randy
10-10-2011, 06:25 PM
This is not a complete article, but just some long-winded thoughts from today's hunt.
First, as I have previously posted (I hope on this forum lol), I've found channels 2, 6, 9. and 10 are the best for deep silver (I did a test on a target I was certain was a very deep silver before digging, and those are the only 4 channels that saw it cleanly). (For E-Trac newbies, channel ranges from 1-11 and is what is assigned when you hit the Noise Cancel button. It can also be assigned manually under Expert Menu).
Given that each channel supposedly generates a different set of frequencies, it stands to reason that some would be better than others for particular targets. I understand, for example, that 4 may be better for small gold. I stated the ones I think are best for silver. I've read that 2 is best for the UK folks hunting hammered silver. You get the idea.
Anyway, I always hunt on channel 9, as that is what I've identified as a good channel for silver, and it is usually the channel the machine assigns me anyway. I don't remember the last time I did a noise cancel; I just lock in on 9 and go, and have been content with my silver finds on channel 9.
Today was no different, and I had 5 silvers quite early in the hunt happydance02 All were what I'd call E-Trac silvers, which means they were sort of hard, or at least I felt the E-Trac technology gave me an advantage over those who had come before.
And I'm simply gridding a zone, doing rank after rank of grid, and after those 5 silvers, nada. And hour and half goes by, and not even a deep wheatie. I struggled to get a clad Q at 4 inches, and wrote it off as tons of trash in the hole. But something was wrong.
Here's what I observed. First of all, I always run manual (man 26 usually), tho I keep a constant tab on auto. During the hot zone where I was pulling the silvers, auto was tracking at 20-22 (For E-Trac newbies running manual, just click the right arrow button to see where auto is tracking, then click it again to get back to manual). In the dead zone, auto was tracking 17-18. That shouldn't matter if running in manual, but it appeared to, unless, of course, for some reason this next section of grid were completely hunted out. I wasn't willing to believe that, as, given the layout of the site, there was no real reason to.
The other observation was that the dirt in the hot zone was some sort of orange dirt, while the dirt in the dead zone was the traditional brown kind. I'm no soil scientist, but at least I noticed this.
While in the dead zone, I noticed the machine was really noisy, but I'm used to this in manual. Its always really noisy. You learn to hear the silver over the noise. But, since something was wrong, I decided to do a noise cancel. It assigned me channel 10.
I pressed on, and immediately hit a deep wheatie signal in this dead zone of the grid. At that point, I checked every channel on the target before digging, and channel 9 was the only channel that could not see it. Weird, Teach me to try to outsmart the machine, except I had already found 5 difficult silvers 20 feet away on channel 9. Moreover, channel 10 gave me an auto tracking of 22-23, while channel 9 was 17-18. Since I was running manual, this shouldn't matter, but apparently it did; I could see no deep targets on channel 9 in this brown dirt, even on man 26.
So, I had to regrid the dead zone section on channel 10, and sure enough, I found plenty of deep targets I missed the first time on channel 9 (and I'm a meticulous gridder). Eventually I made it back to the hot zone; I'm not exactly sure where it began, but there came a point were no deep targets were being found.
So, what is going on? I'm not sure, but I tend to believe that there is an interaction between mineralization, channel, and auto/manual. Even tho channel is related to EMI noise reduction, it seems clear that it is also related to mineralization, given my observation that the hot zone where channel 9 was effective had some sort of orange dirt (and likely a different mineralization and auto tracking) from the dead zone where channel 10 was effective had brown dirt, and a better auto tracking on channel 10.
So, my new rule is this. Hunt channel 9 at man 26 or so. However, if auto tracking drops below 20, noise cancel and look for a new channel with better auto tracking. Hopefully it will be channel 2, 6, or 10. If not, try one of those channels, and see if it has good auto tracking and otherwise performs well.
I hope this makes sense. lol My guess is that this doesn't apply at all to those fortunate enough to be in locales with low mineralization, where it probably doesn't much matter. We have high, and extremely variable mineralization, and I think today's observations may help those in similar situations. At least I hope they do.
What it comes down to -- there are times to run channel 9 no matter what, and times to listen to the machine. My tests verify this. The trick is to learn when. Hope these thoughts help.
BTW, after the 5 silvers, got 2 more at the very end of the hunt for a total of 7 (on channel 10 in the brown dirt). Also, from early in the hunt. the silver Q was at only 4 inches, but I pulled that awkward looking ferrous target out of the hole first. The E-Trac knew it was a silver down there; I would have loved to hear how that target sounded on other machines. That would be very interesting to me.
