beephead
Elite Member
It looks like the $251.10 Tesoro Mojave with a lifetime warranty is holding its own. The Mojave is not a bunch of hype! I knew it was going to be a 'classic' from the get go. Everyone should have a Mojave in their detector arsenal! It works great and is really super fun to use. FOR REAL!!!
beephead
Monte
March 08, 2017 09:57PM avatar Admin
Registered: 6 years ago
Posts: 1,477
First, the Test Environment and Challenge: Just as random as placing the Nail Board Test on the ground in a ghost town, homestead, park, yard, or anywhere, there is the likelihood that there could already be some metal objects under or close to the test . In this case I placed the Nail Board on my living room floor. It was well away from any higher-conductive heating duct, but there are nails, positioned on-end, in the area but under the carpet and padding.
Second, a Pre-Test of the Nail Board w/a US Zinc Cent, a US Clad Dime, and a US Silver Dime: There were 10 metal detectors used in the test, and 13 search coils. One coil on one detector, the 5" Detech Excelerator DD on a White's M6, was used on this test with a Clad Dime in the past and only produced, at best, 5-out-of-8 possible hits. All other detectors and coils were tested on the Zinc Cent and two Dimes and produced 8 solid hits or maybe one or two marginal but dig-worthy hits.
Third, the Toughest Challenge, using an 1836 Capped Bust Half-Dime: The Half-Dime, with a value of 5¢ compared with the Dime's 10¢ value, is because it weighs half of what a Dime weighs. The Half-Dime has a smaller diameter, and a much more thin thickness. A US Dime has a weight of 2.70 grams, and a Half-Dime weighs only 1.35 grams. Thus, this is a much more difficult coin to find in the Nail Board Performance Test with the 4 iron nails in their fixed position and relationship.
The Detector Settings Used:. We based the comparisons by using smaller-than-standard size coils on all detectors with the exception of the 30+ year old original Tesoro Silver Sabre. It came originally with a 7" Concentric coil, but all I had mounted to it was the brown 8" Concentric coil.
We then compared all detectors on-hand, including my 8 models, and other than Gregg's White's M6 and Makro Racer 2, I read all my 8 through the comparison from the earliest released model to the most recent. Since the first two older models tested, both Tesoro's, had a minimum Discriminate setting that had greater rejection than the iron nails, we used the M6 in it's single tone function, and on all other makes and models we adjusted the Discrimination to just barely reject all iron nails, and used a 2-Tone search mode. This is preferred anyway as it provides a much more pronounced audio response amongst the iron nails than any 3-or-more Audio Tone search mode.
All search coils were swept from left-to-right and then right-to-left across the four marked sweep routes on the Nail Board, which offers an opportunity for 8 possible hits. We only counted the very obvious good hits, and I wanted to make no more than two sweeps each direction. Making many repeated attempts to get a hit doesn't tell the real story of a potential desired response in a very tough iron challenged site.
► The Results! From the Best-of-Eight possible hits to the Worst-of-Eight possible hits (in order of introduction):
8-out-of-8:
** Tesoro 'original' Silver Sabre w/6" Concentric coil
** Tesoro Bandido II microMAX w/new Precision 7" Concentric coil
Nokta FORS CoRe w/'OOR' DD coil (measures 4.7X5.2)
Makro Racer 2 w/NEL Snake DD coil (we measured it at about 3¾X6¾)
** Tesoro Mojave w/6" concentric coil
7-out-of-8:
Tesoro Bandido II microMAX w/6" Concentric coil
Tesoro Vaquero w/6" Concentric coil
** Makro Gold Racer w/5½" DD coil (Note: This is a 56 kHz detector, better for lower-conductive targets than higher-conductive)
Makro Racer 2 w/5½" DD coil
6-out-of-8:
White's M6 w/'Shooter' DD coil
Makro Racer 2 w/'OOR' DD coil
Nokta Relic w/5½" DD coil
Tesoro Mojave w/7" Concentric coil
5-out-of-8:
White's M6 w/Detech Excelerator 5" DD coil
Nokta Impact w/4X7¾ DD coil when at 14 kHz and 20 kHz
4-out-of-8:
Tesoro 'original' Silver Sabre w/8" Concentric coil
Nokta Impact w/4X7¾ DD coil when at 5 kHz
Monte's Observations, Opinions and Best Guesses: thinking
Okay, you have glanced over the results and might be scratching your head. I know because I did, at least a little, but I also anticipated most of the results, and was only surprised a couple of times. Let's take it by model and coils used to try and find a 'Why' and 'Why Not' answer.
