Interference

[MikeLab]

I got some interference one time when I was walking back to my vehicle. There was a short telephone pole with a street light on it and an electric meter box of some kind. It was just getting dark but the light was not lit and I suspect it was faulty and attempting to ignite. After I got about twenty feet away, the interference faded out. Didn't try to work through it. Don't recall now, but I am fairly certain I was at full sensitivity and probably in DISC mode. I have worked near this pole a few times during daylight hours and never got any interference.

I have power lines and an electrical power transformer on a pole within a few feet of where I have used the ATG and never noticed any problem.

Also, just curious if cell phones ever cause any problems. I carry one but never noticed anything. Never even tried to shut it off to see if there is any difference.

 

[vanner]

I find the same thing with the Pro...Its very seldom I experience any problem with overhead power lines, on the rare occasion I do its usually on max sensitivity and chirping a bit, then taking it down to 7 or 6 bars usually gets rid of it .Ive struck one really bad area that turned the Pro into a musical instrument right down to 4 bars, it was the same on the two ocassions Ive tried there. As for the cell phone, never found it to cause interference yet , but I have read that even if you cant actually hear the emi on your detector , it can be causing you to loose depth, so I leave my phone in the truck

 

[MikeLab]

Even with my cell phone on I have still found deep silver. If there is interference it must not be too bad. I guess I should try without it sometime and see if I notice any difference. There hasn't been a flood of posts on this subject. I read an article that was probaly twenty years old. Cell phones were big and probably very noisy back then. There weren't as many towers and they probalby needed more power. I suspect they are much cleaner now. But I could be wrong.

 

[MikeLab]

I was working within three feet of some kind of electrical box today, maybe telephone, I don't know. But I did get some faint buzzing that pretty much disappeared when I shifted frequency. Even without changing frequency it wasn't enough to stop me anyway even with full sensitivity. I read somewhere All Metal gets less interference so if you hit some you can see if that helps.

 

[TheGeorgiaCanuck]

The only time I notice interference with cell phone on my AT-Pro is when someone calls me.

 

[William-NM]

I sometimes have my cell phone in a case on my waist, sometimes in the backpack, sometimes in the car. No difference at all. Now, if you have a smartphone like an iPhone (does that mean mine is dumb? ) that is checking email and stuff all the time, that might be an issue.

 

[Eric in RI]

I first started hunting with the AT Pro with my smartphone always in my front pocket. I was doing fairly well with the machine. I then read somewhere that it could cause interference with the machine. So now I always leave it in the car. I haven't really noticed a change at all, so I may do some further testing. Maybe have several people send me an email every 5 - 10 minutes to see if the machine reacts or actually browse the net from the phone while swinging the detector at the park. I can even try it by changing thru all 4 frequencies to see which one reacts, which one doesn't and so forth.

 

[MikeLab]

I was in my yard the other day and about twenty feet from the power lines. I noticed my threshold in All Metal was sputtering and I tried to increase it and decrease it to no avail. It was like it wasn't there just static. In DISC mode the threshold was fine--I could increase it or decrease it. At the time I thought something might be wrong with the machine. I took it inside and was able to increment the threshold in All Metal just fine. Later that day I took it back to the same spot and it worked fine. This goes against what I read about All Metal mode being less suseptive to interference. I read that a 45 degree angle from the powerlines is the worst spot. Never checked to see if a different angle was better or not But I now think that interference can be heard in the threshold. Where did it come from? I just can't believe the powerlines are that much different in morning vs afternoon. One wild guess is the solar storm might have caused something that the powerlines somehow amplified. The lines run north and south and the earth's magnetic flux lines get pushed around during the solar storms and can blow the circuits. Well, I guess I will just have to see if it happens again.

 

[MikeLab]

I also recall reading about a guy with a pulse induction machine who claims that downwind from high voltage powerlines there is interference. Said upwind was no problem.