Aquasearch Question: SAT Settings

[cjc]

HI Bill & Eric
Thanks for a great machine. In the article I read about the Aqua / GQ you mentioned that SAT settings above half way produced no noticable loss of depth on small gold. I am curious as to why this cut-off point was specifically mentioned and if (even) higher settings do affect depth. I hunt in high saline, fast water and would like to smooth it out but am afraid to use higher settings. My other pulse can't handle it, so I wonder if trying to clip the signal down this way is workable or not.
Also, are air test accurate with a pulse or is there positve (or negative) signal conduction in salt water?
Clive

 

[Gulf Hunter]

Don't really know if this applies to your particular situation cjc, but here goes. As you well know, I hunt the Galveston area and while it is not heavily saline, it is highly mineralized and there are waves and currents. The A2 gave me fits (unstable) when running the stock 11" coil in deep water, unless I backed the Pulse Delay down to at least 1 mark off max, which would be 12-15uS. I had Bill fit the unit with an 8" coil and can now run at 10uS, without any falsing. It still gets scalding depth, as compared to Excal (have) or Mark II, which I have also used. The 8" coil is much easier to control in the water also. Good luck with lining this issue out. I run the SAT on it's fastest setting to keep the noise down from wave action.
GH

 

[Mr.Bill]

Hi Clive

The SAT control adjust the circuit reset speed.

Hold the coil motionless over a target with the SAT on it's slowest position. Observe the time it takes for the target to tune it's self out. Set SAT to the fastest position, and do the same. Notice how fast the target response disappears ? That's the circuit retuning it's self to maintain the Threshold you set.

If in real bad ground, and or the need to sweep the coil fast, kick up the SAT a bit.

It is a user preferred, location by location setting. It's not a permanent setting.

This is not to be confused with the pulse delay, a control that controls the transmitter on/off time.

For maximum performance these controls would be adjusted as needed for the conditions at hand.

 

[cjc]

Something around a 10:00 / 10:00 is what seems to be a good comparamise where there is current. the reason I ask is because less delay would be nice (9:00 or less) but this would mean an SAT setting up well past noon. Have to get in some tests.
clive

 

[Reg]

Hi Clive,

I don't water hunt, but do use a GQ clone for nugget hunting and I personally, prefer the SAT (I call it the autotune control) set up faster. It will generally cause a sharper response on the weaker signals.

There can be a slight air test loss if the speed is set to maximum but in actual field tests, this faster speed can provide a depth increase simply because you can separate targets better from background noise.

So, one shouldn't be afraid of trying different settings from the slowest to the fastest. At times, one extreme will work better than the other and other times, the opposite will hold true.

Once you have used the entire range sufficiently, you will be able to quickly decide just what speed works best. Remember, if you feel you have it set too fast, then simply retrace your steps using a slower speed to see just what might have been missed. What you will find is different sat speeds do have their advantages and this includes the entire SAT range. In most cases, the depth of detection difference is minimal but the ability to distinguish targets may be significant.

Reg