5/20/15 Report - Reveiw Of The Garrett ATX Extreme Part II. Gold Markings and Possible Confusion.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

ATX In Folded Position.

This is a continuation of the review of the Garrett ATX that I began yesterday.

As I said, the ATX does have discrimination.  It is simple linear discrimination with 25 incremental positions.   Low conductivity targets are the first to be discriminated.

There are 13 sensitivity settings.

For maximum detection of small and deep targets, use maximum sensitivity and zero discrimination when you can.  If there is electrical interference in the area, you can do a frequency scan to select the best operating frequency.

I mentioned yesterday that pinpointing is not easy with the ATX unless you use the pinpoint mode.   That is true of the motion mode, which is what a lot of people will use.  In non-motion mode you can sweep slowly and will not need to use the pinpoint button.

There is another pinpointing trick that I might describe some other time.

I find the visual signal strength indicator most helpful for pinpointing. I can see the peak signal strength much better than I can hear it from the auditory signal.

The ATX is a heavy detector.  That will be a problem for many people, but I find it surprisingly easy to swing considering its weight.  It comes with a harness, so that might be a solution for some.

The controls and settings are easily accessed, for the most part with one finger while you detect.

You will dig deep targets with the ATX, both good and junk.  It can get a bit tiring.

It is good on gold.  It responds to small gold very well as compared to clad coins.  It can detect small gold and chains that would be missed by many detectors, however you must use it well to get maximum performance.

I use a test target to determine how well I have the detector tuned.  I talked about that before.

For some situations, such as dry sand, the default settings might be all you need.  Just turn it on and go.  If you don't want to miss a thing, turn up the sensitivity to the max.

However if you are in the wet sand or salt water, or highly mineralized soil, you might want to make some adjustments.   If using motion mode you might want to ground balance as you move from one area to another.  That is not necessary in dry Treasure Coast beach sand.  Again, I like using a test target to make sure I am getting near peak performance.

Once you learn to use non-motion mode in salt water, that will give you the best performance.  It takes practice though, and the threshold setting is very important.  Also expect to retune frequently when using non-motion is salt water.   You may encounter audio drift.

There are some cases when you might not want to detect everything, such as on a beach cluttered with small pieces of iron.  In that case you can decrease sensitivity.

To sum it up, the ATX is a very good detector that will detect small and deep targets and is very good on gold.  It is a bit heavy and requires some practice and skill for optimal peformance.  It can beat most of the detectors being used on the beach if used well.  Like I said yesterday, if you are a person that likes to use discrimination, I'd select another detector.  You can discriminate with the ATX, but then you are minimizing the power that you paid extra money to get.

In many ways the ATX is just the opposite of the Ace 250 that I once reviewed.  I would use the Ace when I don't need maximum depth and want a detector that is easy to use.   The ATX costs nearly ten times as much as the Ace.  Of course the ATX is more rugged than the Ace.

I've heard of problems with the ATX rod freezing but I have not had that problem.  The ATX eats up batteries, but comes with rechargable batteries and a recharger.

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Often wedding rings will be inscribed with a date.  Did you know that 8-10-11 does not always indicate August 10, 2011?   It sometimes indicates the 8th day of October.  Some countries put the day before the month.

So if you see something like 20-10-2011 and are wondering how the month can be the twentieth month, it is probably the day rather than the month and your ring is from another country.

Gold purity is often given in either K (karat) or as a three digit decimal.

Karat purity is measured as 24 times the purity by mass, or in other words 24 times the mass of gold divided by the total mass of the item.   24-Karat gold is fine (99.9% Au w/w), 18-Karat gold is 18 parts gold 6 parts another metal (forming an alloy), 12-Karat gold is 12 parts gold (12 parts another metal), etc.

14k is approximately .5833% gold, but jewelers increase it to .585% for easier mixing.

Back in the old days there was a time when I used to see KP stamped on an item and thought it meant the object was gold plated.  That was a big mistake.  KP stands for Karat Plumb, where "plumb" indicates "exact."   So the KP mark is a good thing instead of a bad thing.

Look for and make good use of any markings but don't blindly accept them.  There are times when they are wrong.  Sometimes intentionally.

A lot of rings these days are 9K.   That might lead to some confusion if you do an acid test.  Normally the first container of test acid will be for 10K.

