I was detecting the shallow water at a local fresh water beach today and I got to thinking about this. Has anyone noticed that the high-low tone is always loud, or harsh and easy to hear, but the low-high tone is quiet and you must listen very carefully to hear it. I've been digging everything in order to learn to distinguish the targets by tone. The high-low tone is nearly always ferrous trash and mostly very small targets like hair pins. I can hear these targets clearly. The low-high tone is usually a copper cent. Today I slowed my coil speed to very slow in order to hear better and the next two low-high tones turned out to be a silver dime and a silver quarter, but so hard to hear. Now, I wonder if I might have missed a lot of good targets. Am I just learning what everyone else knows, that this machine is best for extremely slow detecting and a good ear...Syd
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ATX Tones
- Thread starter Syd BC
- Start date
SoCalBeachScanner
Member
Hi Syd...
Your right, there are many different sounds along with the intensity of the low/highs & high/low tones from the ATX. Some metals are in-between and your not sure what you are hearing. I have found some brass hardware and chunks of brass can be a bit confusing to me.
On the beach and wet sand, aluminum foil tops from juice drinks, yogurt, along with regular aluminum foil are easy to distinguish if they are not too deep, folded, or in a tight ball. They give off a high pitch TWANG sound that screams foil. If an aluminum foil item is deep, folded over several times, or waded up, they give off a normal tone..
If I scoop a shallow target and didn't hear the double tone that a wire, nail, or hair pin gives off, and if the Iron Check does not sound, I scoop until the hole goes silent, I then spread out the pile of sand I scooped with my foot, then Iron Check the sand I just spread out. More times then not, the Iron Check will sound, I don't even look to see what it was, and just move on. That saves lot of time.
The more you use the ATX, the more different sounds you hear to help determined what not to dig or scoop.
And your right, you can miss some deep small targets if you scan or walk to fast.
Your right, there are many different sounds along with the intensity of the low/highs & high/low tones from the ATX. Some metals are in-between and your not sure what you are hearing. I have found some brass hardware and chunks of brass can be a bit confusing to me.
On the beach and wet sand, aluminum foil tops from juice drinks, yogurt, along with regular aluminum foil are easy to distinguish if they are not too deep, folded, or in a tight ball. They give off a high pitch TWANG sound that screams foil. If an aluminum foil item is deep, folded over several times, or waded up, they give off a normal tone..
If I scoop a shallow target and didn't hear the double tone that a wire, nail, or hair pin gives off, and if the Iron Check does not sound, I scoop until the hole goes silent, I then spread out the pile of sand I scooped with my foot, then Iron Check the sand I just spread out. More times then not, the Iron Check will sound, I don't even look to see what it was, and just move on. That saves lot of time.
The more you use the ATX, the more different sounds you hear to help determined what not to dig or scoop.
And your right, you can miss some deep small targets if you scan or walk to fast.
Thanks SoCalBeachScanner,
Some good information. I had given up on the iron check because I found it would only work on surface targets. I hadn't thought of spreading out the sand pile and iron checking it. That would be a big time saver, I'll be trying it. I have magnets in my scoop but lots of small ferrous bits will fall through. Do you always skip those double tones? I've been scooping them but they're nearly always hairpins or wire. I did find one small silver chain on a double tone. Also, I think I have the sensitivity too high. I've been trying to keep it at 13 but the lines of black sand create a lot of chatter, and I've been trying to use zero ground balance to get more depth but perhaps I should ground balance. This machine requires a lot of patience and PI is new to me, but I really like it and enjoy the challenge. It has produced several small gold items and some silver coin in the short time I've been using it so it's a keeper...Syd
Some good information. I had given up on the iron check because I found it would only work on surface targets. I hadn't thought of spreading out the sand pile and iron checking it. That would be a big time saver, I'll be trying it. I have magnets in my scoop but lots of small ferrous bits will fall through. Do you always skip those double tones? I've been scooping them but they're nearly always hairpins or wire. I did find one small silver chain on a double tone. Also, I think I have the sensitivity too high. I've been trying to keep it at 13 but the lines of black sand create a lot of chatter, and I've been trying to use zero ground balance to get more depth but perhaps I should ground balance. This machine requires a lot of patience and PI is new to me, but I really like it and enjoy the challenge. It has produced several small gold items and some silver coin in the short time I've been using it so it's a keeper...Syd
SoCalBeachScanner
Member
Hey Syd...
I don't skip all quick double-tone type targets. It depends on how close together the sound is and I usually measure double-tone target from different directions during scanning and make a judgement call on whether to scoop it. It also depends on what beach I'm at. Long Beach, CA, has some really weird stuff in the wet sand and water because there is no tidal or storm movement of the sand because of a 7-mile long breakwater 3-miles offshore that was built in the 40's and it expands the length of Long Beach. I have found long wiring, metal tubing, engine parts, and some items I can't even identify made of brass, copper, stainless steel, cast iron, and iron, that have been there well over 60-years.
