First Time Out with Omega- A Few Questions

[RLOH]

I took my new Omega to three different spots today and all the spots are old enough to produce silver or wheats. The first place I went was a ball field behind a 1940's era school. I have never found silver here, but have found some wheat pennies. The ground is a thick, mucky clay. I had no problem ground balancing the detector. It balanced at 53. The Fe304 meter showed absolutely no bars. I set the gradually worked the sens up to 78 and the detector ran smoothly, width little falsing. The first three coins I found were nickles from 4 to 6 inches and all three locked hard on vdi of 57. Boy was I impressed! I found four or five copper memorials and a couple of zincs. The number spread let me distinguish between copper and zinc. I was running one tone and was impressed with the slight differences in tonal quality and loudness or faintness. I had my disc at 16 and I finally got a fainter signal that was in the low eighties. From a good 8 inches comes a green wheatie. Not a banger of a signal, but very distinct. Three feet away, I got a nearly identical signal and from 8 inches comes another green wheatie. At no time in the two hours I was here did I have to re ground balance the Omega. I forgot to mention that I had the 11 inch dd coil on it. I wanted to try the Omega at my favorite old park where the ground is really mineralized. I have had some manually ground balanced detectors that I could never get balanced in this park. The Omega was very difficult to get balanced and it took me four or five trys at different spots to get it balanced. The error bars seemed to be at three bars all the time. I set the sens at 65 and disc at 16 and I dug many signals to see if the depth would be similar to the first spot. Depth was definitely lacking and I had a real hard time trying to rebalance the detector. Many spots in this park has red iron streaks running through the jet black dirt. Again, at no time did any of the bars on the mineralization meter light up. I had to turn the sens down to 40 to get it relatively quiet. I had one of the first F75's and I could not even use it at this place. I have tried many detectors here and the only three that worked as advertised were Fisher CZ's,
Fisher Coinstrike, and Explorers. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Being somwhat discouraged, I took an extra hour and stopped at another spot where almost all of my detectors had no problems. I found some clean ground and got the Omega balanced and took off. I tried running the sens in the 70 range, but that was impossible so I had to settle in the mid 50,s. The error bar was showing three bars almost the whole time I hunted and I could not get it balanced correctly. The intial ground balance was 64 or 65 so I went back to the exact spot where I performed the intial ground balance. Got it to balance at 64 again and I went back to where it was acting crazy. I decided to ignore the error graph and just hunt. Every twenty feet, the chirping would start and stop, but I was finding coins at depths between 4 and 6 inches. Now for the question that puzzles me the most. At no time in six hours of hunting, did the fe0 bargraph lite up. Not one bar at three different locations and I know for a fact that two of the spots have difficult ground. I don't really need this graph,but what are your thoughts on whether the detector is defective? The Omega gave me a couple of glimpses of being a stud, but do I have a dud? Any opinions or help will be appreciated. R.L.

 

[Jackpine Savage]

R.L.

When you ground balanced at the mineralized park were you in AT mode and did the tones even out? If If you were able to get a neutral response audibly I think you were good to go despite any error bars showing. Regarding the Fe[sub]3[/sub]0[sub]4[/sub] graph that does not sound right as any time you are over large man made iron it should show some bars.

Tom

 

[bugg]

My iron meter usually shows 2 bars when I hit a clad quarter, and one iron bar on a clad dime.....but not always.

 

[CoinShooter-Craig]

Hi R.L. I also took my new Omega out for the first time today , but it was only for about an hour. I was just messing around in my yard and my dad's yard right next door to me. Both houses are from the late 1800's and the yards are very trashy. I've hunted the yards with several different detectors over the last couple of years and have pulled dozens of wheaties , a few indian heads , a few buffalos , and a couple silver dimes ( Mercs and Rosies ). I just like to start in the yards when I get a new detector to see how it handles old trashy yards where most of the remaining coins are deep or masked by trash. I was running the 5" coil and I ground balanced the Omega several times because the three upper ground error bars kept showing up and wouldn't go away. The ground balance numbers averaged from the upper 50's to the lower 60's. I also had no bars on the Fe3O4 bar graph - unless I pumped the coil up and down and then I would get one to show up. I know that the ground here in Northern Wisconsin is pretty highly mineralized , so I thought it odd that no bars showed up unless I pumped the coil. Is it normal that the ground error bars kept maxing out shortly after I ground balanced the detector and that no Fe3O4 bars showed up unless I pumped the coil?? Thanks for any input / advice - it is greatly appreciated. HH , CoinShooter-Craig

