New to me F5

[WV62]

Steve I agree even though it is to cold for outside, I have been reading and doing a lot of air testing. I have come up with a couple of interesting items, one the 10" coil seems to be the best for my type of hunting, it seems the hottest on the gold jewelry and good depth on coins. The other is this F5 seems to have a bit of a hot spot setting, which is setting the gain at 70 and the threshold at 0 to +1 and it is close to the same with the 11" coil with the threshold set at -1 to 0. Now if I venture much above or below that things seem to drop off.

The 10" was hitting all my gold test items, even a small earring stud at 3" , and a small gold chain a 5.5" and a US quarter out to 13". Now I know that in the ground those numbers will come down.

The 11"DD was doing along the same line except the noise level came in and seem to wash out the fainter signals. I couldn't get it to hit on that gold earring stud at all.

So for starters when the weather breaks a little I will be out with the F5, the 10" coil with the above settings, I may run the disc up some to get out of the trash, I know there goes the gold.

Ron in WV

 

[Digger 45]

One big thing to remember, when you get the numbers jumping around a lot turn the threshold to around -3, you won't loose any depth but it will run quiet. I have one park that when i turn the 5 on it just goes crazy, but by turning it to -3 it is quiet and digging 6" for a dime is no problem.

This machine i something! It never quits amazing me, this year i have a total of 38 rings, 10 gold, 10 silver, the rest junk, 2 gold bracelets along with many silver pieces.

Spend some time and really get to know the 5 and it will pay off for you.

Good Luck for 2014!!

 

[WV62]

Man your are smoking hot, I will make note of that -3. Anybody that is finding 38 rings in one year has to be doing something right. Just wondering what kind of gain settings you use along with that -3 threshold.

Ron in WV

 

[MarkCZ]

One big thing to remember, when you get the numbers jumping around a lot turn the threshold to around -3, you won't loose any depth but it will run quiet.

Dropping the threshold a couple of numbers like this stiffens the audio amp's trigger a little bit, so the lower level cracks and pop (noise) of interference is enough to activate an audio response.
I would think this would be good to gain some stability in areas where EMI is a problem. I just wouldn't lower it much more before I started dropping the sensitivity a few number as well, it areas where the EMI gets worse.

Mark

 

[Steve missouri]

Ron: When your ground thaws and you are hunting outside, drop your threshold to -3, the gain to where it is quite, keep disc as low as possible, the threshold usually keep the detector still, unless you have very minerilized ground or strong EMI close by. When you find a target with a good tone and a round sound (a slower sweep spead will help with this), the target may sound faint, due to minerals or depth. Turnyour threshold up to +3,4,or 5 you will be amazed at what happens, when you resweep the target, you do not need to increase the gain,you will not lose any depth hunting at-3 threshold, you may actually gain some, hunting at high threshold's may actually lose you some depth. Also there is a very good field test in the January 2013 w&e magizine done by Ben Meyers. The best source of info on the F-5 is in the older posts by Mike Hillis he is the expert on the F-5.Steve missouri.

 

[Digger 45]

I usually run Gain around 65 to 70, the thing about the 5 is you never stop learning different things that help. Lots to learn from many of the forum users.
This year has been the best for me, i may never see another one like it but enjoy while it lasted, off to a new year and adventure.

 

[WV62]

Ron: When your ground thaws and you are hunting outside, drop your threshold to -3, the gain to where it is quite, keep disc as low as possible, the threshold usually keep the detector still, unless you have very minerilized ground or strong EMI close by. When you find a target with a good tone and a round sound (a slower sweep speed will help with this), the target may sound faint, due to minerals or depth. Turnyour threshold up to +3,4,or 5 you will be amazed at what happens, when you resweep the target, you do not need to increase the gain,you will not lose any depth hunting at-3 threshold, you may actually gain some, hunting at high threshold's may actually lose you some depth. Also there is a very good field test in the January 2013 w&e magazine done by Ben Meyers. The best source of info on the F-5 is in the older posts by Mike Hillis he is the expert on the F-5.Steve missouri.

Well that is 2 votes for that -3 threshold, and I will call your +3,4, and 5 a neat little trick. I am making some notes and then condensing them down to stickers and putting them around the arm cuff. Hopefully I will be able to remember this stuff after trying them a few times. At my age I have found that I can now hide my own Easter eggs.

I did find and download what is called F5 tips and tricks, which is a bunch of post from Mike Hills, I read through it and and have made a some notes.

As I said in an earlier post I have been doing some inside air testing, and I posted the work sheet in another thread, but I am going to post it again here, there may be a few guys and gals that haven't seen it. Now one thing I have noticed is that the numbers you guys are giving me, kind of validate that my testing is on the right track. Also that 10" concentric coil seems the way to go for the gold jewelry.