I haven't found a small chain yet that was without a charm or pendant on it, so I could be missing hearing one by skipping some double tones. I learned early on with the ATX by scooping lots of quick sounding double-tones that are 3-4 inches in length and decided the results wasn't worth the time and effort. I like those faint, quick, small, high/low tone signals, but when the item is deep and you hear a faint signal, it's sometimes hard to tell if it's high/low or low/high, it's just a sound, so you scoop down to it. On shallower targets, I can usually guess if it a coin most of the time, if it's not to deep (say, less than 10").
I don't skip all quick double-tone type targets. It depends on how close together the sound is and I usually measure double-tone target from different directions during scanning and make a judgement call on whether to scoop it. It also depends on what beach I'm at. Long Beach, CA, has some really weird stuff in the wet sand and water because there is no tidal or storm movement of the sand because of a 7-mile long breakwater 3-miles offshore that was built in the 40's and it expands the length of Long Beach. I have found long wiring, metal tubing, engine parts, and some items I can't even identify made of brass, copper, stainless steel, cast iron, and iron, that have been there well over 60-years.
I haven't found a small chain yet that was without a charm or pendant on it, so I could be missing hearing one by skipping some double tones. I learned early on with the ATX by scooping lots of quick sounding double-tones that are 3-4 inches in length and decided the results wasn't worth the time and effort. I like those faint, quick, small, high/low tone signals, but when the item is deep and you hear a faint signal, it's sometimes hard to tell if it's high/low or low/high, it's just a sound, so you scoop down to it. On shallower targets, I can usually guess if it a coin most of the time, if it's not to deep (say, less than 10").
There are a lot of other "hints" with the audio. The harsher tones usually are bottle caps, rusted iron or other pieces of canslwaw. Coins/rings usually give a smother audio. Coins often give a nice smooth sound in all directions. The deeper targets give less audio volume. Small targets give a shorter blip audio then larger targets which give a longer blip. Tiny targets like small BB size give a definite shorter blip then a coin. You have to really put in a lot of hours on the AT Pro to utilize those subtle audio hints it gives.
shelton7522
New member
Try to increase background hum volume by threshold adjustment... maybe it will help.
Thanks for all the good advice. I reduced my sensitivity and increased the threshold. This machine provides a lot of information when you learn the language. I've been making good finds every trip to the beach. My thought that the low-high tone was weak really changed today when working in some deep sand I heard a clear low-high and after digging a deep hole I finally had a very large size silver ring (size 15). The ATX correctly ID'd it even though it was deep, and you can't ask for more than that. Next I'm going to try some fields where I've found silver coins in the past. Good luck everyone...Syd
Hello nice post !! chains gold can make low/high it depend the position, a twisted ring can make a double bip like hair pin! small ring silver hi/low but big silver low /high, i find a siver ring with a band1.9g) of 18k, the sound was low/high
As you say little sounds but fast always trasch, but a little sound without Hi/low juste a light "hiiiii" are good, when the ground make noise a put the pulse delay at 3/4 , forget little ring more 10inch deep, but loose nothing like the big gold, and after when i think to have take the big i come back , and pulse delay at 0, sensi at 10 and dig the little target, somethimes small ring with stones i missed before
As anyone work to the attak , realease of the sounds ?
I find signal short+ echoes short is goodies, long signals and short echoes something like big aluminium and lot of money, short signal and long echoes another kind of targets..
Big iron make a loooong sound (for kind of iron make hi/low ) i make a test with a tdi (not sl) with a 14.4v batterie, on a platine ring 12 inches he had nothing, atx was "hiiiiooooo"
Happy if people talk with me around this with my englisch..
Thanks !
As you say little sounds but fast always trasch, but a little sound without Hi/low juste a light "hiiiii" are good, when the ground make noise a put the pulse delay at 3/4 , forget little ring more 10inch deep, but loose nothing like the big gold, and after when i think to have take the big i come back , and pulse delay at 0, sensi at 10 and dig the little target, somethimes small ring with stones i missed before
As anyone work to the attak , realease of the sounds ?
I find signal short+ echoes short is goodies, long signals and short echoes something like big aluminium and lot of money, short signal and long echoes another kind of targets..
Big iron make a loooong sound (for kind of iron make hi/low ) i make a test with a tdi (not sl) with a 14.4v batterie, on a platine ring 12 inches he had nothing, atx was "hiiiiooooo"
Happy if people talk with me around this with my englisch..
Thanks !