Here is the advice I give to all new E-Trac owners. It comes from 5 years of use.
Before use, you need to read the owners manual. Read it several times. After you play with the detector some, go read it again. It will make more sense now. Do the same with the A.S. book.
To begin, put it in a stock mode, such as the coin mode, or which ever one fits your needs. Now, LEAVE IT ALONE. Don't change anything until you start to really understand it. Constant changes will only confuse and prolong the learning process.
Next, start off in some place easy to dig such as tot lots, volleyball courts, etc. Dig everything that responds, but keep mental notes about TID and sounds. Use these places to practice pinpointing. The E-trac pinpoints great once you learn it, but can confuse you when you're new.
Once you have a solid feel for pinpoint and response, move out into "real" hunting spots. but pick places that aren't extremely trashy. This is the hard part, you have to train your ear and mind. Open up the disc pattern to an Andy Sabich pattern or even more open. Yes, you will dig more iron trash this way, but you will also dig more deep, old, good targets.
The E-Trac is great at ID'ing the Conductive aspect of targets. As targets get deeper, the FE aspect loses reliability. Deep targets will see the cursor "bounce" up and down much more than shallow ones. In time you will learn to recognize the sound of iron falses and how they differ from good targets.
Expect to put at least 100 hours of use on it before you really start to understand it.
Lastly, when you feel ready to start making changes to the settings (other than the pattern) make one change at a time. Go detect and see how that change affects things. Then change something else if you need. Keep making changes this way, because each thing affects responses and some changes interact with other settings. Making lots of changes at once won't let you learn what you are really doing.
