Favorite Sovereign coil?

[NEBeachcomber]

To those who own a Sunray DTI III meter, would you please tell me how to calibrate it?

I know, an embarrassing question, seeing that I own it and a Minelab Sovereign GT that haven't used in 10+ years.
Now that I'm retired I'd like to get back into the hobby... and unfortunately over the years I got away from using the detector and meter.

Thanks in advance,
NEBeachcomber

 

[Rick(ND)]

The DTI III is by far my favorite meter and very easy to calibrate for me as I check it often which a person should do.
The one way I use is to turn on the detector and run it in disc and either use a new dime or even a copper penny, run it across the coil and , or coil over the coin and try to get it to lock on 179-180 as it can vary just a little, by the control on the back of the meter. Just remember it dont take much to make a big difference. in the numbers. I try to get it to 179-180 and not 181 as it is too much for me. when I get it to those numbers I am ready to hunt with it and every once in a while I will check it again and throw down and new dime and scan it to see I get the 180 as i then know it is still calibrated. The knob on the back for calibrating can get bumped while transporting and can get out of calibration and when I get what sounds like a good signal and the meter read lower or higher than it should I will check my calibration.
the meter is sensitive and is very accurate when it is correctly calibrated . For me when I get a 176-177 it is a new zinc coated penny, IH or even some of the early wheat pennies, a 179-180 is a copper penny, dime of quarter while a 143-145 is a nickle and a 140-141 seem to be a beaver tail off the old pulltabs. normally a 145- 150 and sound like a nickle as they do have a tone a little different than a pull tab they do seem to be a war nickle..

Good luck as you have one of the best detector with the best meter when you get to know the GT

Rick

 

[UtahRich]

8" coinsearch

 

[NEBeachcomber]

The DTI III is by far my favorite meter and very easy to calibrate for me as I check it often which a person should do.
The one way I use is to turn on the detector and run it in disc and either use a new dime or even a copper penny, run it across the coil and , or coil over the coin and try to get it to lock on 179-180 as it can vary just a little, by the control on the back of the meter. Just remember it dont take much to make a big difference. in the numbers. I try to get it to 179-180 and not 181 as it is too much for me. when I get it to those numbers I am ready to hunt with it and every once in a while I will check it again and throw down and new dime and scan it to see I get the 180 as i then know it is still calibrated. The knob on the back for calibrating can get bumped while transporting and can get out of calibration and when I get what sounds like a good signal and the meter read lower or higher than it should I will check my calibration.
the meter is sensitive and is very accurate when it is correctly calibrated . For me when I get a 176-177 it is a new zinc coated penny, IH or even some of the early wheat pennies, a 179-180 is a copper penny, dime of quarter while a 143-145 is a nickle and a 140-141 seem to be a beaver tail off the old pulltabs. normally a 145- 150 and sound like a nickle as they do have a tone a little different than a pull tab they do seem to be a war nickle..

Good luck as you have one of the best detector with the best meter when you get to know the GT

Rick

Rick (ND), Thank you for taking the time to respond and answer my question. I felt a little foolish asking it as I used to calibrate this meter many times during an outing. After ten years of not using this system (or any of my other detectors, for that matter) I plain old forgot how to use them. I guess the cliche is true... "if you don't use it... you lose it."

 

[Odanscoils]

The DTI III is by far my favorite meter and very easy to calibrate for me as I check it often which a person should do.
The one way I use is to turn on the detector and run it in disc and either use a new dime or even a copper penny, run it across the coil and , or coil over the coin and try to get it to lock on 179-180 as it can vary just a little, by the control on the back of the meter. Just remember it dont take much to make a big difference. in the numbers. I try to get it to 179-180 and not 181 as it is too much for me. when I get it to those numbers I am ready to hunt with it and every once in a while I will check it again and throw down and new dime and scan it to see I get the 180 as i then know it is still calibrated. The knob on the back for calibrating can get bumped while transporting and can get out of calibration and when I get what sounds like a good signal and the meter read lower or higher than it should I will check my calibration.
the meter is sensitive and is very accurate when it is correctly calibrated . For me when I get a 176-177 it is a new zinc coated penny, IH or even some of the early wheat pennies, a 179-180 is a copper penny, dime of quarter while a 143-145 is a nickle and a 140-141 seem to be a beaver tail off the old pulltabs. normally a 145- 150 and sound like a nickle as they do have a tone a little different than a pull tab they do seem to be a war nickle..

