MXT, Relic, Alternate mode

[DustyRoundup]

Howdy,
I just went out for a bit, seeins how its 42 degrees today.
And I was hunting an old foundation area.
I was bouncing back and forth between the Primary , and Alternate modes , while in relic.
I wanted to use the Alternate mode, But it was just too dang chatty. Drove me nuts. I was doing some air tests yesterday, and it seemed I was having a problem , in Alt mode, getting the signal below 0vdi but above my disc setting , to sound off decent and regular.
It seemed as if it was chatty and irregular :huh:and bounced between the low and medium grunts, but yet the vdi was constant.

I dont know, this is hard to explain, do any of you know what I'm trying to say?
Is this normal?
It just seemed that running in Primary mode was so smooth, and easy to listen to.

Do many of you use the Alternate mode as your favorite mode under most conditions?

Thanks for any and all help
Dusty

[Lowjiber]

Do many of you use the Alternate mode as your favorite mode under most conditions?

With the exception of gold prospecting, I only hunt the MXT (not the Pro) in Alternate Relic Mode.

I was somewhat dismayed to see that the new MXT Pro no longer offers the mixed-mode audio control.

I'll send you an email.

[v3ikid]

I only hunt in Relic- Primary for the very same reason. It runs a lot smoother.

[Nitro 54]

Did you turn down the Sens. some to see if that would quite down the chatter..

[Lowjiber]

I only hunt in Relic- Primary for the very same reason. It runs a lot smoother.


I agree...it's a lot smoother. However, I push the depth limits using the mixed-mode audio and very high gain settings. I pay more attention to whispers than anything else.

In the parks of northern California, the added topsoil is sometimes seven inches deep. The older silver lies below that.

[wingmaster]

I use the alternate mode with +2 gain most of the time without any problems. Do you have the track locked when your having this problem, if so you may need to ground balance more often. I notice the MXT gets a little noisy when in alternate mode and the track lock on after a while, then when I ground balance again it stays quiet for a while. I try to ground balance every 20min or so if running with track lock on or if its gets noisy. If I get in a high EMI area it will act like this also, is it doing this all the time or did it happen just this one time out and some area's have more EMI on and off not the same all the time I've noticed.

[DustyRoundup]

Well,
Thanks for the input/ ideas.
I did some air tests, yesyerday, and played around with different Gain levels, different Threshold levels, and different Disc. levels.

I think as far as air tests go,
there has to be some EMI in the house.
And a couple of days previously , I was playing with a -38 vdi / a-18 vdi/ and above 0 vdi.
I was trying to null out the -38, and keep a low grunt for the -18. (High pitch for the above 0 objects of course)
My Gain was at preset, Threshold audible.
What was happening, was , the -38 was either quiet, or sounded like a mixed mode, or low grunt, and it was chatty Never did have a SOLID response.

Same with the -18, except it was chatty and bouncy on signals on the higher side.

Out in the field , it was pretty much the same, but even though theres nothing Electrical around, the ground has ALOT of trash and stuff.

After air testing yesterday, I came to the conclusion, I dont really need to fine tune so much.
If I use the ALT mode, I will Disc. nothing and hear all, or I will Disc . and just forget about that area between disc level and zero vdi.
I dont really need to worry about -vdi's.

That is a good tip though, ground balancing every so often.
And no , I dont Lock the ground very often.

I also realized, that part of my problem was , I took my Edge reading and tried to make a certain function work, without regard to The Ground , or the EMI in the house.
I need to back off , and let it fall into place, while having fun with the detector.

And maybe I need to do more detecting and less reading, but it is Winter. :interesting:

Thanks again you all,
and if I have something that doesnt make sense here, please let me know.

H.H.
Dusty