 

[CoinShooter-Craig]

I really do like the Omega and it's a definite keeper - I just have to figure out the ground error and Fe3O4 bar graph issue ( or non issue?? ). I didn't find any coins with the Omega in dad's yard with the Omega tonight , but after I posted my previous post I took my Delta to a different area of his yard and pulled out a 1945 wheatie around 5" with a large and small nail in the same plug. The Omega ran a lot smoother than the Delta even with the ground error Fe3o4 bar graph issue(?) - The Delta seemed to give me alot of one way false signals that wouldn't repeat. The wheat penny gave me a nice repeatable (diggable) signal even with the nails in the same plug. I like both detectors a lot , I just got them the other day and today was the first day that I got to take them out for a little test spin. I'm gonna get up early tomorrow and detect by a pretty old tavern that I asked permission today ( I know the owner ) to detect at. Any advice on the ground error / Fe3O4 issue(?) would be appreciated. Maybe this is a normal occurance - if it is , it'd be nice to know that it is. Thanks and Happy hunting , CoinShooter-Craig

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Neither one gives valid readings unless you are over clean target free ground. Hunting in trashy yards and parks can cause spurious readings on both graphs which require no changes on our part. In the case of the Fe meter you have to pump the coil over the ground to get an accurate reading.

The fact that R.L. never saw any Fe bars at either site may be an indication of a problem, but again it may simply be due to his ground conditions .In his case I agree that making a call to Teknetics to find out is the thing to do.

Something to think about:
I have seen posts asking why the new Fisher and Teknetics detectors do not offer auto tracking ground balance systems. In one of the tech essays Dave Johnson points out that with auto tracking systems regardless of how good they are you still do not know what they are tracking to. Based on what we see regarding iron/trash/coins causing these spurious readings on both graph displays I think it is a wise move not to offer it.

HH Tom

 

[Jackpine Savage]

bugg I have seen that happen on some coins as well, usually on coins that give a high signal strength reading but sometimes on deeper signals that I believe are iron co-locate targets. I'm sure there is a valid technical reason for this. Whatever the case may be all we care about is the Omega loves to find coins!

Tom

 

[Monte]

Craig, just a couple of observations, if you don't mind.

I also took my new Omega out for the first time today, but it was only for about an hour.

First-use experiences, especially from only about an hour, can leave us with a lot of questions and still not convey a particular detectors overall abilities. I am not a newcomer to this great sport, but I am to the Omega 8000. For the dollar invested, and based upon preconceived ideas due to the association of Teknetics & Fisher with the Bounty Hunter name, even I have been a little skeptical. I know that Bounty Hunter's have improved in recent years, but the main thing that really captured my interest is the fact that [1].. My health has limited my mobility and I have to use a lighter-weight detector in order to enjoy getting out hunting, and [2].. Of all the competition out there, my primary-use model of choice has been the White's MXT w/6

 

[Monte]

The ground is a thick, mucky clay. I had no problem ground balancing the detector. It balanced at 53. The Fe304 meter showed absolutely no bars. I set the gradually worked the sens up to 78 and the detector ran smoothly, width little falsing.

At no time in the two hours I was here did I have to re ground balance the Omega.

So, to me, a Ground Phase reading of '53' suggests that was good ground and I wouldn't expect to see any Fe[sub]3[/sub] O[sub]4[/sub] read-outs. It also tells me that you didn't have a difficult time getting the Omega GB'ed.

