Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Are Air tests really worth it?

Rammjäger

Rammjäger

Elite Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2007
Messages
4,173
This question is today in my mind .The reason for it?....
I got these two coils from Tesoro.According to air tests with a coin , they are very similar in depht reach .I even thought of selling the oval one,because I
don't need two coils that have the same output.
But I took today the oval coin into the woods and it seemed to me that its
performance was way better than the circular one .Even iron discrimination seemed to be improved !
WoW! - I won't sell this coil now,but keep it and make further hunts with it.
Air tests vs. Real hunting conditions....similar or not? - To me now it seems not to be the same thing :roll:
 

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From all my reading and video watching I've come to the conclusion that air tests do not relate to performance over varying soil conditions. There are just too many variables in the ground that effect performance. Air tests remove all those variables.
 
Air tests can give a general idea for the comparison of coils but dont always add up to true performance in the field. But the difference in coil design goes farther than just depth , your eliptical coil gives you better coverage with a narrow field which in many cases is prefered over the standard round coil. And there may be other performance enhancements built into the eliptical coil as well for better target seperation , etc. , but Im not familiar with that coil so there may be more or less of an advantage of one coil over another but I just dont know. Just sayin there is usually more differences between the two types than just depth ability. You can probably find something on the net that describes each coil and what is special about them before you decide to get rid of one of them.
 
Rammjäger said:
This question is today in my mind .The reason for it?....
I got these two coils from Tesoro.According to air tests with a coin , they are very similar in depht reach .I even thought of selling the oval one,because I
don't need two coils that have the same output.
But I took today the oval coin into the woods and it seemed to me that its
performance was way better than the circular one .Even iron discrimination seemed to be improved !
WoW! - I won't sell this coil now,but keep it and make further hunts with it.
Air tests vs. Real hunting conditions....similar or not? - To me now it seems not to be the same thing :roll:
Click to expand...

Air test is to tune, or "Zero out" the unit's coil, and set the circuits to the "0" of the unit. Then when you use the unit, it is at the zone to search. On solid ground "AIR". On the beach sand/wet "ON THE GROUND". The designs of the coils, is for better coverage in certain area conditions, of targets you are looking for. It's all like tuning any mechanical units; like engines, musical instruments, air conditioners, an electrical circuit, long range weapon, etc.:no: I have two units and four coils. Three for one [about ten years old], and one for the old one. I still find more with the old one [about 40 years old].
 
If you want to find out what settings do and how they work, air tests can be useful, but only for that. Otherwise and in general, air tests are completely useless... but fun. :D
 
They can help you figure out if your detector needs to be repaired. One day I was hunting a ballfield and couldn't find much. Airtest my machine and a quarter was hitting from zinc all the way to a silver quarter. Some guys are hunting right now with defective equipment and don't even know it.
 
It can show you the baseline capabilities of coils, relative depth abilities, size range for different depths.
One thing is its a lot easier to test dozens of items and depths without having to dig over and over (not to mention doing this testing with all your possible soils).

I just bought one of the 10 inch DDs you have in your pic there and air-test compared it with my 12"X 10" DD on my Vaquero.

I was disappointed at first that the 12" seemed to pick up tiny objects almost as small as the 10" close up and of course picked up bigger stuff much farther away.

I was considering returning it, before my brother reminded me that smaller coils separate good signals from trash better, are affected less in highly mineralized soils (they are "looking" at a smaller area, so picking up less overall mineral signal.) and of course make tight places more searchable.
That's good enough for me.
 
I dont think thats a double D coil , just an eliptical. I think they are designed to have a narrower field , almost like a double D , but not as much. Should be easier to seperate targets than the standard concentric and cover more ground with each pass but unless Im mistaken its not a double D.
 
ohiochris said:
I dont think thats a double D coil , just an eliptical. I think they are designed to have a narrower field , almost like a double D , but not as much. Should be easier to seperate targets than the standard concentric and cover more ground with each pass but unless Im mistaken its not a double D.
Click to expand...
That's a Wide Scan elliptical coil, so it is a DD. Here's a quote from the Tesoro website.

"Widescan coils use two D-shaped antennas that are placed back to back. Because of this configuration, they are often called “Double-D” coils."

http://tesoro.com/product/coils/
 
Longhair said:
That's a Wide Scan elliptical coil, so it is a DD. Here's a quote from the Tesoro website.

"Widescan coils use two D-shaped antennas that are placed back to back. Because of this configuration, they are often called “Double-D” coils."

http://tesoro.com/product/coils/
Click to expand...



Ok. I cant believe I looked it up and still got it wrong :lol:

Nevertheless I like learning this stuff.


