Why does my E-trac never have clean signals?

If it were me, I would get together with a MD friend and have him locate a target that is all by its lonesome and around 3-6" deep. Then have you check the same spot and dig it.

If you are not getting a clear sound, try doing a reset of settings to factory. If that doesnt work, theres something wrong.

The empty hole thing is really weird. Try using a regular pinpointer instead or along with the X1 to verify if the X1 is working properly. I suppose it could be possible the X1 is messing up the Etrac so try and run without it to see if things improve. Personally I prefer a Propointer but I have friends that love their X1s.

Make sure you didn't accidently flip the switch on the X-1 I have done that and you get all kinds of signal

It's not your machines fault. I just plain despise the Etrac in iron. In trash at the park it's a total dream machine, in iron at an old colonial sight it's a nightmare to me.

I know it's sacrilege and heresy to speak poorly about the almighty Etrac, but the machine loves nails and I am sick of chasing nail falsing. The Minelab is the only machine I know that reads iron as a high tone as opposed to low grunting. Sure TTF separates iron from coins, but the going is ridiculously slow and noisy and in trash such as old style pull tabs...your digging 17 pull tabs/trash to 1 coin.

Today I hit a spot that's iron loaded . Went over it with the Etrac last weekend with nothing more than a few memorials. I could barly get a thhold hum. I hit it today with the AT Pro and ended up with 3 wheats and a Indian head. I know the Garrett can't compete with the Minelab in most circumstances, but the Garrett did not false once on iron. It was silent in iron and proved to me the winner at this sight.


Bottom line is some sights I leave the Minelab Etrac at home and the lesser machine comes through for me.

Ttf

This mode is the most difficult and takes alot of time to master. After using it for several hundred hours it is now my preferred hunting mode. I've pulled copper, aluminum and silver all from out between nails, under pipes and buried with rusty washers and other iron.

Two things I would check is to make sure you have deep mode turned on in your etrac settings. I'd also turn on high trash and quick response mode. That's how I run mine and I love it.

I don't know how you guys are running your machines but I cannot believe it's the etrac giving you issues. I never end up with nails. Bolts, especially stainless, occasionally, but never nails. There is a huge and easily distinguishable difference between a good target and junk with my etrac, even in junky areas. Coinshooting mode or TTF, it's an amazingly easy and powerful machine.

Just wondering, are you running manual cranked up?

You need more practice at schools, cleaner sites. Then move up to moderately trashy iron sites - then use a small coil in heavy iron sites. You're trying too much advanced stuff right off the bat. Don't tell me you're still using that pro coil in trashy iron areas....that's pointless.

Heck I hate the E-trac in heavy iron too - I use my compadre for that kind of hunting.

When I first started using the E-Trac I dug some nails but once you learn to check from different angles you can generally tell them. When at a old home site or old park I will dig some of those signals just to confirm what is there. I cannot tell you how many coins I have found with nails or other iron in the same hole but it is quite a few. TTF is the best E-Trac option for heavy iron. It does take some practice to learn but once you get the hang of it you will be amazed how well it works. I went hunting with a friend at an old mill site which is now a corn field where he and another friend had found several large cents. He said that he was going to hunt at a different spot in the field because there was nothing but "iron" left there. I deliberately went to the that spot and hunted in TTF and in between some serious iron grunts I got a very small 12-46 high tone and down just about 4" was an early matron head large cent. So once you learn TTF you gravitate to the "heavy iron" spots because chances are if it has been hunted before by someone they probably missed something.

pocketspill said:

I watch youtube and listen. Everyone gets those clean angelic high tones with smooth "edges." It's beautiful. I can get those sounds on airtest, but never in the field (unless it's a surface find.)

Every e-trac signal I get is "thunky" and unrepeatable on all but the most pristine ground. TTF is even thunky.

At the last 5 houses I hunt, with TTF I get a "baw baw baw baw" as I sweep - every 6 inches sometimes. If I'm in coin mode and open the screen up, there are tons of iron signals reported, but I can never FIND the target (I am trying out of curiosity.)

