Don't laugh too hard, please. I was practicing in my yard this morning on my gold ring. Again I had trouble getting a clean signal in Disc 1 mode. The ring was on edge so I laid it flat and this helped a lot but I still wasn't satisfied why I couldn't get a good signal with the ring on edge. Since my yard is all sand under the lawn and tons of scrap junk everywhere I had to walk half way across the yard to find a quiet place to ground balance. Then it hit me--I had the iron discrimination turned up all the way and the light went on in my head that I was NOT in a clean place. The iron discrimination was hiding all the scrap iron underneath the coil. Of course the answer is the best ground balance is going to be in ALL Metal mode or at least with zero iron discrimination (in Disc 1) so I can hear if I am on a clean spot or not. I went back and looked at the manual. I could not find anything on this. Maybe it's in the training videos, but I don't recall and have not checked them.
Now back to the gold ring. Actually I have two gold rings that are fit together. One is a 24K band that fits around a 22K man's ring. As soon as I separated the two rings I had no problem getting a clean tone on each one. And besides, when I was in Disc 2 the 22K ring does not give a good signal anyway as it is near (or in) the discriminated zone).
Now back to the gold ring. Actually I have two gold rings that are fit together. One is a 24K band that fits around a 22K man's ring. As soon as I separated the two rings I had no problem getting a clean tone on each one. And besides, when I was in Disc 2 the 22K ring does not give a good signal anyway as it is near (or in) the discriminated zone).