Again, hope this long post helps someone. Thinking about these issues on the E-Trac certainly helps me.
First, as I have previously posted (I hope on this forum lol), I've found channels 2, 6, 9. and 10 are the best for deep silver (I did a test on a target I was certain was a very deep silver before digging, and those are the only 4 channels that saw it cleanly). (For E-Trac newbies, channel ranges from 1-11 and is what is assigned when you hit the Noise Cancel button. It can also be assigned manually under Expert Menu).
Given that each channel supposedly generates a different set of frequencies, it stands to reason that some would be better than others for particular targets. I understand, for example, that 4 may be better for small gold. I stated the ones I think are best for silver. I've read that 2 is best for the UK folks hunting hammered silver. You get the idea.
Anyway, I always hunt on channel 9, as that is what I've identified as a good channel for silver, and it is usually the channel the machine assigns me anyway. I don't remember the last time I did a noise cancel; I just lock in on 9 and go, and have been content with my silver finds on channel 9.
Today was no different, and I had 5 silvers quite early in the hunt happydance02 All were what I'd call E-Trac silvers, which means they were sort of hard, or at least I felt the E-Trac technology gave me an advantage over those who had come before.
And I'm simply gridding a zone, doing rank after rank of grid, and after those 5 silvers, nada. And hour and half goes by, and not even a deep wheatie. I struggled to get a clad Q at 4 inches, and wrote it off as tons of trash in the hole. But something was wrong.
Here's what I observed. First of all, I always run manual (man 26 usually), tho I keep a constant tab on auto. During the hot zone where I was pulling the silvers, auto was tracking at 20-22 (For E-Trac newbies running manual, just click the right arrow button to see where auto is tracking, then click it again to get back to manual). In the dead zone, auto was tracking 17-18. That shouldn't matter if running in manual, but it appeared to, unless, of course, for some reason this next section of grid were completely hunted out. I wasn't willing to believe that, as, given the layout of the site, there was no real reason to.
The other observation was that the dirt in the hot zone was some sort of orange dirt, while the dirt in the dead zone was the traditional brown kind. I'm no soil scientist, but at least I noticed this.
While in the dead zone, I noticed the machine was really noisy, but I'm used to this in manual. Its always really noisy. You learn to hear the silver over the noise. But, since something was wrong, I decided to do a noise cancel. It assigned me channel 10.
I pressed on, and immediately hit a deep wheatie signal in this dead zone of the grid. At that point, I checked every channel on the target before digging, and channel 9 was the only channel that could not see it. Weird, Teach me to try to outsmart the machine, except I had already found 5 difficult silvers 20 feet away on channel 9. Moreover, channel 10 gave me an auto tracking of 22-23, while channel 9 was 17-18. Since I was running manual, this shouldn't matter, but apparently it did; I could see no deep targets on channel 9 in this brown dirt, even on man 26.
So, I had to regrid the dead zone section on channel 10, and sure enough, I found plenty of deep targets I missed the first time on channel 9 (and I'm a meticulous gridder). Eventually I made it back to the hot zone; I'm not exactly sure where it began, but there came a point were no deep targets were being found.
So, what is going on? I'm not sure, but I tend to believe that there is an interaction between mineralization, channel, and auto/manual. Even tho channel is related to EMI noise reduction, it seems clear that it is also related to mineralization, given my observation that the hot zone where channel 9 was effective had some sort of orange dirt (and likely a different mineralization and auto tracking) from the dead zone where channel 10 was effective had brown dirt, and a better auto tracking on channel 10.
So, my new rule is this. Hunt channel 9 at man 26 or so. However, if auto tracking drops below 20, noise cancel and look for a new channel with better auto tracking. Hopefully it will be channel 2, 6, or 10. If not, try one of those channels, and see if it has good auto tracking and otherwise performs well.
I hope this makes sense. lol My guess is that this doesn't apply at all to those fortunate enough to be in locales with low mineralization, where it probably doesn't much matter. We have high, and extremely variable mineralization, and I think today's observations may help those in similar situations. At least I hope they do.
What it comes down to -- there are times to run channel 9 no matter what, and times to listen to the machine. My tests verify this. The trick is to learn when. Hope these thoughts help.
BTW, after the 5 silvers, got 2 more at the very end of the hunt for a total of 7 (on channel 10 in the brown dirt). Also, from early in the hunt. the silver Q was at only 4 inches, but I pulled that awkward looking ferrous target out of the hole first. The E-Trac knew it was a silver down there; I would have loved to hear how that target sounded on other machines. That would be very interesting to me.
Again, hope this long post helps someone. Thinking about these issues on the E-Trac certainly helps me.