Vaquero problems

[68kaiser]

Hello again. I am having a problem with my vaquero. Around my house it is fine.. When I travel for work and go to southern California near the coast I have problems. The threshold becomes unstable and I can not get it to have a steady humm. I also can not get it ground balances when it is doing this. The threshold tone is up.. Down...all over the place. This has happened now at 2 different towns. Santa Barbara and San Juan Capistrano. This is not at the beach but in town. My vaquero is almost worthless when its like this, I do find coins but 4" max depth. The false signals and lack of depth kill me. Any suggestions or help with this would be great.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[Terry Soloman]

It's either a bad coil or EMI. If there is CC TV cameras or electric fences, yadda, yadda it could be EMI - especially if it is OK in your neighborhood

 

[68kaiser]

I was afraid of the emi thing... Every location I go to seems to be the same around here.. Just flat pisses me off. I was wondering if it was the minerals from being next to the coast. I'm stuck here working and hoping to get some good hunting in. So for its not working out

 

[steve1357]

Tried leaving cellphone at home? Or even vehicle. I notice bluetooth can cause serious issues.

 

[pinenut]

Have you tried switching frequency to see if it helps any?
I noticed that seemed to help some when I was near generators and using my Eldorado.

 

[Stoof2010]

My worst enemy last year were invisible dog fences. First 2 permissions I had had dog fences. One was on the property making detectors unusable and the other was the neighbor and only bothered on that side of the property.
Not saying that's what it is, but just saying. Pissed me off not knowing what was wrong.

 

[68kaiser]

I found a park finally that is good. Must be emi. Seems everywhere I go down here in southern ca has emi issue. But I found a spot that I can run the vaquero smooth again. Normally the vaquero does not care about emi that is why I was asking. Must be just the right frequency around here to play hell with it. Thanks guys.

 

[Stoof2010]

Glad you figured out it was environmental.
Happy hunting!

 

[pinenut]

EMI issues..

That EMI can make quite a difference. I recently saw that my new Mojave gets more chirpy around electrical wires.
While out with my Eldorado and a big coil yesterday, once I got under some power lines I hadn't noticed (happens when staring at the ground..), the detector got a bit noisy. Thought I ran into some small hot rocks, so bumped the GB a bit positive...didn't make much difference. Looked around and saw I was directly under power lines; not the big ones either. Tried the frequency switch and "freq3" quieted it down a bit. Though I rarely change it off "freq1", I have made use of that switch several times on my detectors that have it.
Sometimes, the only way you can hunt those EMI polluted spots, is by running sensitivity down lower.

 

[luvsdux]

When I first got my (used) Eldorado, ground balancing was a pain due to interference on the threshold. Later, when I was well away from any possible emi, it settled right down and operated smoothly as desired.
luvsdux