Omega Tones Experiment

[RLOH]

I have been using an Omega 8000 for the last four months and I hunt in the three tone mode exclusively. I have dug many deep(7to 8 inch) coins while hunting in three tones, but I am not particularly pleased with the weak audio when over a deep coin. I can hear the whisp of a high tone, but if it were windy or I was near a highway, I sometimes worry that I might miss it. Today I got a deep signal that was a mere whisp of a signal and the numbers stayed in the low 80's so I knew I had one of these 8 inch deep coins. First I changed to two tones and swept the target. I got a clean, clear signal that was much louder than the high tone in the three tone mode. Next, I tried one tone and what I heard was amazing. It was very distinct, clean tone. Not a whole lot louder than the two tone, but way louder than the three tone. The coin turned out to be a 1934 wheatie from 8 inches. I really think that I would be unable to hear anything deeper while hunting in three tones, but I am sure that I will be able to hear deeper coins in the one or two tone mode. Also, I dug another deep nickle today that did the high-medium bounce along with a 56 to 79 number bounce. It was a 1946 nickle and it was 8 inches deep. I have had three Coinstrikes and they all had the same quirk. I am mainly a coin hunter and I use very little discrimination so I have grown fond of the three tones. I hunt by tone and when I get a high tone, I check the numbers. The only drawback to using one or two tones is I will have to keep my eyes glued on the meter. I guess I can train myself to do this as the rewards outweigh the cons. R.L.

 

[Frank in NH]

Thanks for sharing your findings on tones, i will have to try it with disc. at 16 which people say works well. If i can hear the tones better at one or two i don't mind looking at the meter.

 

[Furious T]

Hi RL,
I've had my Omega for about 7 months, and I very quickly moved to hunting in 2 tones. It suits me a bit better, and to be honest, I had never compared signal strength in the different tone modes. I just instinctively liked the 2 tones bettter, and maybe you test and results give me one of the answers as to why I liked the 2 tones better. (The other reason is that Australian coins do not sit well on the 3 & 4 tone setups). However, I often felt that I did better using the 2 tones, and more audible depth is a good reason, in my view. Thanks for sharing.

 

[earthmansurfer]

Great post. Monte brought what your "tests" have shown to my attention. He said that modes 1 & 2 use different signal processing than modes 3 & 4. So, though on the mid depth targets you may get a strong (boosted) signal with modes 3 & 4, since the sound is boosted and the processing is different, you will not get the good strong hit on the deeper stuff (as your results show). This is totally opposite to what I thought, so I'm glad both Monte and you have confirmed it. I did some tests on mid depth coins and initially thought modes 3 & 4 would go deeper since they were louder, but not so. Lesson - for deeper targets modes 1 & 2 are the way to go.

What is interesting is that you say mode 1 is even stronger than mode 2. That is great to know though I am still particular to mode 2. I wonder how mode 1 could be deeper than mode 2 (at least going by your signal strength point)? I wonder what processing mixes they are using (continuous, sampled, a mix) and what else as we know the Omega 8000 also has the threshold built into the gain. What were your settings, GB, Fe3O, coil, etc?

Thanks again for the great post, keep telling us what you find!

 

[RLOH]

Sorry, I forgot my settings that I used today. Ground balance 67, sens 85, disc 15. There was one block blackened on the fe meter. R.L.

 

[earthmansurfer]

Are you using the 11"DD? You are getting pretty good depth, but I think the stock coil is almost as good from what I hear. I have only used the 11" DD but will be going through the same area with the 5" and plan on picking out more from the iron that way.

And your discrimination setting is what Dankowski says is right around that magic number to see through the iron better (think he said 16 or less).

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Keep in mind that the disc setting of 16 for better iron see through is when using monotone.

I'm not sure I see a lot of benefit using monotone over all metal, as you still get the TID in AM, and AM will be even deeper.

 

[Monte]

I have been using an Omega 8000 for the last four months and I hunt in the three tone mode exclusively.

When I am going for 'flash money' (generally recently lost and shallower coins in wood-chip and sand-filled playgrounds or a brief hunt of any site to check it out) I prefer the d4 Tone ID. I like the separation it provides on 5

 

[jpbol]

THANX alot for these posts. This is something I ve never heard of before. I will try this the next time I go detecting.
I have had those whisper beeps in D3 and they are indeed difficult to hear when its windy or when other sounds are around.

I will post my findings/experience

 

[j3cwill]

This is a fantastic post! I have been hunting exclusively in d3 with 16 discrimination since I have owned the Omega. I will definitely try d2 my next time out. I have been hunting a couple of older farms recently, so not a lot of trash to deal with.