That being the case then that would probably be the better of the two coils , but it also makes them so much different and used for different reasons. Id get rid of the concentric.
 
Air tests are useful with single frequency VLF detectors that don't have automatic ground tracking. So you should be able to do a test with one coil on your machine, then switch to another coil and have a good depth comparison. The only Tesoro with automatic ground tracking is the Lobo.

Oh, and it won't be exact depth between air and ground. Mineralized soil will reduce depth compared to the air test, especially because you need to reduce sensitivity to compensate for the minerals. If you don't have mineralized soil it will be about the same.

edit: removed bad info
 
Gday, Ramm, how are you doin', mate?:lol:

Glad you're doing some test with new equipment.:mder:

If I had a chance to get the elliptical 10" for the deleon it would be on.
Beeing a widescan it can handle ground mineralization a lot better than a concentric does.
Both coils, shown in the picture, are widescan (DD). But depending on the size the 10" has a larger detecting range, and with that it will be better in identifying/discrimination, as there is more "power" left to do this to objects on the edge of the 5,25" round one. The 10" will have the same issues if a target will be detected on their search fields edge.;)

All coils have their pros and cons. Air tests can help to confirm a detector is working and how far a item can be detected in air or how sentitive to small targets a machine can be.

But air testing will NEVER show how the detector handles ground conditions. There are some detectors in the market which do good and deep in air, but will detect also the empty, fresh covered spot after you rescan the area.
Or you can hit a coin in 15" of air, but only 2-3" in mild soil.
And for some other detectors you have to do some setup to airtest them, otherwise you'll get some really worse results.

What doing here for some testing is, having the coil laying flat on the ground and then sweeping the items above.

How's the 10" doing on pinpointing?

Advice here is, kepp the 10" Wide Scan. You'll love it.

Longhair said:
That's a Wide Scan elliptical coil, so it is a DD. Here's a quote from the Tesoro website.

"Widescan coils use two D-shaped antennas that are placed back to back. Because of this configuration, they are often called “Double-D” coils."

http://tesoro.com/product/coils/
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing this out, Longhair.:thumbsup:

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Vito said:
Gday, Ramm, how are you doin', mate?:lol:

Glad you're doing some test with new equipment.:mder:

If I had a chance to get the elliptical 10" for the deleon it would be on.
Beeing a widescan it can handle ground mineralization a lot better than a concentric does.
Both coils, shown in the picture, are widescan (DD). But depending on the size the 10" has a larger detecting range, and with that it will be better in identifying/discrimination, as there is more "power" left to do this to objects on the edge of the 5,25" round one. The 10" will have the same issues if a target will be detected on their search fields edge.;)

All coils have their pros and cons. Air tests can help to confirm a detector is working and how far a item can be detected in air or how sentitive to small targets a machine can be.

But air testing will NEVER show how the detector handles ground conditions. There are some detectors in the market which do good and deep in air, but will detect also the empty, fresh covered spot after you rescan the area.
Or you can hit a coin in 15" of air, but only 2-3" in mild soil.
And for some other detectors you have to do some setup to airtest them, otherwise you'll get some really worse results.

What doing here for some testing is, having the coil laying flat on the ground and then sweeping the items above.

How's the 10" doing on pinpointing?

Advice here is, kepp the 10" Wide Scan. You'll love it.



Thanks for pointing this out, Longhair.:thumbsup:

Cheers
Click to expand...

Hello Vito,
thanks for the tip mate ! - I have tested the elliptical widescan coil only once in
real hunting conditions for a few minutes.
Therefore, I cannot still confirm the real advantages of one over the other.
Fact is,in my opinion too, that the elliptical coil will have at least a wider
searching zone of over the round smaller coil.This will greatly help overlapping when in the fields doing relic hunting.
I will keep both coils anyway.
 
The windings of different coils have a lot of different effects- sensitivity may be better on one more than the other- hotter but not deeper in many cases- it's really subjective!!!

Sometimes the mere shape of things owe to their functionality, as is the case of DD coils- it has a direct effect on the sensitivity field under your coil. Think of it as a filter, or screen by which you you search or "pan" the soil through.

The round or concentric coil will be cone shaped- the DD will be much flatter and wider- but still coming to a point at its max reach.

If they are the same size they'll get realatively the same depth- but maybe some addition or loss of sensatvity at the same settings.

It's my opinion ( and just an opinion) that DD are easier to hunt with because of the pattern projected into the ground- but they are a little trickery to pinpoint with- but with time like anything else you get used to it after some trial and error. I love DD's!
 
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