Good luck as you have one of the best detector with the best meter when you get to know the GT

Rick

Reading this thread again.

Soo.
You're saying I should calibrate to a coin below a silver half ?

In other words Not tuning at its peak ?

As I mentioned before.
My 500 meter hits 500 on copper pennies, silver dine, quarters and half's.
Maybe my meters messed up or I'm doing something wrong.
???

 

[Rick(ND)]

Ok if you are getting 500 on your meter you must have the older style 550 Minelab meter as they went to the 180 meter for the GT and I think the Elite. Another thing calibrating these meters are done in disc as in all metal setting it probably will read up to 495 or so.
Now while we set it to 180 on a smaller coin it is for reference so we can learn where or coins come in. Like I say try to keep it as close as possible to the 180 numbers 179-180 seems to be the copper and clad and silver coins, but from experience a mostly 180 number and not changing much and more solid that seems to be the Quarters and bigger coin, plus those old almm beer cans, but by lifting the coil you notice it takes a while for it to read lower as it is too big, this help me in areas with a lot of old beer cans. now if it is deep I always like the weaker 180 number and even close to the 180, but never goes higher. With me and the 180 meter for nickels it is 143-144, but some war nickels will read a little higher and it tones is a nickel, but the number my meter read the round pull tabs 148-151 and those if sounds like a nickel and those are the war nickels or even a gold ring. Now I found a t 176-177 are screw caps or those fricken new zinc pennies, but also some of the older wheat pennies and IH will also read there, but if deep always dig them as chance are IH or older wheat pennies. Now I know if I get higher number is when I double check my calibration in case it been bumped or heat raised it a bit. With the 550 meter especially the older Sovereigns the number seem to overlap too much .
You probably go a lot by the tone of the Sovereigns and only go by the meter to cross reference, so in this case the meter may lot ID correctly and the tone are different than normally for that number as those I love to dig. The reason for me is at a site where the bleacher were taken out of a old ballfield I let all the local go though it before I did as pullabs were bad and I figured they got the newer trash and surface out of the way. Then I tried it as I knew what pullabs read like and any questionable signals I dug. Got a nice nickel tone, meter showed tail off the old pull tab (140-141), but sound smoother like nickel than a beaver tail and sound deeper too, so got to dig that one and it was a very old gold ring I am sure many walked over it before.

Rick

 

[Odanscoils]

Ok if you are getting 500 on your meter you must have the older style 550 Minelab meter as they went to the 180 meter for the GT and I think the Elite. Another thing calibrating these meters are done in disc as in all metal setting it probably will read up to 495 or so.
Now while we set it to 180 on a smaller coin it is for reference so we can learn where or coins come in. Like I say try to keep it as close as possible to the 180 numbers 179-180 seems to be the copper and clad and silver coins, but from experience a mostly 180 number and not changing much and more solid that seems to be the Quarters and bigger coin, plus those old almm beer cans, but by lifting the coil you notice it takes a while for it to read lower as it is too big, this help me in areas with a lot of old beer cans. now if it is deep I always like the weaker 180 number and even close to the 180, but never goes higher. With me and the 180 meter for nickels it is 143-144, but some war nickels will read a little higher and it tones is a nickel, but the number my meter read the round pull tabs 148-151 and those if sounds like a nickel and those are the war nickels or even a gold ring. Now I found a t 176-177 are screw caps or those fricken new zinc pennies, but also some of the older wheat pennies and IH will also read there, but if deep always dig them as chance are IH or older wheat pennies. Now I know if I get higher number is when I double check my calibration in case it been bumped or heat raised it a bit. With the 550 meter especially the older Sovereigns the number seem to overlap too much .
You probably go a lot by the tone of the Sovereigns and only go by the meter to cross reference, so in this case the meter may lot ID correctly and the tone are different than normally for that number as those I love to dig. The reason for me is at a site where the bleacher were taken out of a old ballfield I let all the local go though it before I did as pullabs were bad and I figured they got the newer trash and surface out of the way. Then I tried it as I knew what pullabs read like and any questionable signals I dug. Got a nice nickel tone, meter showed tail off the old pull tab (140-141), but sound smoother like nickel than a beaver tail and sound deeper too, so got to dig that one and it was a very old gold ring I am sure many walked over it before.

Rick

Nice find.

Have you ever used the 550 meter ?

How do I set it ?

To a nickel ?