Charles (Upstate NY)
Well-known member
I spent some time hunting NJ beaches in 2005. The stock Explorer coil tends to false on seaweed and when waves pass under the coil. So I have two options, either back off the sensitivity or back off the gain.
A friend of mine who hunts these beaches often choses to run his gain about 8 and reduce his sensitivity until the falsing goes away. I didn't like that approach, I felt I would potentially miss deeper targets cutting my sensitivity back so far. But I had to do something because the falsing was driving me nuts.
I started thinking about the order in which the Explorer processes sensitivity and gain settings. It seemed logical to me that the Explorer would first process the sensitivity setting, filtering out the weak signals and then apply the gain to whatever was left. In other words, running your gain at 10 isn't going to boost a signal that has already been filtered out by a lower sensitivity setting.
Then I thought, I wonder if a coin/ring singal is stronger than a false signal? In testing I found the coin/ring signal was quite a bit stronger than the false signal. If I set my gain to 10 (max) I could not tell the difference because a gain of 10 boosts all signals to the same volume. But as I reduced my gain the coin/ring signal stayed strong while the false signal began to drop in volume. When I got to gain 6 the false signal was still there, but it was now faint enough that I could ignore it and the coin/ring signals were still coming through loud and clear.
So I ended up doing just the oppositve of what my friend was doing, I was running my gain low and sensitivity high. He had his gain high at 8 and his sensitivity quite a number of points lower.
What was the result? I came across a deep nickel signal and I called him over to check it. It was a medium good signal with my settings but he didn't get a signal on it at all, his sensitivity was too low and so this proved the theory, a high gain will not boost a signal that has already been filtered out by a low sensitivity setting.
I have the same issue at a land site I hunt. The ground produces a ton of high false tones with my gain at 8, loud enough to get my attention but when I sweep them again the vanish. Reducing my gain to 7 all those high falses are still there but the volume drops like a rock to barely audible.
So if given a choice, I will try lowering my gain first before my sensitivity but I'm not opposed to lowering both if the conditions require it.
Charles
A friend of mine who hunts these beaches often choses to run his gain about 8 and reduce his sensitivity until the falsing goes away. I didn't like that approach, I felt I would potentially miss deeper targets cutting my sensitivity back so far. But I had to do something because the falsing was driving me nuts.
I started thinking about the order in which the Explorer processes sensitivity and gain settings. It seemed logical to me that the Explorer would first process the sensitivity setting, filtering out the weak signals and then apply the gain to whatever was left. In other words, running your gain at 10 isn't going to boost a signal that has already been filtered out by a lower sensitivity setting.
Then I thought, I wonder if a coin/ring singal is stronger than a false signal? In testing I found the coin/ring signal was quite a bit stronger than the false signal. If I set my gain to 10 (max) I could not tell the difference because a gain of 10 boosts all signals to the same volume. But as I reduced my gain the coin/ring signal stayed strong while the false signal began to drop in volume. When I got to gain 6 the false signal was still there, but it was now faint enough that I could ignore it and the coin/ring signals were still coming through loud and clear.
So I ended up doing just the oppositve of what my friend was doing, I was running my gain low and sensitivity high. He had his gain high at 8 and his sensitivity quite a number of points lower.
What was the result? I came across a deep nickel signal and I called him over to check it. It was a medium good signal with my settings but he didn't get a signal on it at all, his sensitivity was too low and so this proved the theory, a high gain will not boost a signal that has already been filtered out by a low sensitivity setting.
I have the same issue at a land site I hunt. The ground produces a ton of high false tones with my gain at 8, loud enough to get my attention but when I sweep them again the vanish. Reducing my gain to 7 all those high falses are still there but the volume drops like a rock to barely audible.
So if given a choice, I will try lowering my gain first before my sensitivity but I'm not opposed to lowering both if the conditions require it.
Charles
I am definitely not a stranger to 'noisy' sites (iron) but this one seem to be extraordinary. Thanks.