheet print out of the graph shown in the book. Thanks and any help is greatly appreciated.

 

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[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

If you have read the book several times things should start to fall in place. One day the light will turn on and it will just click. Its really a very easy machine to use once you figure it out.
Some guys try to adjust the machine to death before they know what things are doing. I suggest leaving in stock coin program and fully learn that. Once you do, then and only then start tweaking things. Only other thing I would suggest is get out and swing it. NOTHING can beat experience! You will get it.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Sorry, I can't tell you anything the manual and Sabich haven't already. You just have to keep using it until it "clicks" for you. Number of months using it isn't as important at number of hours spent swinging and digging.

Only advice I can think of, is make sure you aren't changing settings all the time. Set it up according the manual or Sabich and leave it there. If you are changing the settings this early, it will take a long time learn.

 

[stasys]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Etrac is one of the best. if you want to learn quicker I can teach you live on the Skype.

 

[sniffer]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

best thing I can tell you is...use coin program with 4 tone and dig all high tones. you will find good stuff.

 

[cerebus]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

4 tone conductive is great in parks. I find 2 tone ferrous very good for places with a lot of iron or somewhere you want to dig all targets that are not iron. i recently used TTF in England where small hammered coins ring up as low as foil and it worked awesome. It is amazing how sensitive the e-trac is on very small objects.

 

[DeArmitt Pa]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Practice, Practice and more Practice!

The best thing you can do is take all the targets you have found in your career and run them under the coil. Listen to the sound first before you look at VDI numbers. As we all know, VDI's though helpful are not always accurate under certain circumstances. The sound is never wrong. Once you get use to the machine more, open up the discrimination more. The coin program is ok, but is a little to much discrimination even for a park.

John DeArmitt
Fort Bedford Metal Detectors

 

[Born2Dtect]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Listen to the sounds. Use the wiggle method to pin point. It will also tell you the size. Then check the numbers and depth. Finally dig them all for a while until you can guess 9 out of 10 signals. Then you will know your detector. Then you can play with all the settings. I did this first in sand (beach) and dug everything to learn the signals. I still like to dig any repeatable signal that I can pin point when I can. Just like a kid on Christmas morning.

Ed D.

 

[fbjr]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Thanks for all the responses and input. I went with the 4 tone, downloaded a pattern similar to the coins(stock) just less discrimination, one of Andy Sabisch's (thank you Andy for sharing) and definitely pay more attention to sound over anything else......that's how it was/is with my Cortes. I'm digging everything solid and even some that are not and am improving every time I go out. Unfortunately the weather just turned practically over night and now there is snow in the forecast. But the last hunt landed me 2 indian head pennies (1879 & 1896), an albany grease token, a horse shoe and a stirrup and my personal favorite find....my first gold find ever.....a gold wedding band that belongs to the land owner. I gave it to her and she was so happy and said she thought she would never see it again. Since then I dig all solid tones high and low. Thanks again every one and happy hunting !!

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Awesome sorry!

 

[fbjr]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Had some nice weather here in upstate NY today so I went out again and can't believe just how sensitive on tiny little objects the e-trac is. No great finds but found 3 very small objects....and I mean small down between 3 - 7 inches deep each. The most impressive is what looks like a rivet from a pair of jeans, that was down about 6 inches, maybe 7(size of the object at that depth is what impressed me). The other thing that impressed me was the nickel I found, it was a strange signal but decided to dig anyways and it was actually standing on edge.....1st time this has ever happened to me. Starting to feel more comfortable with e-trac and am heading back out again tomorrow.

 

[extractor]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

It sounds like your getting the hang of it. The last couple of times out I used the beach mode (LoL, And I am In the Desert). Did good on the finds and even found a sinker and the handle from a fishing real !

 

[fistfulladirt]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Have you used the smartfind feature? Seems to be more user-friendly. The VDI #'s drive me nuts and I will never use them, probably never will.

 

[sniffer]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

I love the #'s. if anything rings up a 12--- I dig it, period.

 

[fbjr]

Re: understanding my e-trac's signals & sounds

Got out a few more times thanks to a nice break in weather.....found my 1st and 2nd silver coin(s) with the e-trac. A 1948 dime and a 1960 dime. The 1948 dime was found in my own back yard that I have been over probably 100 times with my Ace 250 and Tesoro Cortes. Very impressed !! Went back out again today and found my very 1st buffalo nickel, looks like either 1936 or 1938 ? Also found a charm that's sort of triangular in shape that says campus on the front and ROYCE N.Y. on the back. Really starting to enjoy the settings and pattern with 4 tone audio and getting more confident with the e-trac. Still finding other small/tiny sized objects (small buttons, etc). Still mainly digging based on solid audio signals but do check the numbers and also digging everything on that number 12 line.