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Expect more days of calm surf on the Treasure Coast.  This is getting old.  We do still have a good negative tide.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/17/15 Report - Most Popular Posts. Marginal Signals. Detector Adjustments & Sensitivity. Shipwreck Gold Nugget.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Ancient Gold Pendant
Found With Metal Detector.

You probably noticed that I made a change to the first page of the blog.  It now displays eight of the most popular posts of the past.

I think this is a great feature because there are six or seven years of posts now, and that can be overwhelming.  This provides a good new way to see if there is anything you missed or simply want to revisit.

The post about this gold pendant is one of those popular posts.  It is listed at the top of the list.

Last night I stumbled upon an old post reporting on the find of a gold nugget on a Treasure Coast shipwreck treasure beach last year about this time of year.  That particular post didn't make the top eight list.   See the 3/17/14 post for that and more on gold nuggets.

Enjoy.

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Back a few days ago I talked briefly about rounding your curves on your sweep pattern as shown in the illustration below.  In wet sand an abrupt change in direction at the end of each sweep can cause false signals at the end of the sweeps.  This especially occurs when the change in direction occurs where a recent wave stopped and left a line dividing wet sand from dry sand.  If you have your discrimination up or your sensitivity low, you won't hear those transitions, but there can be a cost to that.

An increase in noise near the end of sweeps can cause you to miss what I have called marginal signals, which also frequently occur near the end of the sweeps.  Marginal signals can sound a lot like the noise caused by the coil passing over the line between the wet and dry sand.  Ignoring marginal signals can result in a significant reduction in finds. It can be difficult to distinguish between noise and marginal signals, but double checking will do the job.  When you sweep in both directions over the questionable signal, signals that remain consistent will be good signals.

Adjusting your detector to avoid all false signals can cause a loss in sensitivity that will cause you to miss good but borderline targets that are either small or deep.  Experience can help you distinguish between noise and marginal signals.  Double checking some of those hard to distinguish signals is always a good idea.

It is also a good idea to sweep your coil parallel to the water instead of East/West or towards and away from the water's edge.  That way your detector will not have to adapt to the changes in moisture levels and mineralization on each swing.  That will give you more depth, and if you are running hot, fewer false signals.





If you run your detector hot in all-metals or pinpoint mode, you can hear all of the changes in the moisture and salt levels etc., but you can learn to distinguish those sounds from real targets.  The same goes for black sand.

Many people feel like their detector doesn't work over black sand.  They hear the black sand and give up.  In an all-metals mode you definitely can hear the black sand, but you can also hear many of the targets in or under the black sand.  

An edge in the black sand, made by a scoop or foot print or something, can cause a signal that can be difficult to distinguish from a signal caused by a good target.

It is a good idea to work in different areas of the beach (dry sand, wet sand, and in the water) one at a time instead of making your detector adjust as you go back and forth from one to another.  With some detectors, you will want to ground balance again if and when you go from one of those areas to the next.

One time a fellow using a high-end Minelab gold detector told me that when he was sweeping North/South along the water he could detect targets deeper than when he swung perpendicular to the water.   He said he thought it had to do with the earth's magnetic fields.  He was a very bright fellow, but what he was really observing was the loss in sensitivity caused by his detector trying to adjust to the rapid changes in moisture and salt when sweeping East/West.

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On the Treasure Coast today the surf is a touch higher.  We are having some good negative low tides though. 

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

9/2614 Report - Many Nice Old Metal Detector Finds From Treasure Coast Off-Beach Sites. Lightning Noise In Detectors Lately. GoPro Cameras.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.

Finds by William M.
Photo submitted by William

If you've been having trouble finding much due to poor detecting conditions lately, there are alternatives to hitting the same over hunted beaches. 

I've noticed more than a few opportunities lately.  On the Treasure Coast it seems there has been a lot of construction and quite a few newly demolished buildings.

Bill M. has been finding a lot of really cool stuff.  He has been getting permission to work on private property.

Here is a photo of some of his finds.  There are a lot of really nice finds there.

Congratulations William!









Notice all of the silver coins in the photo.  Below is an example of one very nice Mercury dime in exceptional dug condition.

If you want to find something old, there is a lot of it out there.  I'd say that only a very tiny portion of the old stuff like this has been found.  Most of it is still out there in the ground deteriorating and waiting to be saved.

