KOB
Forum Supporter
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2019
- Messages
- 7,746
Of all my machines , the Frankenfield has had the most disappearing signals of all. Solid , for sure targets and always in the wet. So what I start out with is expand the perimeter hole by 1 scoop. Then 2-3 big scoops at the bottom. Stacking the scooped sand in 1 pile. Then flatten the pile and scan. This usually does it. Often a small coin or trash. But also small Gold like an earring. Never a big ring. GLSpot on Craig. I don't remember if I told you but that time back when I hunted after the nor'easter when I was really sick, I took your advice and tips you gave me for my "new to me" Dual Field PI, and your advice was right on the money. I was digging every signal, so I can train my brain to correlate the targets I found based on the signals I was hearing. Although I'm a wet sand & shallow water hunter, I also took the PI up above the wet onto the dry a bit, with the specific intention of finding trash. Sounds crazy, but since a PI is new to me, so I was looking for every signal I could get, trash or treasure, didn't matter. I wanted to hear and see everything the PI was detecting.
Although I'm not new to detecting, started in 69', I am brand spanking new to running a PI. So, in addition to your excellent advice & tips, I'd like to share some observations and things I've learned so far about my PI that may help others.
Long Targets: Yep, I was finding tent stakes. But since I always scan every signal from multiple angles, what I noticed was if I swung over the tent stake lengthwise, from top to bottom, I'd get a long signal. But when I switched my sweep angle 90 degrees, I was swinging over the much smaller diameter of the stake's rod, which gave me a much shorter blip. I wouldn't have been able to make this correlation if I hadn't dug the target, but once I saw it was a tent stake, the long tone combined with the shorter blip tone made sense. Haven't dug a cell phone yet, but I'm assuming a cell phone would give me a long tone in the lengthwise direction but should still give a fairly long tone widthwise, as a cell phone is much wider than a tent stake, lol.
Whispers: Yep, got them as well and like you had told me, they were indeed deep targets. Hearing whispers was challenging with the DF, due to the chatty/staticky threshold. It can be a bit difficult to hear a whisper signal mixed in with a chatty threshold, but in my opinion, that's why it's very important to be wearing a good set of headphones, work slowly, overlap sweeps, sweep signals from multiple angles, and also very important was that I was totally focused on what I was doing & hearing. Not gonna hear whispers if you're just be-bopping around.
Threshold Nulls: Yeah buddy, finally got to experience a threshold null with my DF. Hearing threshold nulls on my Sovereign Elite is easy by comparison, as the threshold tone is very smooth and constant. I'm also very familiar with my Sov since I've been swinging it for the last 15 years, lol. But to my ears, it was very challenging with my DF due to the chatty/staticky threshold tone. I had to work slowly and really focus on listening, along with sweeping any potential nulls from multiple angles to verify. This was difficult for me the first time, but it was more of a psychological thing. With a chatty/staticky threshold tone, I found that I was second guessing myself. Did I really hear a null mixed in with all the chatter? The first time I stood there and kept sweeping from multiple angles. The more I swept the coil, the more I could faintly hear that there was a null, at least I thought I heard a null. Only one way to know for sure, so I dug down deep and low & behold, there was indeed a deeply buried target. Very glad I finally got to experience that because now I know how to listen for nulls with the DF. Next time, I won't second guess myself, I'll just dig to find out, lol.
Based on the experience I've gained so far with my Dual Field PI, and after taking your advice and implemented your tips that I outlined above, I'd like to add a few additional tips/suggestions to those, who like me, are new to swinging a PI.
1. Slow down: If ya want any hope of hearing whisper signals or nulls in the threshold, you're not gonna be able to hear them if you're moving too fast or just be-bopping around. Swinging my Dual Field is totally different than when I'm swinging my BBS SMF Sovereign Elite. After 15 years, I know the Sov pretty well, so it was easy for me to hear threshold nulls, as the Sov's threshold tone is smooth & constant, same as an Excal. But I never got to hear whisper signals with the Sov, because the previous owner added a depth mod that raises the audio level of all targets, no matter how deep, which makes it almost impossible to determine target depth based on strength of audio signal. But with my Dual Field PI, deep targets can/will present as whispers or threshold nulls, so I had to slow down my search speed compared to what I was used to with the Sov and really had to make sure I was overlapping each sweep. I've learned that slow & steady is the rule for me when swinging a PI.
2. FOCUS: Very important. I can hunt a lot faster with my Sovereign, but that's a totally different technology (BBS/SMF) than my PI. If I want any chance at hearing whispers or threshold nulls, I not only had to slow down, but I really had to focus on what I was doing while paying close attention to the threshold tone and what I was hearing. The whispers and threshold nulls happen extremely quick, like in nanoseconds, lol, so ya gotta really be focused and paying attention to what the PI is telling you, or you'll walk right over them totally oblivious to what may be lying under your feel.
3. Headphones: IMHO, I think this is uber important, a good set of headphones are a MUST HAVE if you want any chance at hearing whispers or threshold nulls, especially at the beach with all the background noise like waves crashing, airplanes flying overhead, go fast boat's racing past the coast with their loud diesel engines screaming in all their glory, and of course, all the people noise we counter like people talking, kids screaming, and all that. My headphone criteria were that I wanted a high-quality & comfortable set of headphones, that provided the best noise attenuation possible, along with providing the loudest tone possible. I figured the combination of ultra quiet headphones combined with loud tones would give me the best chance at hearing those whispers and nulls, so I spoke with Tony Eisenhower and had him make me a custom set of his large cup blue divers (waterproof) headphones, with his Impedance Matched Circuitry, which provides louder tones. So glad I got these, they're extremely comfortable even after hunting for several hours, they're really quiet and the tones are loud, so I have no problem hearing everything my PI is telling me.
4. Sweep Angles: This isn't new, we all know about sweeping signals from multiple directions. First learned this back when I started in 69'. But what I did learn was that sweeping signals from multiple directions is very important when swinging a PI, as it does help with getting an initial clue as to what the target might be. For instance, the tent stake. Sweeping from multiple angles allowed me to determine that the target was long and not very wide. When I dug and saw it was a tent stake, it all made sense. The tones I was hearing from multiple angles lined up exactly with the shape of the target I dug. Also, during my after nor'easter hunt, when hunting in the wet, I got a nice, smooth, short signal. The signal was exactly the same when sweeping in multiple directions. To my ears, it just sounded sweet, nice, even, smooth tones, no change when sweeping in different directions. Dug the target and it was a coin. Hmmm, OK, now I know what a coin sounded like, so contined working the wet. Got another sweet, smooth, short tone, and it was another coin, so I started focusing in on listening for similar tones. After working the coin line in one direction, turned around and worked the same line towards the other side of the beach, kept finding more coins after listening for more similar tones. And I was very surprised when digging another similar smooth tone when I looked down and saw a 925 ring with stones wrapped around the band. For reference, a dime fits exactly inside the band. But that ring, being circular and about the same size as a coin, gave off the same sweet, smooth, consistent tones that I got from all the other coins.
That's all I can think of for now, hope this helps some of you who might be new to running a PI. There's a lot more for me to learn, but seems every time I take the PI out, I learn something new. Good Luck!
