Detectorstuff.com wishes you and yours a very, merry Christmas!  I hope Santa brings you some metal detecting goodies and you take the time like I have to truly appreciate what you’ve already been blessed with.

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There seems to be something of a modern day gold rush around the globe!  A foundering world economy tends to stimulate the value of precious metals…and one metal that has been consistently desired is gold.  Fisher Labs, a long-time manufacturer of metal detectors, has released gold prospecting kits that are complete enough for both pro level and novice prospectors!  Fisher offers three varieties of the kits:

Fisher Gold Prospecting $29.99

Fisher Deluxe Gold Prospecting Kit

Fisher Hardrock Pro Gold Prospecting Kit

The directions included with the kits are great at helping you to get your feet wet in the the art of panning (pun intended).  They are written in a humorous style by “Yukon Dick” who gives pointers and methods to gold hunting, especially the panning aspect.

My background is predominantly metal detecting, but the sense of wonder and mystery involved in searching for mysteries still applies to panning.  “Will I have a flake or two in this pan?”  while swirling the muddy water around feels a whole lot like “Will I walk over an old coin on this trip?”…no doubt about it.

My first “real” panning adventure involved a local creek where, admittedly, expectations were pretty low.  The creek had the benefit of being close by and my main objective was learning to apply technique learned from watching Youtube and reading the included guide.  Let me tell you…gold panning “in the wild” is work!  However, it’s also FUN!  Actually over the course of a couple of hours, I began to truly understand the techniques involved and the process began getting faster and faster.  I was producing black sand in the bottom of my pan which is considered a good sign…finally, after getting a shovel full of material in a spot that my internet research indicated should be a good “natural” sluice type spot, I found my first gold flake!  Yep…it was tiny, and it was alone, but MAN!  I found GOLD!  You would have thought I just heard my number called out in the lottery!  This most definitely an extremely addictive hobby…I highly recommend it to my friends who also enjoy metal detecting.  A lot of similarities are there…and who knows?  With the high prices of gold these days, you may just find a spot that makes you a little money!

You can read the manual for Fisher Gold Pan Kits here: www.fisherlab.com/hobby/manuals/ProspectingCtl-READER.pdf  Adobe reader required.

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All about the Ace 250 for newbies.

The Ace 250 is an ideal beginner’s machine especially if you know absolutely nothing about metal detecting. (Just like me when I first started)

I had read on many MD forums about what a fabulous machine it was and
the price was right.

Believe me, you will find stuff first time out.
For me it was a first class coin hunter.
Read the manual that comes with it several times before using it,
I know it’s hard to do that with a shiny new machine just out of the box. But, just do it.

The first mistake any learner will do is to set the sensitivity (sens) too high,
There are 8 bars of sens and the Ace is a very sensitive machine.
Tip No.1. Don’t set the sens any more than 4 bars until you’ve used the machine a lot over a period of at least a month.

You will also have the choice of 4 factory preset hunting modes,
and one custom mode (that is saved when you switch off so the custom mode is the way it was set before you switched off the last time) you can set how you want it once you’ve built up a bit of experience.

Tip No.2. Jewelry mode is a good mode to start with, (only discs out the iron)
and you will not miss any coins in that mode.

Tip No.3. Don’t be impatient to match other detectorists who’ve had
their machines for years. (They have had years of the 3 Ps.)

Tip No.4. Remember the 3 Ps.
Patience, Practice, and Persistence.
Also remember detectors all have their own language and it will take a very good deal of time to get to know and understand what your machine is telling you.

Be prepared to dig a lot of trash such as – bottle caps, pulltabs, and rusty nails.
Bits of foil such as gum wrappers etc.
Tip No. 5. If you find it’s too noisy for you in a high trash area, you can quieten
it down by using coin mode. That will notch out most of the trash for you.
Many of these items can fool a detector into thinking it’s a coin.
Try to concentrate on the sounds and ignore the screen as much as possible until you are more familiar with your machine.
Then only use the screen as a backup to the sounds you are hearing.

You will find with practice the Ace is simple to operate,
but is a first class machine and very easy to use for the price.