Many places have not been worked at all, and many that have been worked still hold many very good targets. 

Very Nice Mercury Dime Found by William
Photo submitted by William

Here is a very nice 1917 dime found by William.  It has about $1.50 worth of silver in it, but it is in very nice condition and therefore worth more than that.

1917 D dimes bring good money.

Very good photo William.

Notice all of the silver coins in the photo above.

You might find the relics even more interesting.

Below is one photo showing some buttons and buckles.

Buckles and Other Items Found by William.
Photo by William.

Charm Found by William
Photo by William.

To the right is a nice charm.  It probably had a personal significance to someone -  maybe a runner.  It would be nice to know more about that.

On the left is also what looks like a hair beret and a thimble.







I've found thimbles on the beach where I'd never expect to find them.  I have a hard time telling how old they might be.  I certainly don't know anyone who uses a thimble. today.   They can be centuries old.


And here are a couple more neat finds by William.

Like I always say, There is always some place to hunt and something to be found.  William did his homework and made a lot of great finds.   Thanks for sharing William.  Way to go!



As I write, it is pouring rain again.  I went outside to play around with a detector last evening and the lightning was causing the detector to beep occasionally, sometimes giving a good "bell" tone, which on that particular detector indicates a good target. 

Lightning can cause noise in a metal detector.  I previously mentioned that one of my detectors had been  noisy lately, and I thought it might be developing problems, but I have now decided that the problem was caused by distant thunderstorms, which have almost always been somewhere around the Treasure Coast lately.   Thunderstorms can cause detector noise even when they are miles away.


Gopro makes a really good waterproof camera.  I use one sometimes, but since it is made primarily for action photography, it isn't what I need most of the time.   It is very good technology though, and I've commented on that.

Gopro went public a few months ago and the stock has gone from 24 to over 80.  That is a nice return.

You'll see Gopro cameras used on some of the detecting, treasure hunting and diving TV programs. 

They claim that they will be making a video channel.  That should be good.



Other than one disturbance out in middle of the Atlantic, there isn't much to watch. 

On the Treasure Coast we are having two to three foot seas for a few days.


I have still have more finds to show and know of one other big project that I can't wait to tell you about.

Thanks for your responses to the blog poll.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

6/2/14 Report - UPDATED. Metal Detecting in Black Sand, Salt Sand, and Noisy Environments, Gold Rings From Fresh Water Lake, and Increasing Surf

Written by the treasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Gold Ring Found by Robert H.
Photo submitted by Robert H.

On the Treasure Coast the wind has increased and the surf has increased as well.  We'll have to see what that does.  I don't like the angle right now.  I expect the waves to be too much from the East.

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UPDATE:  I went to the beach this afternoon after high tide.  I looked at about 8 different spots along a stretch of just over twenty miles.
I didn't see any erosion except for some little six inch cuts at the best of all the spots (not counting Fort Pierce South Jetty Park where the new sand has washed away to create a six plus foot cut already). 

Below are pictures of two beaches that I saw. 

Jensen beach had deteriorated since I last showed it.  Notice the sea weed.  That is a bad indicator.

And also shown below is the best of the natural beaches.  Still nothing but six inch cuts.

Jensen Beach Just After High Tide Today.

The Only Cuts I Found on South Hutchinson Island Other Than At South Jetty Park.

It seems I was right about the angle of the wind and waves.  The waves were a good four to six feet but the angles were wrong and the beach detecting conditions remain poor.

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Robert H. detected a fresh water lake close to his home and found three small gold rings and a pendant. 

Above is shown one of the gold rings.  It is a very common type.  If you've been detecting very long you've probably found more than one of these.

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The signal you get from your metal detector even if it is a good signal, always occurs in a background of noise.  Noise can keep you from hearing a signal, and therefore cuts down the effective depth that you can detect targets.  Generally speaking, the more noise there is, the more good signals you will miss.

Signal detection theory was developed during World War II when they were developing radar systems and trying to identify blips on a screen indicating the presence of planes.

We all know that you don't have to talk so loud when you are in a quiet room with one other person, and you have to talk much louder to be heard and understood in a noisy room.  That is a simple illustration of the signal in noise problem.

