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First Post

A

Anonymous

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<CENTER>***Also in Garrett forum but it looks to be a little slow***</CENTER>
This is my first post so please pardon my utter lack of detecting "slang" and knowledge.
My grandfather died about four years ago and left his Garrett GTA 1000 to me; see we liked to go out exploring and detecting together so I guess he figured I would appreciate it. This is all well and good and I am honored to get such a lovely gift but I have a serious problem
 
Start with downloading a manual here. http://www.garrett.com/hobby/techsupport/prodmanuals.asp
 
I can answer two of your questions at least:
>>2. If I accidentally bump the ground, the alarm beeps and I think I've found something but in actuality it's just me hitting the ground. Is this normal?<<
Basically, yes. It's called a "false signal." Some detectors false more than others when you bump the coil, and others don't at all.
>>3. I live on the coast so obviously I've tried the beaches (Sullivan's Island, I.O.P., Folly and Kiawah) but if the sand is even a little damp the thing goes crazy. I'll get 20 hits in a one square foot area and after digging, there is nothing there. Do I need a special coil to search in wet (salt water) areas? <<
You experienced another form of false signal caused by extreme mineralization -- but in the case of wet salt sand, your detector actually "sees" the sand as one huge metallic object. It's doing the job it was built to do, except not in a way that we'd *like* it to.
No, actually you need a special detector, basically -- one that's specifically equipped to process signals in wet salt sand. This can be a Pulse Induction (PI) detector, which is immune to wet salt mineralization, or a VLF detector (a VLF is your basic normal land detector) that can be manually ground balanced. Many VLFs like this come with a "Salt" switch or Salt Mode function. That's not to say a non-salt detector (especially one without manual ground balance) totally can't be used in wet salt sand -- it just takes a LOT of futzing with the sensitivity controls and such, and even there, you'll end up swinging the coil, like, a foot over the sand. Which sorta defeats the whole purpose of trying to find anything more than an inch or so deep.
Scott
 
Having the sensitivty set too high will cause it to signal where you bump the coil. If you hold the on/off button in until you hear beeps, it will go back to factory settings which might help.
 
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