I had been looking on adding a Sovereign to my arsenal in the last few months to use in the wet sand. I don’t do wet sand much, but I liked the idea of interchangeable coils and knew that an oversized coil on a Sovereign would be better than my SS or CZ with stock coils on the wet. It then occurred to me, “why not an Excal with a connector so that I could swap out the coil?” I decided that I didn’t want to break the bank (or sell the Rolex) so I went out to buy a used unit. So this fellow pirates this is how the story begins on a beach far, far away…
I bought an Excal 1000 (Blue) off Ebay that was a little rougher than I expected last week. (NOTE: I only considered buying it in this condition because I have a friend (Jim) who’s a fellow pirate and electronics expert who offered doing the overhaul for me). When it arrived there were some unexpected things that were bad that weren’t mentioned in the item’s description on Ebay. The headphones wire sheathing had dry rot and had fallen apart (expected). In addition, when the Excal arrived the coil wire also had dry rot and sheathing issues (unexpected). I took it outside in my yard to test it out and noticed that battery wasn’t making a good connection (unexpected), but the unit worked well when it did. I also loved the feel of the straight shaft with the detector mounted on it. After some amicable messages back and forth with the seller, he agreed to refund me a fair amount for what I thought was unexpectedly wrong with the unit.
The following day, I took it over to my buddy Jim at school to start work on it. He stripped the sheathing off the coil wires and had me order marine grade heat shrink tubing for its repair. He also told me to order Peltors so that he could do the “Peltor Mod” and to get an old pair of head phones that he used to cut off the wires to use for “Merlin”. (The Excal has been so named for it shall wield magic!) Jim tells me that the new rechargeable battery pack that had been replaced in the old holder was installed improperly and that the solder work wasn’t good which led to the bad connection. One thing that he said needs to be done eventually is the replacement of the ikelite connector on the rechargeable battery. He says it’s still good and waterproof but has slight cracking. (So I’m looking to get one if you guys can lead me in the right direction).
The new Peltor head piece arrives and I noticed it was “YUGE”!
I put them on and notice that I quickly became deaf. I think to myself, “Wow if it takes out this much ambient noise I’ll hear gold from 10’ down”. Obviously, I bought a much bigger set than I should have, but I decided to keep these. I figure that when other hunters see me with those they’ll be jealous of my bigger size. 
Plus they have room for an amp and subwoofer installation! (Another added benefit is that the young hotties on South Beach will probably think I’m some world-renown EDM DJ like Tiesto or Deadmau5 when they see me detecting in the water!! 
)
Today, I got back my new baby Merlin from Jim ready for this weekend.
He gave me the Seal of Approval on the machine and says it’s completely ready. 
I have seen all the tutorial videos and read as much as I can on the settings. 
Tomorrow, I will meet the morning sun hoping to make some magic happen with Merlin…
I bought an Excal 1000 (Blue) off Ebay that was a little rougher than I expected last week. (NOTE: I only considered buying it in this condition because I have a friend (Jim) who’s a fellow pirate and electronics expert who offered doing the overhaul for me). When it arrived there were some unexpected things that were bad that weren’t mentioned in the item’s description on Ebay. The headphones wire sheathing had dry rot and had fallen apart (expected). In addition, when the Excal arrived the coil wire also had dry rot and sheathing issues (unexpected). I took it outside in my yard to test it out and noticed that battery wasn’t making a good connection (unexpected), but the unit worked well when it did. I also loved the feel of the straight shaft with the detector mounted on it. After some amicable messages back and forth with the seller, he agreed to refund me a fair amount for what I thought was unexpectedly wrong with the unit.
The following day, I took it over to my buddy Jim at school to start work on it. He stripped the sheathing off the coil wires and had me order marine grade heat shrink tubing for its repair. He also told me to order Peltors so that he could do the “Peltor Mod” and to get an old pair of head phones that he used to cut off the wires to use for “Merlin”. (The Excal has been so named for it shall wield magic!) Jim tells me that the new rechargeable battery pack that had been replaced in the old holder was installed improperly and that the solder work wasn’t good which led to the bad connection. One thing that he said needs to be done eventually is the replacement of the ikelite connector on the rechargeable battery. He says it’s still good and waterproof but has slight cracking. (So I’m looking to get one if you guys can lead me in the right direction).
The new Peltor head piece arrives and I noticed it was “YUGE”!
I put them on and notice that I quickly became deaf. I think to myself, “Wow if it takes out this much ambient noise I’ll hear gold from 10’ down”. Obviously, I bought a much bigger set than I should have, but I decided to keep these. I figure that when other hunters see me with those they’ll be jealous of my bigger size. Plus they have room for an amp and subwoofer installation! (Another added benefit is that the young hotties on South Beach will probably think I’m some world-renown EDM DJ like Tiesto or Deadmau5 when they see me detecting in the water!! ) Today, I got back my new baby Merlin from Jim ready for this weekend.
He gave me the Seal of Approval on the machine and says it’s completely ready. I have seen all the tutorial videos and read as much as I can on the settings. Tomorrow, I will meet the morning sun hoping to make some magic happen with Merlin…
Next up, have Merlin fitted with a pinpoint toggle from OBN.
HH
HOWBOUTIT 