There are a variety of sources of noise when you are detecting.  Some are external, such as wind and the noise of waves breaking.  Some internal, such as tinnitus (that ringing sound you might hear in your ears, and even distracted thoughts.  And some noise come from your detector and the ear phones, such as the signals caused by black sand or minerals, or static in the ear phones caused by various things such as lightening or power lines or nearby metal detectors.

When you do an air test some sources of noise are eliminated or minimized and the noise level can be relatively low.  That results in unnatural results, sometimes better than what you would expect in the field.  In an air test, however, the results can also be worse than what you would get in the field.

Usually there is little difficulty in detecting large shallow targets that create a loud distinct signal, however, when you are trying to detect smaller or deeper targets that give a more faint signal, many of those signals can easily get lost in the noise.

Some detectors give very steady or stable threshold sounds.  That is the sound you hear when the detector is not detecting a target.  Others have a rough or unstable threshold.  An unstable threshold is a source of noise that can cause you to miss perfectly good signals and targets.

If you can adjust your threshold so that it is more steady, you might increase the probability of hearing good signals.  I say "might" because there are other factors that must be taken into account.

If you just increase the volume you will be increasing the loudness of the good signals, but would also be increasing the noise level.  That will not necessarily help you hear the more subtle signals, which can still get lost in the noise.

Here is a key point.  Lowering the threshold level too far to either eliminate the threshold or even to create a very stable threshold is not always a good thing to do.  The threshold level that is best for you will be determined by both your detector and your own operating characteristics.

When you lower the threshold too much, besides eliminating a lot of the noise, you can also lose a lot of the good signals. 

I personally run my detector very sensitive and fairly loud.  I hear the salt mineralization and other noise.   That doesn't bother me much, because I can usually identify those sources and distinguish those sounds from the good signals. 

Since we always operate in a more or less noisy environment, you should be aware that you are always attempting to discriminate between good signals and noise (bad signals.)    Sometimes that is relatively easy and sometimes more difficult.  One good thing to do is make any adjustments you can that will help  reduce the noise to signal ratio, without losing much good information.  That includes changing detector settings, headphone adjustments, and even your mental state.

If you hunt in all-metals or pin-point mode, you will hear a lot of things, many of which are not good targets.  You might, for example, hear concentrations of black sand or salt mineralization.  I'm talking about VLF detectors here.  Some people have a lot of trouble with that.  They think they can't hunt in black sand or salt areas without decreasing sensitivity.  They complain about their detector "falsing."  I don't have much trouble with that.  I generally run my detector the same over black sand as over non-magnetic sand, and over salt mineralized sand as over dry sand.  I hear those effects, but am not bothered by them because I know what they are and can distinguish between those effects and signals produced by targets.   I almost never decrease my sensitivity settings.   I really can't remember having done that.

If you are working over layers of black sand for example, your detector will respond to the black sand.  I say it sounds like a twang.  Smooth undisturbed layers will create a gradual sound, while a footprint or distinct edge in the black sand will sound more like a target.

Watch as you detect these things and you will see what it is that your detector is responding to.

If there is a coin in the black sand you will have a lot of noise but you will still be able to identify good signals.  Coins in black sand will cause signals that are more distinct than the twang of smooth black sand. 

Don't try to avoid all noise.  I've heard very experienced detectorists using very high-end detectors complain that they could not detect in black sand.  I used the same type of detector and detected in black sand every time I saw it and didn't make any adjustments to my settings at all to adjust for the black sand.  I simply listen to the sounds made by the black sand, but can distinguish other sounds created by targets in the black sand too.

The same thing goes for wet salt sand.  Where the salt water has just come up and stopped and then receded, at that edge, you might get a false signal.   Many times you will be able to see the edge that you are detecting. (Anther reason to keep your eyes open while detecting.)

That doesn't bother me.  I know what is creating the signal (noise in this case), and it doesn't bother me at all.  That is part of getting to know your detector.

If you learn to understand your detector and what it is telling you, you won't be bothered by noises like this.  In fact when you understand what it is, the noise becomes information. 

You might be surprised by the types of environments you will be able to detect when you learn how.

Don't try to avoid all noise.  Some noise is actually information when you learn what it is.

Don't be deterred by some falsing.   Try to identify the cause the falsing, which might not be falsing at all.


I'll be watching to see how the beach develops.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net