Let's start with the 8-out-of-8 Category:
NOTE: The Nail Board was still in the same location and I had been curious how some models would have performed with a coil swap. Gregg had gone, but the set-up is in place in case he or anyone would like to stop by and check it out. I show these Test results preceded by **.
Going from the Oldest or first introduced model to the current about-to-be released Nokta Impact.:
'Original' Tesoro Silver Sabre. This 12 kHz model was introduced in October of 1983 and was basically the Inca Discriminate circuitry w/o a Threshold based All Metal mode, an external Threshold control or external Ground Balance control. It was the early day of the "turn-on-and-go" detectors with a factory preset GB. It also had a more limited lower-end Discriminate level adjustment that still had a lot of iron and small foil rejection at the minimum Disc. setting.
It came with a 7" Concentric coil but the only extra coil I had on-hand and mounted to it was the brown 8" Concentric donut designed coil. I hadn't changed comparable coils around on my Silver Sabre, Bandido II microMAX or new Mojave for the testing, only using what I had mounted.
So, as noted with the ** results, I swapped the round 6" Concentric from the Bandido II µMAX to the old Silver Sabre and the result was 8-out-of-8.
Tesoro Bandido II microMAX (µMAX): Initially we used this 10 kHz detector with the 6" round Concentric coil I have kept mounted to it for most of my hunting needs. Again, on a Penny or Dime it hits an easy 8-out-of-8, but on the tested Half-Dime, with the Discrimination at the minimum setting, we got a first-sweep and very repeatable 7-out-of 8 good hits. That was about what I had anticipated, hoping for 8 hits but not surprised with only 7.
Then, as noted with the ** addition to the 8-out-of-8 group, I used my Bandido II microMAX with the new round-shaped 'Precision' 7" Concentric coil off my new Tesoro Mojave on the NBPT and increased my target responses from 7 to 8, even though I went from a 6" concentric to a larger-size 7" Concentric coil.
Some might ask how that can be? Why did the newer Bandido II µMAX w/6" Concentric coil, with the enhanced broader ED-120 range of acceptance only got 7 hits with the 6" coil and the Mojave and old Silver Sabre produced all 8 hits out-of 8 using that very 6" coil? There are two reasons, and one has to be the search coil.
Yes, it is smaller in diameter, and it did produce 7 very clean and clear audio responses, but on one sweep in only one of the marked directions it ticked but didn't respond with a good audio. I think it could be due to the positioning of the two internal windings in relationship to the iron nails it was encountering on that sweep path.
The other reason, even though the old original Silver Sabre gave a decent hit 8 times with the more limited Discriminate adjustment, has to do with the circuitry design. My Tesoro Inca, with the same limited Disc. range worked wonders, and things improved on some iron site challenges in 1990 when Tesoro introduced the original Bandido w/ED-120 Disc. range circuitry. That was followed by the Bandido II, and both of these models, and their turn-on-and-go sister, the Silver Sabre II, also worked excellent in a dense iron nail contaminated environment.
The Bandido II microMAX, the last of the Bandido series, also had the ED-120 Discrimination, but the newer design that incorporated the Low-Noise / High-Gain circuitry does have some problems at times. It works very close to what the other Tesoro models do, but it does have a little problem dealing with the 'noise' during the rejection of closely located iron. This can also tie in with the signal due to the positioning of the coil's inner windings.
The other Tesoro's tested don't have that same circuitry, therefore they work a little differently with the same 6" coil. The new 7" coil presents a little different information than the smaller 6" and the Bandido II µMAX is able to 'process' or 'filter' the rejected or negative response and recover to handle the positive response of the Half-Dime target.
Nokta FORS CoRe: This excellent performing 15 kHz detector keeps the smaller 'OOR' (Out-Of-Round) DD coil mounted full-time because I hunt trashier sites most often, both when Coin Hunting and especially when Relic Hunting. It proved itself to me in January of 2015, and it continues to show off it's excellent in-the-field performance.
