Diggum said:
Thanks for the suggestions, so far.
I ground balanced the machine, and the area I used is an area where my F2 and ATP work just fine.
I have used it with headphones, but did the video without so that you could hear what I'm hearing.
As far as expected depth, if I'm only getting 6" or so in air, should I not expect less depth in the ground? That would put this machine at a very disappointingly shallow depth. My F2 has hit a quarter at 9-10 inches in the ground. I'd hope that this would do that.
I do know someone who has a couple of Omegas, and I'll contact him to see if he wouldn't mind me comparing my machine to his, before I take the step of sending it in.
Eventually, yes, I'd like to get a DD sniper coil and a DD 11". For now, this is what I have, though.
The Omega will out perform the F2 by a fair amount!
I had an F2 it was a good detector but it was for sure a beginner unit.
In another topic we were talking about depth and I mentioned times of what I called an "anomaly" like a $75.00 unit finding an Indian Penny @ 11" its just not the norm!
In air test and getting an idea of how far out from the coil it will hit on a coin its best to lay the detector down on a table or bench with a yard stick sticking out from under it and then use your hand or a swing stick and pass the target in front of the coil, this way your not trying to use your arm and lift the whole detector and its length up in the air and just estimate the distance and maintain center over the target. (see pictures for an idea)
I have some aged coin test garden's in my yard and the one I go to for a quick test is the 3" one and I have an 8" two coin garden. Now, keep in mind that eight inches in the ground means that with any grass and scrubbing the ground with the coil the targets are still at lest 9" below the coil, maybe even 10" counting for 2" of air (grass).
With the Omega and the sensitivity set to 70 and the ground balance set to 54 to 56 (that's where it normally balances out at in my WV soil) and using the 11" DD coil It will hit with a faint response and ID darn good my 8" garden, with the 3" garden I can hold over an easy 3" to 4" and get good strong responses.
In another location in our area with the same ground balance number and the same setup but I was in a city park, I got this faint but nice high tone hit that was to consistent to pass up and I retrieved an 1896 Barbour quarter that was nearing 9" (of dirt) the grass was pretty thick and a little tall (not weeds or anything) so I would safely say that the Quarter was at lest 11" from the coil. That Quarter was laying in an old gravel driveway bed and was down in the gravel maybe an inch or so, I almost gave up on it because I was having so much trouble digging and locating it. The F2 would have never hit on that target in that area.
The Omega will cruise around the 6" to 7" range in my area GOOD! or to say with ease, keep in mine that my reference to depth is in the Dirt! and its a rarity for me to be hunting over bare ground so the actually distance from the coil is always more.
There is areas where older coins are deeper than they are around here and in those areas the Omega may not be the best choice. Many and maybe even most places the deep good stuff on average is not more than 6" in the dirt, or to say most of the good coin finds are 6" or less in the dirt!
I aged my one main search area by knowing the depth range of the beaver tail beverage pull tabs, I know that these started in production in 1965 and were in use until 1975, they were then replaced with the square tabs. So, in our local city park the beaver tails run 3.5" to 5" on average, large tree roots and excavation in certain area will change things of course.
Our park has millions of these "Pull & Toss Tabs" in a 10 year bed in that depth range, so I know that for the most part the silver coinage is no less on average below 5" and that's the later stuff. That means that the fresh drops of the 1930's is going to be well below that, hence the worn 1896 quarter at near the 9" range.
I said all that to say that when I shop for detectors I knew what the lest depth range (in the dirt) that I needed it to do, I set up my test gardens for the ranges I needed, (letting them age is the problem). When I tested the Omega it made the grade, My 1266 made the grade, My Tejon made the grade, My Coinstrike Made the grade (this was the first one that really made it) and I'm still testing the Fisher 1270.
In the normal places I hunt I know what the ground balance number value is so when I'm hunting those areas I just manually scroll to that number 54-56 and then just keep a check on the ground tracking graft for soil changes and manually adjust if needed.
Unless your soil is really bad, or to say somewhere around average then the Omega should give you good depth! and you stating that you felt the F2 had a good depth range then the Omega will or should exceed the performance of an F2, the Omega is an up line model by a few models. The Omega is a closer match to the F5.
In the end its possible you have a defective detector, but usually that shows up in the form of something just not working like a control or really no depth at all, no control over false signals. In all the post I've seen about the Omega the one complaint that stands out is problems with EMI not depth, but I've never had any more or less problems with that than I did with my F2. You knowing someone that also has an Omega then I would for sure setup a meet sometime and do some comparisons that should tell the story for sure.
Mark