Tip No. 6. Listen for the bell tone, it sounds kind of like a
d ding d ding d ding in rapid succession. That is the sound of money.
Always remember any sounds or reading on the screen is only the machines best guess.
The 250 is sensitive to small objects and gold and you will find it performs like detectors costing three times as much – the reason for its popularity.
There are many thousands of experienced detectorists who are very happy and successful still using the 250.
The 9 x 12-inch coil will get you another 2-3 inches in depth and works the same as the stock coil. (6.5 x 9) inches.
Having never used the Sniper coil I can’t comment on it.

Pinpointing needs a bit of practice to get good at it, but once you’ve got it,
it will be spot on every time.
When using pinpoint remember it’s a press and hold button.
Just scan side to side to centre the target then drag the coil straight back towards you until the instant the signal stops and your target will be at the front inner coil tip.
Note if it’s a coin you won’t have to pull the coil back very far,
This can be used to size the target too, and that will come with experience.

De tuning in PP mode can be used to shrink the target for a more accurate Pin Point.
Once you have centred the target move your coil 5-6 inches
to the right of the target (if your right handed) then press PP button twice rapidly and hold it down on the second press while centreing and dragging back towards you.

Tip No.7. A deep coke tin will read as a coin, to check this –
While pinpointing if you raise the coil 6-7 inches off the ground and still get a strong signal 99% of the time it’s a tin.
If the target doesn’t sound after 3 or 4 inches it’s obviously a smaller target.

I feel I must warn you this machine beeps loudly and there is no volume control,
(I believe it could pull a crowd round you in the middle of a desert.) LOL.
So, if your going to use earphones to avoid the crowds,
make sure they have a volume control or you will have sore ears.

Enjoy and have lots of fun with your new 250 Ace.

Ian Pettigrew.

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FTP Head Engineer Dave Johnson

*Posted with permission of Metal Detector Engineer Dave Johnson*

First Texas Head Engineer Dave Johnson has always done an awesome job “educating” the metal detecting masses.  Thanks again for sharing your knowledge Mr. J.!

Time of day influences the amount and type of electrical interference, not just local sources but also longwave radio communications (mostly military) from thousands of miles away.

Also influences the occurrence of thunderstorms, which tend to peak in the afternoon in most geographic regions. Sometimes it is possible using a metal detector to RDF (radio direction find) major storm centers hundreds of miles away if you know how to do it. But this doesn’t usually impact metal detecting because holding the searchcoil horizontally puts it in a null plane with respect to the magnetic field of beyond-the-horizon lightning.

We usually think of electrical interference coming through the air, but it can also come through the ground, traveling along electrically conductive utilities such as buried power and phone lines and metallic water and gas pipes. These utilities may be sources of electrical interference in their own right, they may be carriers of powerline harmonic current because they’re used as earth grounds, or (being huge antennas)they may be re-radiating signals that they picked up and concentrated from the air. All that is influenced by time of day.

In areas (such as deserts) where the soil is exposed to the sun, from late morning till past sunset there are sharp thermal gradients in the upper several inches of the soil. The ground balance point of soil minerals varies with temperature, so when you’ve got those thermal gradients, the ground is “noisier” in all metals mode. This usually won’t affect depth in discrimination mode.

The discrimination point of metal targets also varies with temperature. The effect depends on the alloy, but with most metals and on most products’ discrimination scales (typically 100 to 200 numerical values) there can be a difference of several points between 100 F (38 C) summer weather and subfreezing winter weather, the numbers being higher in cold weather. But nobody goes beeping in that kind of weather, do they?

–Dave J.

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Mark Ellington
www.detectorstuff.com

“In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love”. For the not-so-young man (me), in the Fall my fancy turns to thoughts of metal detecting.  The Teknetics G2 arrived just in time to tickle my fancy!  (read more…)

I had the honor of receiving an early version of the new Teknetics G2. The G2 is primarily designed as a machine for seeking out gold and relics. However, as you will read in this review, it is also a very, very capable coin machine! Could this be the most powerful single frequency metal detector I’ve ever used? I knew from the first air test that this metal detector was going to be something “special”.

I waited with GREAT anticipation for the G2 to arrive. I had been following the excitement on various online metal detecting forums for weeks. Although I consider myself primarily a “coin hunter”, the prospects of a detector that was designed to be “hot” on low conductivity targets (gold, lead, brass) by the great Engineers at Teknetics had me speculating on the possibilities! Could it be a great “old nickel” detector? Would it be an awesome jewelry machine? The answer was “Yes!” The new Teknetics G2 is “first cousins” with the Fisher Gold Bug…with minor software tweaks.