I keep telling people that I have a lot of great detectors in my arsenal, and some have some added adjustment features I really like to use, but if I had to trim my detector arsenal to ONE Target ID model for all types of hunting, especially in iron trash, it would be my FORS CoRe w/the 4.7X5.2 DD I happily named an 'OOR' coil. It didn't need two or three or four or more sweeps in any direction on the NBPT. It was a very reliable 8-out-of-8 with single-pass sweeps.
Makro Racer 2: This 14 kHz device is another very proven performer, but this time it took me by surprise! The Racer 2 did mange 8-out-of-8 hits, but it took the NEL Snake coil to do it and out-perform the two Makro small search coils. It, the NEL Snake, measures about 3¾X6¾ and I thought it might not do well due to the size of the overlapped Tx and Rx windings being too close to the iron nails, but it worked.
Tesoro Mojave: Again note the ** indicators before this test of the 12 kHz Mojave. When I switched from the new standard Precision 7" Concentric coil to the 6" Concentric off my Bandido II µMAX, verified the four iron nails were rejected, I got 8 very reliable hits on the first 8 passes over each marked route. That was the type of performance I anticipated from a good Tesoro, at least 7 if not 8-out-of-8 hits, and the new Mojave proved itself well. If you're wondering, all detectors were GB'ed to a highly mineralized rock, and the Mojave required the 'High' GB setting to not false on the rock.
The 7-out-of-8 Category:
Tesoro Bandido II microMAX: Using the round 6" Concentric coil.
Tesoro Vaquero: Using the round 6" Concentric coil, the Vaquero matched the same 7 good-hit sweep routes as the Bandido II µMAX.
Makro Gold Racer Using the 5½" DD coil (Note: This is a 56 kHz detector, better for lower-conductive targets than higher-conductive) NOTE: ** I had to edit this after I found a glitch I caused with this Gold Racer in the initial testing where it only responded with 4-out-of-8 good hits. I am a bit hearing impaired and after the testing Gregg & I did, I was getting some detectors organized and ready to load up for a detecting trip to Utah. I have two Gold Racer's, an early model I was send but it had a problem with a weak buzzing audio when I plugged in my headphones and the backlight came on. More so with a greater intensity. Dilek quickly replaced the upper rod and controls set with a new production.
Well, I had my 5½" DD on the original Gold Racer I got for demonstration use without headphones. I had removed the dongle from my Racer 2 and put in this Gold Racer to be ready to use my wireless headphones. I used this unit when Gregg & I tested all of my detectors and his, and with my impaired hearing and a little EMI from the indoor electrical devices and us talking, we only heard 4-out-of 8 good hits.
Later, after Gregg left and i was checking a few things, I had the Gold Racer held to my side, coil pointed towards the floor, and I turned it on in my den. Now the bottom-positioned speaker was facing my better left ear and I could hear a raspy sort of buzzing noise. I powered on the wireless headphones and they quickly connected and they worked fine, but when I took them off and set them on my desk I could still hear a weaker buzzing sound. I turned the detector on and off a few times and the raspy buzz remained if my ear was close to the speaker.
I removed the dongle and the Gold Racer was no silent and no buzzing sound. I put the dongle in and out several times and turned the detector on, only to hear the buzzing with the dongle inserted. That was apparently creating an internal 'noise' the detector circuitry was dealing with, just like dealing with target response noise and rejected target processing.
I switch the dongle to my other Gold Racer and checked, there was no buzzing sound. I then swapped the coil with lower and middle rod from one to the other Gold Racer to see if it was a search coil issue, and it wasn't. No buzzing noise with the dongle now in my Gold Racer with the more often used 5½" DD coil. I then went back into the living room and ran the same test over the Half-Dime and now the Gold Racer w/5½" DD gave me a more expected 7-out-of-8 hits.
Makro Racer 2: Using the round 5½" DD coil.
The 6-out-of-8 Category:
White's M6 w/White's elliptical 'Shooter' DD coil
Racer 2 w/'OOR' DD coil. This one both Gregg & I thought would have performed better. Same settings as used with the Makro round 5½" and NEL Snake coils.
