GS5C in the Garden

[Eric Foster]

A garden, or backyard, is not normally the place to go hunting with a P.I. Bits of rusty iron, nails, and all sorts of trash, litter the ground down to several inches, particularly where we live, which was once part of a farm where there were lots of outbuildings and sheds which have long been demolished. However, with a GS5C fitted with a tone selector switch, I thought it would be an interesting test. The ground is not mineralised to any great degree and it would be quite possible to hunt with no ground balance. The proliferation of high and low tones and close spacing of signals would however drive you crazy in a very short time. Because of the likely close spacing of targets, I used an 8in coil for this exercise.

I set the switch to the high conductor position and started to search with the GB/DISC control just a couple of divisions back from the GB point. I was pleased that signals were now much more infrequent and just the low tone, which I find easier on the ear. I picked a signal that pinpointed smoothly and was symmetrical when I did a cross scan. This turned out to be a flattened and quite thick aluminium cap with the wording

 

[Reg]

Hi Eric,

Looks like you are having fun with the single tone feature. I know I am. I also know I am still learning about all the benefits of it also. Now, one of the things I also found out about the single tone feature is the noise level is reduced, so in noisy environments, this single tone feature could be used just to reduce the noise if necessary. It also allows for a little more depth at times on specific items if you know what you are looking for.

I personally like the ability to adjust the amount of iron rejection because it makes it possible for a person to use to find something specific even made of iron. I did find that the rejection feature is not absolutely linear in terms of depth. A piece of metal that is just ignored at the surface may possibly generate a response if it is several inches down in the ground. Usually, the depth is significant, but it does appear to happen.

Fortunately, with a little practice one can determine the possible depth of an object of a known size. So, it is possible to look for something just lost and not worry about having to dig all targets similar with a little practice. The trick to this feature is so get an idea of depth just by raising the coil. If you only want to detect near surface items because you are looking for something specific, then adjusting the delay and the sensitivity controls will help minimize deeper signals. Picking the right combination of adjustments can really help.

So, there is still a lot to learn about the single tone feature, but I can see more and more possibilities for it than simply gold, relic, or coin hunting. I do need to add a vernier GB control such as you have on your GS 5C so I have a finer control over the ability to ignore or accept items. I feel this will allow for a better adjustment for fine tuning just what will be ignored or accepted.

Reg

 

[Eric Foster]

Hi Reg,

I remember a long time ago using (with permission) an early PI on the site of a Roman Villa. Archaeologists had finished with the site so I was free to detect without any problems. The site was littered with tiny nails that the Romans used to hold the soles to the tops of their sandals. These small rusted nails were a real pain but I persevered until I got a larger and broader signal. I dug this and found a nice iron Roman door key, which made everything worthwhile. How nice it would be to go to such a site and set the GB/DISC control and tone switch to ignore the small nails but still be able to pick up an iron door-key, dagger, or sword.

Eric.