New Detector Advice - Bad Mineralization?

[Shayne]

I am a military service member and I recently moved to Mainland Japan. I have been detecting for about 15 Years and owned only Minelab detectors; Explorer, Explorer XS, Explorer II, E-Trac and now the CTX3030. In Virginia, the CTX was a great land and dry sand machine, but didn't like the salt water very much. Nevertheless, I was able to make it work. Back to Japan - CTX3030 arrived a month or so ago in my household goods shipment. I shipped it in an SKB Case with custom cut foam to protect it - so I know its working properly. About a week ago, I took it out and ran down to the beach for a spin. In Auto - dry sand - my sensitivity would not go above 9 without tons of noise. In manual, I was able to squeeze out about 15. At the end of the trip, I was frustrated because the CTX3030 was not performing well at all - even considered that it may be damaged. The next day, I went to a local park on-base. The CTX performed better and found lots of coins, but again depth was limited to 3-4 inches, sensitivity was about 20-23 and and it was still a little chatty. Of particular note, I brought the Minelab Pro-find 25 pinpointer and my Garrett pinpointer. The ground was not wet, but it was a little damp due to rain from two days earlier. If I touched the ground with either of the pinpointers - anywhere in the park or at the beach - they would chirp. All of this leads me to believe that I may be sitting on possibly the most mineralized soil on the planet.

So - what do I do? I plan to hunt dry land, dry sand, wet sand and potentially knee deep salt water. If the CTX3030 can't handle the mineralization, what detectors out there can. Although my detecting experience has been exclusively limited to Minelab's multi-frequency detectors with VID target screens, I am open to recommendations. Price is not really a limiting factor - quality and dependability are. Thanks from the "Land of the Rising Sun," and apparently the impenetrable soil! Also posting this in the CTX3030 forum...

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Possible electrical interference or micro wave could do this.
A few years back was hunting within 400 meters of a telephone array
tower with an MXT could not use it.
Used other machine and it tolerated that tower with some interference.

 

[GeorgeinSC]

As Joel said it very well could be EMI. Especially if you are using a large coil. If you have a smaller coil give it a try and see if that improves the performance.

 

[Kossie]

Japan is of volcanic origin. The volcanic rock can contain high concentrations of highly conductive minerals (including various metals). The conductivity of volcanic rock can vary locally/regionally.This depends on the source of the magma. There might be soils or beaches with lower conductivities on which your CTX will perform better. My Explorer also chatters on highly mineralized rock. The only solution is to lower the sensitivity. I'm not familiar with the CTX but most minelabs have a noise cancel button which should cancel out at least some of the background EM signals. You should notice a difference before and after pressing this button.

Good luck, Kossie