I wanted to try the Omega at my favorite old park where the ground is really mineralized. I have had some manually ground balanced detectors that I could never get balanced in this park. The Omega was very difficult to get balanced and it took me four or five trys at different spots to get it balanced. The error bars seemed to be at three bars all the time. I set the sens at 65 and disc at 16 and I dug many signals to see if the depth would be similar to the first spot. Depth was definitely lacking and I had a real hard time trying to rebalance the detector. Many spots in this park has red iron streaks running through the jet black dirt. Again, at no time did any of the bars on the mineralization meter light up. I had to turn the sens down to 40 to get it relatively quiet. I had one of the first F75's and I could not even use it at this place. I have tried many detectors here and the only three that worked as advertised were Fisher CZ's, Fisher Coinstrike, and Explorers. I was disappointed, but not surprised.

It sounds like your "favorite park" is a pain for most detectors.

I took an extra hour and stopped at another spot where almost all of my detectors had no problems. I found some clean ground and got the Omega balanced and took off.

It sounds like the Omega is working fine and you just have a park with a local problem. Probably ground related, yet possibly there are other causes from nearby EMI? I know I have such a location, actually two of them, and I found that anytime during the day, any day except some late Sunday afternoons, they are really a challenge to hunt. I have worked on one late at night w/o a problem, but during the day I thought they were just really nasty conditions, but it is a non-ground environment that is the bug-a-boo.

I tried running the sens in the 70 range, but that was impossible so I had to settle in the mid 50,s. The error bar was showing three bars almost the whole time I hunted and I could not get it balanced correctly. The intial ground balance was 64 or 65 so I went back to the exact spot where I performed the intial ground balance. Got it to balance at 64 again and I went back to where it was acting crazy.

Was that adjusting the GB in the All Metal Auto-Tune setting? You can adjust it in either that or in the motion Disc. mode, but the AT All Metal lets you hear the threshold for a more precise adjustment.

Usually anything in the 64-65 range is good ground. Not great but certainly not nasty, as a rule.

At no time in six hours of hunting, did the fe0 bargraph lite up. Not one bar at three different locations and I know for a fact that two of the spots have difficult ground. I don't really need this graph,but what are your thoughts on whether the detector is defective? The Omega gave me a couple of glimpses of being a stud, but do I have a dud? Any opinions or help will be appreciated. R.L.

I doubt that you have any problem with your Omega. You might have some EMI difficulties at some locations, but probably not an issue with ferrous ground challenges. I'll be heading to an old city park that is a hill. Not just any old hill, but an extinct confused volcano within he city limits and there are spots there were I can cover less than 100 feet and the ground might range from 54 to 86 on an MXT. The Omega's ground phase read-out is very similar so I would anticipate some GB and Fe[sub]3[/sub] O[sub]4[/sub] errors and info readings there. Fortunately, the Omega 8000 has a really functional Ground Garb auto-balancing circuit and the excellent provision to manually tweak it for peak performance. That's perhaps my favorite, or one of my favorite, features about the Omega.

Just keep hunting and enjoying a great detector. I know I will, because it not only works well, but it light, handy, and FUN to use.

Monte

 

[CoinShooter-Craig]

Wow - Thanks Monty for the detailed response to my post. I can honestly say that if you wrote a book about metal detecting - I'D BUY IT!

I hunted the old tavern for about an hour this morning with the Omega and found a few dollars worth of clad. There was an EMI issue because of some power lines and a transformer ( that would d be my guess anyways on the cause ). I set the frequency to 3 which settled it down close to stable and set the ground balance , but I could only run the sensitivity at about 60 max. It ground balance out close to what my yard balanced out at , just slightly higher - Low to mid 60's. After I set the GB I just ran with it and didn't pay much attention to the ground error bars , and all the coins hit hard and were repeatable from both directions and when I checked the target from different angles. I started with the 5" coil to hit the trashier areas , then I switched to the 11" DD in the more wide open areas. Both coils worked great and make the Omega a very efficient detector in trash and wide open areas. - CoinShooter-Craig

 

[bugg]

And it knocks out iron in awesome fashion. I have found many coins so far, and hardly any iron. 2 bottle caps, 1 bolton end, no nails.and some larger pieces, that is it. And most of the time i run the disc at 16.