Thanks guys,
Ron in WV

 

[Digger 45]

Don't put a lot of faith in fresh buried targets for testing the 5 it responds differently than targets that have been buried for some time. I have tested 14k gold rings that i just buried and the 5 would not even see them at 2 to three inches, i don't know why but that just is the way it is, now i have pulled out 14k at 4 to 5" with no problem where it has settled on it own. The last ring i pulled was about 4" deep, it was a 18k band and it was twisted up by the lawn mower, but rang up strong at 28 and didn't move from 28 no matter which way you swung the coil over it. This usually happens with most gold and platinum is the numbers never change much.

I have the larger coil but it really likes bottle caps, it thinks they are quarters and some one said to wiggle the coil and move it back toward you and it will breakup, this works sometimes but not always so you dig a lot of caps. The original coil is what i use the most.

You will start to retain the info on this forum and will be surprised of how good you will become with the F5 !!!!

 

[WV62]

Don't put a lot of faith in fresh buried targets for testing the 5 it responds differently than targets that have been buried for some time. I have tested 14k gold rings that i just buried and the 5 would not even see them at 2 to three inches, i don't know why but that just is the way it is, now i have pulled out 14k at 4 to 5" with no problem where it has settled on it own. The last ring i pulled was about 4" deep, it was a 18k band and it was twisted up by the lawn mower, but rang up strong at 28 and didn't move from 28 no matter which way you swung the coil over it. This usually happens with most gold and platinum is the numbers never change much.

I have the larger coil but it really likes bottle caps, it thinks they are quarters and some one said to wiggle the coil and move it back toward you and it will breakup, this works sometimes but not always so you dig a lot of caps. The original coil is what i use the most.

You will start to retain the info on this forum and will be surprised of how good you will become with the F5 !!!!

I know the coil you are talking about the 11"DD, my first and only hunt with the F5 I had it on and those bottle caps got me just about every time. I started raising the coil a little and I was getting some to read as iron.

Well it will be next year in a few minutes so. Happy New Year

Ron in WV

 

[Mike Hillis]

Hi Ron,
You are right. The stock 10" eliptical coil is the jewelry coil. But real depth comes with the 11" DD if you are coin hunting.
You are doing exactly what you need to do to learn the F5 in testing the Gain/Threshold combinations. Then when you get into the ground you really must learn the ground balance. I wrote a lot of stuff about the F5 but some of it won't click until you use it more.

Love the chart.

HH
Mike

 

[WV62]

Hello Mike,

In the back of my mind I was thinking the 11"DD coil should be the deeper coil, so from what you are telling me I would guess the noise I am picking up in the house is making it look a little less than the 10".

I have been working on the GB, to cold to stay out long but I have been going out in the yard area and finding different clean areas and doing a quick GB. Seems to be very consistent around 57 to 59.

Ron in WV

 

[MarkCZ]

Hello Mike,

In the back of my mind I was thinking the 11"DD coil should be the deeper coil, so from what you are telling me I would guess the noise I am picking up in the house is making it look a little less than the 10".

I have been working on the GB, to cold to stay out long but I have been going out in the yard area and finding different clean areas and doing a quick GB. Seems to be very consistent around 57 to 59.

Ron in WV

Also, the 10" coil and the 11" will most likely ground balance out at different numbers, they do on my Omega.

Mark

 

[WV62]

Hello Mike,

In the back of my mind I was thinking the 11"DD coil should be the deeper coil, so from what you are telling me I would guess the noise I am picking up in the house is making it look a little less than the 10".

I have been working on the GB, to cold to stay out long but I have been going out in the yard area and finding different clean areas and doing a quick GB. Seems to be very consistent around 57 to 59.

Ron in WV

Also, the 10" coil and the 11" will most likely ground balance out at different numbers, they do on my Omega.

Mark

Right again little brother, just took both coils to the same clean spot in the yard and the 10" GB @ 59, the 11"DD GB @ 56. I also notice it was 50 degrees out and the detector keep pulling hard in the direction of the truck.

Brother Ron in WV

 

[WV62]

My thoughts as well on the GB knob, but I am sure some guys love it.

I took the F5 to the park for little coin hunting today. The ground balancing went well and I was surprised but I found 11 coins all were in the ground like 3 to 5 inches, no new drops. I was using the 11"DD coil and it really likes bottle caps.

My last 2 trips to the same area I only got 4 coins each trip with my other detectors so the F5 done pretty well.

Ron in WV

I took the F5 back to the exact same spot and hunted the same ground with the 10" coil and found another 8 coins. This time my depth averaged a little less, the coins were all within 4" of the surface. One of the coins was wheat penny 1955D, man that could have just as easy been a silver dime.

I was running 3 tones, threshold at +1, gain at 70, but because of the trash I set the disc to max, I only had about an hour to hunt. Some of these coins I just got a whisper of high tone. Most of the time there was several trash targets around the good coin target. I knew when I went to PP I was being pulled off the good target, but I just went ahead and cleaned them out until the good target came out and couldn't get any more high tones from that spot.

So far so good with the F5,

Ron in WV