Something new ?? with my F70, related to tones...

[sgoss66]

Went out for about 4 hours today hunting with the F70. Went back to the old homesite I've been working. Let me tell you, I have never in my life seen so much junk, and such a VARIETY of junk. I have NO IDEA how so much metal could accumulate in someone's yard! I am still learning the detector; only found 3 zinc pennies -- have NO IDEA where the older coins are, but I'm guessing they are under the JUNK!! I was BARRAGED with what was surely, for the most part, iron falsing, but dug every repeatable decent tone I could find, using the 5" DD, and I am amazed at the amount of junk I dug. I was fooled several times with VERY solid TIDs, a rock-hard 71 that was a dog rabies tag; several very good high 70s, with very little bounce, that turned out to be rolled up/flattened metal "ointment" tubes, and several pretty good tones (to my still-untrained ears) that turned out to be flat, rusty iron. This place is wearing me out!

Anyway, here's my question. I noticed this the other day and then several times today. Sometimes, when I hit a jumpy, likely-to-be-junk target, I hear the tones (I was using 4-tone), but I also hear something else. Very, very, VERY subtle, very quiet -- I once thought it was coming from the control box itself, so took off my headphones, but no -- it was IN the heaphones, but "under" the tone sounds. It's a very faint hum or buzz. It is NOT a problem with the headphones, or the detector, or anything like that; it IS related to the target, since when I move the coil away from the target, the buzz wanes and then disappears. Swing the coil back over the target, the tones return, but so does that very faint, subtle "buzz" that is "underneath" the tones. I can hit another target that behaves exactly the same way tone-wise, but the buzz is not there. Only on the occasional target do I hear this. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about? Has anyone ever experienced this?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[mudpuppy]

n/t

 

[Mike Hillis]

Can you relate the subsurface audio characteristics to targets? If you can hear it, then you should be able to relate it to target types. Many detectors have the ability to get subtle with the audio and help id targets. Others (like an Xterra) just give a tone. The more audio sublities you can hear the better your id capability becomes.

HH
Mike

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[sgoss66]

No, guys, don't THINK it's "on the edge of an overload signal." That's exactly what I thought at first could be the case. However, the last target that it happened, I was in a hurry and headed back to the truck to leave; I didn't have time to dig (should have dug), but I did hit it with the pinpointer and it read 4". A super strong, nearly overload should have read 1" on the pinpoint meter. At least I THINK so.

Mike,

I'm with you. I do want to try to relate it to targets. Problem is, it's very transient. In talking with Tom Dankowski, it seems that he and I agree it happens on very trashy sites, and only when running very high sensitivity. It only happens on a rare occasion. I hunted today at a park, lower sensitivity, not alot of trash, and I never heard it once. I will make it a point to dig EVERY target when I hear this sound from now on, and try to make some associations to see if there are clues that the strange sound might give me in terms of target IDing.

Steve