I dig every high tone that repeats ..tons of empty holes at 12/44 and 18/45 type range - even with the screen opened up and two directions....but after a dig the X-1 sees nothing. After I dig, I open up the screen and suddenly the signal is iron. I never find the iron and give up. This is the same with two different coils.

Thinking of wrapping this E-trac around a tree.

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The thunky sound is generally what happens on a deep target, and a gain setting can help or hurt. How high do you have it set? If your detector airtests fine bury those targets to try to eliminate a problem with the ground rejection circuitry. As long as you can detect a target you bury yourself there's no reason you can't find the ones that are already there.


The "baw baw baw baw" makes no sense to me. If you are running moderate settings an explorer, and I assume an E-trac, will run very smooth. If you haven't tried a factory reset I would great advise you do that. It is very common for these detectors to get glitches and even though they work to some degree, they can be a mess.... and people who are new just don't realize it. I have two friends who literally detected for months with a detector that needed to be reset. One was still finding stuff, but the tones were all screwed up, and the other guy lost so much confidence in the unit that even when I gave it back to him perfect, he soon sold it.


People dig the empty holes because they don't know the detector, don't trust it, and are using it like their old unit. On many detectors iron near a target gives a broken tone, and it's very difficult to know if it's iron that is sounding off, or a coin near iron, so many of us have just trained ourselves to dig all the high tones that are close. For the Minelabs a lot of iron nulls, and if your sens. isn't too high the detector should for the most part null over iron with the odd high tone, but for those tones there will be that certain something that tells you it's iron... and generally that's a null through the sound when you "X" it. Right now you could be running the sense too high and too many iron high tones are breaking through the disc., and because you don't know the detector, and hunting in the old style of digging any high tone that is close, you're chasing iron. I have never seen another detector with as good iron rejection as the Minelabs that still let you find the good stuff, and your experience is definitely not a reflection of how it really is, or could be. God I think back to using my GTI and I dig so much less iron with my Explorer I probably wouldn't post the numbers even if I knew them because many people would probably not think it would be possible that two higher end detectors could be so different.


Lastly if you're still using other detectors you are sabotaging your effort. Not only do detectors process the info. different but your brain has to do the same, and going back and forth just doesn't work. People that own an E-trac and several other detectors and use them all, well they don't know the Minelab, just think they do. There's no way you can REALLY know a detector inside and out if you're always switching, especially when the detectors are so different. So I think as much as you might have issues in experience and perhaps technical, the commitment to want to learn could also be part of it if your are getting frustrated and still grabbing your other unit. I don't say this because I'm guessing, I say it for having been through it as I dragged my damn GTI with me for probably almost a year for when my Minelab started to give me a headache, or we found a good site and I needed to be swinging something I knew. Only when I dropped the Garrett for good, hunted with another Explorer user who kicked my a$$ did I start to learn some of the mistakes I was making. You have a great detector, just need some great hands to make it work, but first make sure it is working and do some tests as well as that factory reset.

Jressman said:

It's not your machines fault. I just plain despise the Etrac in iron. In trash at the park it's a total dream machine, in iron at an old colonial sight it's a nightmare to me.

I know it's sacrilege and heresy to speak poorly about the almighty Etrac, but the machine loves nails and I am sick of chasing nail falsing. The Minelab is the only machine I know that reads iron as a high tone as opposed to low grunting. Sure TTF separates iron from coins, but the going is ridiculously slow and noisy and in trash such as old style pull tabs...your digging 17 pull tabs/trash to 1 coin.

Today I hit a spot that's iron loaded . Went over it with the Etrac last weekend with nothing more than a few memorials. I could barly get a thhold hum. I hit it today with the AT Pro and ended up with 3 wheats and a Indian head. I know the Garrett can't compete with the Minelab in most circumstances, but the Garrett did not false once on iron. It was silent in iron and proved to me the winner at this sight.


Bottom line is some sights I leave the Minelab Etrac at home and the lesser machine comes through for me.

Click to expand...

Have you been using QuickMask? If iron shows up as a coin in QM then there may be another problem...

EtracUser said:

Have you been using QuickMask? If iron shows up as a coin in QM then there may be another problem...