Nokta Relic w/5½" DD coil. There was a one-way 'tick' but only 6 definite 'dig-it' responses.
Tesoro Mojave w/7" Concentric coil. Again, I was just a little surprised and I had checked all detectors and coils I had before Gregg arrived (except for the coil swaps marked with ** marker) and was surprised it didn't do better in this small, thin Half-Dime. Since the Mojave got 8-out-of-8 with the round 6"' Concentric coil, I can only attribute the impaired performance to the search coils size and internal windings in relationship to the nail placement around the test target.,
The 5-out-of-8 Category:
White's M6: With a round Detech Excelerator 5" DD coil. I used to have three of these and they never worked well for me on the NBPT or in the iron debris sites on a White's MXT, M6 or MXT Pro.
Nokta Impact: With the 4X7¾ DD coil when at 14 kHz and 20 kHz. I used both frequencies and settings to try and challenge the performance of a Racer 2, FORS CoRe and FORS Relic. With all the adjustment features and ability to control this detector, when set close to the other Nokta / Makro models, the Impact didn't do very well on this very thin Half-Dime on the NBPT.
The main difference between all of them tested was the Impact only had the new 4X7¾ DD elliptical coil and it would have been covering, and influenced by, more of the close-by iron nails.
I do wish there was a smaller 'OOR' shaped DD available for the Impact, or use the round-shaped 5½" housing and make a small Concentric coil for the Impact.
The 4-out-of-8 Category:
Tesoro 'original' Silver Sabre: Using the larger-size 8" Concentric coil and the limited lower-end Discrimination adjustment caused the impaired performance.
Makro Gold Racer: With a 5½" DD coil, this was the best it could do with the small Half-Dime. (Note: This is a 56 kHz detector, better for lower-conductive targets than higher-conductive).
Nokta Impact: The same 4X7¾ DD coil but with a lower 5 kHz operating frequency.
That's it for now! Just the reminder that there is no such thing as a 'perfect' detector and the search coil type and size used can make a difference. Your chosen operating frequency and control settings can also make a difference. Yes, this isn't the type of target & trash we are likely to encounter every day .... but if you Relic Hunt the types of sites I like to find, then you want all the performance you can get!
Monte
beephead
Monte
March 08, 2017 09:57PM avatar Admin
Registered: 6 years ago
Posts: 1,477
First, the Test Environment and Challenge: Just as random as placing the Nail Board Test on the ground in a ghost town, homestead, park, yard, or anywhere, there is the likelihood that there could already be some metal objects under or close to the test . In this case I placed the Nail Board on my living room floor. It was well away from any higher-conductive heating duct, but there are nails, positioned on-end, in the area but under the carpet and padding.
Second, a Pre-Test of the Nail Board w/a US Zinc Cent, a US Clad Dime, and a US Silver Dime: There were 10 metal detectors used in the test, and 13 search coils. One coil on one detector, the 5" Detech Excelerator DD on a White's M6, was used on this test with a Clad Dime in the past and only produced, at best, 5-out-of-8 possible hits. All other detectors and coils were tested on the Zinc Cent and two Dimes and produced 8 solid hits or maybe one or two marginal but dig-worthy hits.
Third, the Toughest Challenge, using an 1836 Capped Bust Half-Dime: The Half-Dime, with a value of 5¢ compared with the Dime's 10¢ value, is because it weighs half of what a Dime weighs. The Half-Dime has a smaller diameter, and a much more thin thickness. A US Dime has a weight of 2.70 grams, and a Half-Dime weighs only 1.35 grams. Thus, this is a much more difficult coin to find in the Nail Board Performance Test with the 4 iron nails in their fixed position and relationship.
The Detector Settings Used:. We based the comparisons by using smaller-than-standard size coils on all detectors with the exception of the 30+ year old original Tesoro Silver Sabre. It came originally with a 7" Concentric coil, but all I had mounted to it was the brown 8" Concentric coil.
We then compared all detectors on-hand, including my 8 models, and other than Gregg's White's M6 and Makro Racer 2, I read all my 8 through the comparison from the earliest released model to the most recent. Since the first two older models tested, both Tesoro's, had a minimum Discriminate setting that had greater rejection than the iron nails, we used the M6 in it's single tone function, and on all other makes and models we adjusted the Discrimination to just barely reject all iron nails, and used a 2-Tone search mode. This is preferred anyway as it provides a much more pronounced audio response amongst the iron nails than any 3-or-more Audio Tone search mode.
