Let's Talk Iffy Signals

[Bell-Two]

This was my post that was on another forum but Nick A started a thread here and it would be best to keep it consolidated as one thread so respond to this thread

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?63,1373954


I posted this on a local forum and have gotten some great responses already, I hope to elicit many comments so it can be used as a learning experience.

Iffy signals on the E-Trac is an interesting subject and I hope that many of the experienced users will respond and share their wisdom and experience on this. I have had a brief exchange with Terry (Goes4ever) about this and learned a lot about his philosophy on this subject. I hope a discourse on this would be beneficial to all of us newer users of the E-Trac.

I have been using an E-Trac for just a little over 6 months almost exclusively in Multi-tone and using the standard coin pattern tweaked just a bit. I came from an Ace 250 and I guess I fortunately did not have to "unlearn" as much as if I would have came from a different machine. I was advised by several experienced users that using the standard program at first would be the best way of learning about what the machine is telling me, and my experience has borne that out. I have used the two-tone ferrous in hunting a bean field that was iron infested and found an Indian Head penny and Barber Dime, I was tutored on this by Goes4ever who is an excellent teacher. I have since used a few other patterns and have had modest success with them. I feel that it is only now that I am starting to understand the "vocabulary" of the E-Trac but knowing I have so much more to learn. We all talk about "iffy signals" but I wonder if they should be called that when so often they are telling us that there is something good amidst some junk. What I thought were "iffy signal" was just a "language" I haven't learned yet!

 

[sugar]

yes i am learning it as well i have my threshold volume on nil and just hunt with no discrim except most of the top line it is all about trusting the etrac to tell you there is something there and lets face it it is a pointless exercise swinging it if you dont take note of its responese if you get iffy signal dig it which will tell you the next time it is responding to a good target maybe a coin on its side ect.once you have opened up the hole and swung your coil again it usually gives you a better sound i am only a newbie but trying to learn fast so if any of you well oiled detectorist out there dissagree with my advice please speak lol anyway i am having a great time with my new hobby happy hunting you guys

 

[nge]

Man you really said a mouthful, that sure qualifies for the longest sentence without a period, But I agree wholeheartedly with ya........NGE

 

[Jason in Enid]

yes i am learning it as well i have my threshold volume on nil and just hunt with no discrim except most of the top line....

Unless you are looking for iron, you really should be using some lower / lower right discrimination. The E-Tracs power is that it can see "keepers" even when there is a lot of iron with it. If you don't tell it to knock out the iron, then that iron is ALL it will see with co-located targets.

 

[Goes4ever]

yes i am learning it as well i have my threshold volume on nil and just hunt with no discrim except most of the top line....

Unless you are looking for iron, you really should be using some lower / lower right discrimination. The E-Tracs power is that it can see "keepers" even when there is a lot of iron with it. If you don't tell it to knock out the iron, then that iron is ALL it will see with co-located targets.

I agree with that 4sure, when I am in TTF I use the relic mode which gives u a tiny bit of lower right disc. But very little.

When in conductive mode I go more by sound than numbers, I like to use the numbers to guess what I am digging but if it sounds good I am digging. I dig a Lot of iffy signals, signals where numbers bounce all over etc.....if I am on an old homesite, I normally dig almost everything that is 5 or 6 inches deep. Indians are one of those coins that give an iffy signal often if they are very deep a all, and nickels are even worse.

 

[sugar]

i am listening to what you are saying buttttttttt you knew as i am a woman there was going to be a buttttttttt didnt you? well i have never had such clear signals since i have been wide open because the ground i am working on has been well hunted over the years i can almost say there will be a goody in amongst a load of iron i get the grunt and hunt around that area for stuff that has been missed there it goes again clear signal i smile dig and smile again and say thankyou etrac of course maybe this may not work as well on your ground i am in the uk i get no falsing but i have top line discrimmed out which makes it very quiet i will load some discrim say up to 30 in quckmask go out get my usual good signal switch to quickmask and see how good a signal i get then i can search in quickmask wait for a signal in trash and go back to my programe to see if i get a signal with my no discrim program i will let you know in a couple of days here i am hunting deep just picked up a zoomorphic lead snake very basic but it has some writing on the side also a broken fibula my first roman on this site and yesterday a 1799 george 111 coin not sure which one yet thanks for your post i have taken it on board and will work on it i see it as another piece of jigsaw to this wonderful machine happy hunting all of you