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Oh ya I love the quick mask feature. I find that I loose substantial depth when the entire threshold is in a null from ground conditions. The only way to return the threshold is to stop moving the coil. This is in auto and manual sensitivities. even wiggling the coil causes the threshold to null and disappear. When swinging you get a bunch of one way high tones that disappear when going back over. Falsing on iron.

I don't doubt the Etrac can't work through this, but it's very frustrating and I know its killing the depth of the machine. With my AT Pro without a threshold, the thing is silent, until it hits an actual target. No iron falsing sounding like coins. I was very impressed when I dug a 1907 Indian head from the same area I went over with my Minelab. When I turn on the iron audio on the Garrett I can hear all the iron that is in the ground.

the limited two weeks I have been using the e-trac. I notice I get a choppy 11/42 12/44 type signal, I turn on all metals (wide open). those signals turn into loud repeatable 34/42s, and 30/44 (iron).

just my experience..

Jressman said:

It's not your machines fault. I just plain despise the Etrac in iron. In trash at the park it's a total dream machine, in iron at an old colonial sight it's a nightmare to me.

I know it's sacrilege and heresy to speak poorly about the almighty Etrac, but the machine loves nails and I am sick of chasing nail falsing. The Minelab is the only machine I know that reads iron as a high tone as opposed to low grunting. Sure TTF separates iron from coins, but the going is ridiculously slow and noisy and in trash such as old style pull tabs...your digging 17 pull tabs/trash to 1 coin.

Today I hit a spot that's iron loaded . Went over it with the Etrac last weekend with nothing more than a few memorials. I could barly get a thhold hum. I hit it today with the AT Pro and ended up with 3 wheats and a Indian head. I know the Garrett can't compete with the Minelab in most circumstances, but the Garrett did not false once on iron. It was silent in iron and proved to me the winner at this sight.


Bottom line is some sights I leave the Minelab Etrac at home and the lesser machine comes through for me.

Click to expand...

I have read you saying this over and over about your etrac and iron and it just makes me scratch my head and wonder what your doing wrong???

my etrac works like a champ in the HEAVIEST of iron. I hunt farm fields where houses were tore down and the nails have been drug all over back and forth for 80-100 yrs by the plow, and in TTF, it is SO FREAKIN easy! you either have a high tone, or low tone. It can't get any easier. If your getting falses on iron you are simply moving your coil TOO FAST. If you slow down and listen, you WILL pull coins out right beside nails, UNDER nails, etc.....it takes patience, but to me the etrac in iron is absolutely AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

Another thing to check take your coil cover off and make sure to clean it out, a lot of gunk can get caught under it and give you falsing.

Experience and more swing time is your best option. Is an AMAZING machine but it takes time.

Hey, I am stilling learning the etrac . It is a great machine. Every time I use it, it teaches me something. If I don't know an answer I ask a question here or somewhere else. I made the commitment to learn this machine and I am always immersed in studying it. My finds are not that great yet, as I said yet. My bud keeps kicking my butt with his xlt, but we both know when I get this figured out I will be kicking butt. Hang in there ,you got a great machine,hit some easy stuff to build your confidence. That trashy place will always be there and don't worry about someone cleaning it out.

brother steve said:

My bud keeps kicking my butt with his xlt, but we both know when I get this figured out I will be kicking butt.

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Not really, more like it will even out. When one user knows a detector a little better, or uses a detector that's a little better he has an advantage at getting some of the tough ones, but that is only a very small % of targets so it's very unlikely you'll see someone dominate all hunts unless all you hunt are places that is pretty beat and his detector is more suited to find the tough ones. But generally for day to day hunting who has the best day will go back and forth... and how could it not when one target usually decides it.

Personally I despise TTF and never use it. What is your tone response set at? If you use Multitone then what is your Variability set to? What are you using for a pattern? Im with G4E and hunt in heavy iron holes and have found the good stuff in it, granted I am still learning and may have missed some but I will go over the areas as I learn more.

check your sensitivity maybe? One thing ive noticed im a very newbie with the etrac but ive slowed right down to a crawl and you can pick up alot!! of targets just goin slow and weeding your way through.