All search coils were swept from left-to-right and then right-to-left across the four marked sweep routes on the Nail Board, which offers an opportunity for 8 possible hits. We only counted the very obvious good hits, and I wanted to make no more than two sweeps each direction. Making many repeated attempts to get a hit doesn't tell the real story of a potential desired response in a very tough iron challenged site.
► The Results! From the Best-of-Eight possible hits to the Worst-of-Eight possible hits (in order of introduction):
8-out-of-8:
** Tesoro 'original' Silver Sabre w/6" Concentric coil
** Tesoro Bandido II microMAX w/new Precision 7" Concentric coil
Nokta FORS CoRe w/'OOR' DD coil (measures 4.7X5.2)
Makro Racer 2 w/NEL Snake DD coil (we measured it at about 3¾X6¾)
** Tesoro Mojave w/6" concentric coil
7-out-of-8:
Tesoro Bandido II microMAX w/6" Concentric coil
Tesoro Vaquero w/6" Concentric coil
** Makro Gold Racer w/5½" DD coil (Note: This is a 56 kHz detector, better for lower-conductive targets than higher-conductive)
Makro Racer 2 w/5½" DD coil
6-out-of-8:
White's M6 w/'Shooter' DD coil
Makro Racer 2 w/'OOR' DD coil
Nokta Relic w/5½" DD coil
Tesoro Mojave w/7" Concentric coil
5-out-of-8:
White's M6 w/Detech Excelerator 5" DD coil
Nokta Impact w/4X7¾ DD coil when at 14 kHz and 20 kHz
4-out-of-8:
Tesoro 'original' Silver Sabre w/8" Concentric coil
Nokta Impact w/4X7¾ DD coil when at 5 kHz
Monte's Observations, Opinions and Best Guesses: thinking
Okay, you have glanced over the results and might be scratching your head. I know because I did, at least a little, but I also anticipated most of the results, and was only surprised a couple of times. Let's take it by model and coils used to try and find a 'Why' and 'Why Not' answer.
Let's start with the 8-out-of-8 Category:
NOTE: The Nail Board was still in the same location and I had been curious how some models would have performed with a coil swap. Gregg had gone, but the set-up is in place in case he or anyone would like to stop by and check it out. I show these Test results preceded by **.
Going from the Oldest or first introduced model to the current about-to-be released Nokta Impact.:
'Original' Tesoro Silver Sabre. This 12 kHz model was introduced in October of 1983 and was basically the Inca Discriminate circuitry w/o a Threshold based All Metal mode, an external Threshold control or external Ground Balance control. It was the early day of the "turn-on-and-go" detectors with a factory preset GB. It also had a more limited lower-end Discriminate level adjustment that still had a lot of iron and small foil rejection at the minimum Disc. setting.
It came with a 7" Concentric coil but the only extra coil I had on-hand and mounted to it was the brown 8" Concentric donut designed coil. I hadn't changed comparable coils around on my Silver Sabre, Bandido II microMAX or new Mojave for the testing, only using what I had mounted.
So, as noted with the ** results, I swapped the round 6" Concentric from the Bandido II µMAX to the old Silver Sabre and the result was 8-out-of-8.
Tesoro Bandido II microMAX (µMAX): Initially we used this 10 kHz detector with the 6" round Concentric coil I have kept mounted to it for most of my hunting needs. Again, on a Penny or Dime it hits an easy 8-out-of-8, but on the tested Half-Dime, with the Discrimination at the minimum setting, we got a first-sweep and very repeatable 7-out-of 8 good hits. That was about what I had anticipated, hoping for 8 hits but not surprised with only 7.
Then, as noted with the ** addition to the 8-out-of-8 group, I used my Bandido II microMAX with the new round-shaped 'Precision' 7" Concentric coil off my new Tesoro Mojave on the NBPT and increased my target responses from 7 to 8, even though I went from a 6" concentric to a larger-size 7" Concentric coil.
