F-75 LTD DST

[JCR]

Has anyone found a significant improvement in performance with DST invoked vs not invoked. If so, under what circumstances.

 

[nalc472]

I sometimes switch to see if there is a difference. Yes there is. The machine goes crazy in non DST mode. But in DSt mode i can run a lot hotter with the F75ltd2

 

[dan h]

If I recall correctly, Tom Dankowski found DST off provided a slight increase in depth.

 

[JCR]

Thank You

 

[kansas_jayhawks]

Ok what do you mean by DST off?

Sorry if dumb question

 

[REVIER]

Ok what do you mean by DST off?

Sorry if dumb question

The T2/F75/F70 platform units are all high gain, (sensitivity), detectors.
The sense levels are all higher than what you might think in that 99 is maxed out but 75 isn't actually 3/4's power, 50 isn't 50% power, 33 isn't actually 1/3rd power and so on.
Even 1 on the gain is pretty powerful and not barely turned on like a stereo volume knob works because there is a reverse governor of sorts in the programming that only lets you get down to a certain level...all settings are higher than you might logically think they are
There is a vid out there of an F70 owner hitting deep coins including an 8" nickel with the thresh set in the positive numbers but with the sense set on...1.
There is good and bad to this...
The good is these things are usually known to be deep, shockingly deep in some circumstances and extremely sensitive to targets including some very tiny ones.
The bad is the noise...extra EMI falsing and chatter due to this hyper sensitivity and enhanced power range.
One thing is in the old days before DST, Digital Shield Technology, these things could be very chatty around sites with a lot of EMI and many that bought them insisted on turning them up pretty high looking for the most depth because that is how it worked on most other brands they knew and they became unmanageable so they sold them quick.
We Fisher guys usually bought them cheap and either learned to deal with the extra noise if we decided to do it that way but most just turned down the settings to much quieter levels and still had confidence we were getting deep because we understood this stuff.

Then DST became available on the newer versions of the flagship T2 and F75 units and as an upgrade on the older versions that did not have this feature.
By adding this feature all these units became much quieter even on some of the highest settings and opened them up to a larger amount of hunters that preferred "silent search" hunting in disc actually mean what it stated...silent until you get your coil over targets with very little or no falsing.
When DST was added there was a few other new programming features included also but the main aim of this upgrade was to get the things to be quiet on all gain levels.
After these units got into people's hands there were many reactions especially from those that used the units before, knew them well and could tell a difference in behavior when their upgraded unit returned.
Most all of them loved the quieter hunting ability.
Many said performance was not affected in the slightest.
Some said performance was affected in some ways especially in the area of depth which was less...with DST on, and this is a feature that can be switched off if you want to.
Some said even with the feature turned off the behavior of their detectors was still affected, like even off the DST was still on a little and they were getting a bit less depth than they remembered.
Some that sold the old chatty ones years ago and bought the new versions and were impressed with the improvements and thought everything was fine, depth and everything else except that they were way quieter.
The new owners that bought these with that DST on board of course could not tell any difference if they had never used another to compare it to.

All this is logical in this hobby when comparing tools, people are all different and use these in different ways with different settings and perceptions can be different, plus I don't think all units come out of the factory exactly the same either try as the manufacturers might.
On many brands I have seen posts from several hunters that bought new detectors but had experience with the exact same model before and report the new ones were hotter or "sparkier"...or even the opposite and less so.

Overall DST seems to be a valued feature and here to stay.
Whether you hunt with it on or off...or both, is up to each hunter and many do it in all different ways.

 

[basstrackerman]

Great post Revier the bid with 8" nickel was mine. That's why I always have a Fisher /tek unit with me. I can hunt with sensitivity set at 30 and hit very deep on coins but have less tiny pieces of foil in my pouch.

 

[vlad]

turning off DST may be more sensitive, but with EMI prevalent in an environment it would seem it being on would offer more {usable}
sensitivity The only way to find out is to turn it off and see. I'm sure DJ has some hard numbers from lab tests {on/off}.
Does anyone know if it dampens cross-talk between two detectors? (same frequency unit is most evident)

 

[REVIER]

Great post Revier the bid with 8" nickel was mine. That's why I always have a Fisher /tek unit with me. I can hunt with sensitivity set at 30 and hit very deep on coins but have less tiny pieces of foil in my pouch.

Yep, I think that vid opened a lot of people's eyes that never understood how gain on these things actually worked or the relationship between the gain and thresh and what different combinations can do for you.
I do.
I have tried a million combinations on my F70, thresh and sense levels, all the tones including all metal.
Maxed out with some noise, turned down settings and ultra quiet.
Surprisingly most everything seems to work pretty well no matter what I do although I do have my favorites...and no DST.

 

[JCR]

thanks to all.

 

[WV62]

Ok what do you mean by DST off?

Sorry if dumb question

With the F75 DST upgrade, DST can be turned off and on while doing a factory reset just by turning the selection knob to 9.0 or 9.1.

They are close to the same on my machine or at least I can't see any thing much different.

Ron

 

[basstrackerman]

Yep amazing machines. Any settings will find plenty of goodies. .. I'm glad more people near me don't own them lol

 

[Galen1066]

Great article, this coming from a complete novice into the hobby. I've decided to go with an F75 LTD as of now, but have to ask what if any are the differences between the 75 & 70 models. Also do all the F75LDT's have the DST feature? thanks in advance for the info.

 

[vlad]

I don't think the reg F-75 has it. And on the Ltd, you can turn it off-but I can get higher sens. with it on.
Don't recall a stat mode on the F-70, and it does not have the digital noise reduction-where I live, at sites where I tried an F-70
it was noisy-this was years back. Many dealers to choose from-but Kellyco has a BOGO sell involving the F-70; if you could piggyback a purchase
with a friend on another detector there-might save big.
Also I think Teknetics is offering the F-70 under the Ameritek name, around $150-200 cheaper (all these companies and Bty Hunter are First Texas)
Look at this: http://md-hunter.com/3-teknetics-ameritek-detectors-price-new-2017/