Some might ask how that can be? Why did the newer Bandido II µMAX w/6" Concentric coil, with the enhanced broader ED-120 range of acceptance only got 7 hits with the 6" coil and the Mojave and old Silver Sabre produced all 8 hits out-of 8 using that very 6" coil? There are two reasons, and one has to be the search coil.
Yes, it is smaller in diameter, and it did produce 7 very clean and clear audio responses, but on one sweep in only one of the marked directions it ticked but didn't respond with a good audio. I think it could be due to the positioning of the two internal windings in relationship to the iron nails it was encountering on that sweep path.
The other reason, even though the old original Silver Sabre gave a decent hit 8 times with the more limited Discriminate adjustment, has to do with the circuitry design. My Tesoro Inca, with the same limited Disc. range worked wonders, and things improved on some iron site challenges in 1990 when Tesoro introduced the original Bandido w/ED-120 Disc. range circuitry. That was followed by the Bandido II, and both of these models, and their turn-on-and-go sister, the Silver Sabre II, also worked excellent in a dense iron nail contaminated environment.
The Bandido II microMAX, the last of the Bandido series, also had the ED-120 Discrimination, but the newer design that incorporated the Low-Noise / High-Gain circuitry does have some problems at times. It works very close to what the other Tesoro models do, but it does have a little problem dealing with the 'noise' during the rejection of closely located iron. This can also tie in with the signal due to the positioning of the coil's inner windings.
The other Tesoro's tested don't have that same circuitry, therefore they work a little differently with the same 6" coil. The new 7" coil presents a little different information than the smaller 6" and the Bandido II µMAX is able to 'process' or 'filter' the rejected or negative response and recover to handle the positive response of the Half-Dime target.
Nokta FORS CoRe: This excellent performing 15 kHz detector keeps the smaller 'OOR' (Out-Of-Round) DD coil mounted full-time because I hunt trashier sites most often, both when Coin Hunting and especially when Relic Hunting. It proved itself to me in January of 2015, and it continues to show off it's excellent in-the-field performance.
I keep telling people that I have a lot of great detectors in my arsenal, and some have some added adjustment features I really like to use, but if I had to trim my detector arsenal to ONE Target ID model for all types of hunting, especially in iron trash, it would be my FORS CoRe w/the 4.7X5.2 DD I happily named an 'OOR' coil. It didn't need two or three or four or more sweeps in any direction on the NBPT. It was a very reliable 8-out-of-8 with single-pass sweeps.
Makro Racer 2: This 14 kHz device is another very proven performer, but this time it took me by surprise! The Racer 2 did mange 8-out-of-8 hits, but it took the NEL Snake coil to do it and out-perform the two Makro small search coils. It, the NEL Snake, measures about 3¾X6¾ and I thought it might not do well due to the size of the overlapped Tx and Rx windings being too close to the iron nails, but it worked.
Tesoro Mojave: Again note the ** indicators before this test of the 12 kHz Mojave. When I switched from the new standard Precision 7" Concentric coil to the 6" Concentric off my Bandido II µMAX, verified the four iron nails were rejected, I got 8 very reliable hits on the first 8 passes over each marked route. That was the type of performance I anticipated from a good Tesoro, at least 7 if not 8-out-of-8 hits, and the new Mojave proved itself well. If you're wondering, all detectors were GB'ed to a highly mineralized rock, and the Mojave required the 'High' GB setting to not false on the rock.
The 7-out-of-8 Category:
Tesoro Bandido II microMAX: Using the round 6" Concentric coil.
Tesoro Vaquero: Using the round 6" Concentric coil, the Vaquero matched the same 7 good-hit sweep routes as the Bandido II µMAX.
Makro Gold Racer Using the 5½" DD coil (Note: This is a 56 kHz detector, better for lower-conductive targets than higher-conductive) NOTE: ** I had to edit this after I found a glitch I caused with this Gold Racer in the initial testing where it only responded with 4-out-of-8 good hits. I am a bit hearing impaired and after the testing Gregg & I did, I was getting some detectors organized and ready to load up for a detecting trip to Utah. I have two Gold Racer's, an early model I was send but it had a problem with a weak buzzing audio when I plugged in my headphones and the backlight came on. More so with a greater intensity. Dilek quickly replaced the upper rod and controls set with a new production.
Well, I had my 5½" DD on the original Gold Racer I got for demonstration use without headphones. I had removed the dongle from my Racer 2 and put in this Gold Racer to be ready to use my wireless headphones. I used this unit when Gregg & I tested all of my detectors and his, and with my impaired hearing and a little EMI from the indoor electrical devices and us talking, we only heard 4-out-of 8 good hits.
Later, after Gregg left and i was checking a few things, I had the Gold Racer held to my side, coil pointed towards the floor, and I turned it on in my den. Now the bottom-positioned speaker was facing my better left ear and I could hear a raspy sort of buzzing noise. I powered on the wireless headphones and they quickly connected and they worked fine, but when I took them off and set them on my desk I could still hear a weaker buzzing sound. I turned the detector on and off a few times and the raspy buzz remained if my ear was close to the speaker.
I removed the dongle and the Gold Racer was no silent and no buzzing sound. I put the dongle in and out several times and turned the detector on, only to hear the buzzing with the dongle inserted. That was apparently creating an internal 'noise' the detector circuitry was dealing with, just like dealing with target response noise and rejected target processing.
I switch the dongle to my other Gold Racer and checked, there was no buzzing sound. I then swapped the coil with lower and middle rod from one to the other Gold Racer to see if it was a search coil issue, and it wasn't. No buzzing noise with the dongle now in my Gold Racer with the more often used 5½" DD coil. I then went back into the living room and ran the same test over the Half-Dime and now the Gold Racer w/5½" DD gave me a more expected 7-out-of-8 hits.
Makro Racer 2: Using the round 5½" DD coil.
The 6-out-of-8 Category:
White's M6 w/White's elliptical 'Shooter' DD coil
Racer 2 w/'OOR' DD coil. This one both Gregg & I thought would have performed better. Same settings as used with the Makro round 5½" and NEL Snake coils.
Nokta Relic w/5½" DD coil. There was a one-way 'tick' but only 6 definite 'dig-it' responses.
Tesoro Mojave w/7" Concentric coil. Again, I was just a little surprised and I had checked all detectors and coils I had before Gregg arrived (except for the coil swaps marked with ** marker) and was surprised it didn't do better in this small, thin Half-Dime. Since the Mojave got 8-out-of-8 with the round 6"' Concentric coil, I can only attribute the impaired performance to the search coils size and internal windings in relationship to the nail placement around the test target.,
The 5-out-of-8 Category:
White's M6: With a round Detech Excelerator 5" DD coil. I used to have three of these and they never worked well for me on the NBPT or in the iron debris sites on a White's MXT, M6 or MXT Pro.
Nokta Impact: With the 4X7¾ DD coil when at 14 kHz and 20 kHz. I used both frequencies and settings to try and challenge the performance of a Racer 2, FORS CoRe and FORS Relic. With all the adjustment features and ability to control this detector, when set close to the other Nokta / Makro models, the Impact didn't do very well on this very thin Half-Dime on the NBPT.
The main difference between all of them tested was the Impact only had the new 4X7¾ DD elliptical coil and it would have been covering, and influenced by, more of the close-by iron nails.
I do wish there was a smaller 'OOR' shaped DD available for the Impact, or use the round-shaped 5½" housing and make a small Concentric coil for the Impact.
The 4-out-of-8 Category:
Tesoro 'original' Silver Sabre: Using the larger-size 8" Concentric coil and the limited lower-end Discrimination adjustment caused the impaired performance.
Makro Gold Racer: With a 5½" DD coil, this was the best it could do with the small Half-Dime. (Note: This is a 56 kHz detector, better for lower-conductive targets than higher-conductive).
Nokta Impact: The same 4X7¾ DD coil but with a lower 5 kHz operating frequency.
That's it for now! Just the reminder that there is no such thing as a 'perfect' detector and the search coil type and size used can make a difference. Your chosen operating frequency and control settings can also make a difference. Yes, this isn't the type of target & trash we are likely to encounter every day .... but if you Relic Hunt the types of sites I like to find, then you want all the performance you can get!
Monte
I appreciate Monte for taking the time to test and post the results!
Also, I wonder what the ratio of missed coins would be in this equation: masked coins/deep coins?