The Teknetics G2 circuitry was designed by Chief Engineer Dave Johnson. The software was coded by Jorge A. Saad. Numerous other people both in and out of the Engineering Department also played support roles in bringing the G2 to life. The G2 operates at 19kHz and uses a single 9 volt battery.

First impressions…

The Teknetics G2 arrived double boxed at my home. After the always exciting “deboxing” of a new detector, assembly was a breeze. All the poles fit nice and tight with no unwanted “wiggling” or creaking while swinging the coil. Speaking of coils, the G2 ships with an awesome 11” DD elliptical coil…no doubt serious relic hunters were in mind! The G2 uses the familiar silver and black color scheme seen on other recent Teknetics releases. Included in the box with the G2 you will find two velcro cable straps, an instruction manual and an adjustable arm cup strap.

Folks familiar with the Teknetics Omega will instantly see the Teknetics family resemblance…very similar physically. However, like “beauty”, the resemblance is only skin deep!

According the Teknetics Chief Engineer Dave Johnson…

“The starting point for the Gold Bug /G2 platform was the Teknetics Omega, but about 80% of it is new. The biggest single change was going to two microprocessors, which was necessary to keep up with the increased performance of the new analog circuitry.”

There’s a nice golden trim around the faceplate that reminds the user it’s definitely a detector designed to find the yellow stuff!

Another thing you’ll notice right off the bat are the dual headphone jacks…AWESOME feature allowing the detectorist to use headphones with either a 1/8” or 1/4” plug.

I don’t know about you, but the first thing I do after assembling a new detector is turn it on! Firing up the G2, I observed how the LCD display is nice and crisp. Although the G2 does not have an internal backlight, I found it to be very legible in all light conditions so far (and easy-to-read at night with use of a LED headlamp!)

Grabbing the G2 reminds you of all the thought that went into the science of good ergonomics… the handle has the familiar curve seen in other First Texas metal detectors. The handgrip material is a soft, yet tough rubber material that is plenty “grippy” even when your hands are sweating or wet from rain.

Reaching up to thumb the controls is a cinch…everything is where it feels like it should be. The two knobs mounted prominently on the faceplate offer enough resistance to prevent an accidental bump from changing the settings…yet the resistance is light enough to make it “thumb friendly”. The membrane style buttons feel great and give a nice “click” when pressed.

Controls

The interface is simple and intuitive!

GAIN Knob -The “GAIN” knob on the left is also the on/off switch. Rotating the knob Clockwise turns up the heat! (and the G2 does have plenty of heat!).

ARROWS-Next you’ll see left and right facing arrows. These have different functions depending on whether you’re in Discriminate mode or All metal mode. While in Discriminate, the arrows adjust the amount of discrimination to use…with an interesting twist. The G2 is a “2 tone” detector while in discriminate. The discriminate setting offers a moving break-point for low tone and high tone. For example, if you adjust the discriminate setting to “40”, all metal falling below 40 in conductivity will be a low tone, while all higher conductive metals will be a high tone. The current discrimination setting is reflected in a target ID arc along the top on the LCD display, as well as in the bottom right hand corner.

When you’re in “ALL METAL” mode, the arrows function as manual ground balance controls. The ground balance offers very high resolution to allow for tweaking in any kind of soil.

Pinpoint/GG- The pinpoint button has double duties as well. When in discrimination mode, the pinpoint button…well…pinpoints! The LCD display will switch over to an “inches” readout based on coin sized objects. So far, the depth reading has been extremely accurate. The pinpoint function on the G2 also allows you to “shrink” the target by pressing the button while near the target (but not centered) so you can make it smaller, and easier to locate.

When in All Metal mode, the pinpoint button acts as a “ground grab” for quick, on-the-fly ground balancing. Just pick a spot without any metal (easy to do since it’s in all metal mode), press and hold the pinpoint/GG button and raise & lower the coil to the ground (around 12 inches will do it), listening for the audio to level out. I found this easiest to do with the GAIN at around the 12 o’clock position. When the audio levels out (no change when lowering or raising the coil), just release the button. You’re all set!

MODE/Threshold knob- The knob on the right side doubles as a mode switch and threshold control. If the knob is “clicked” in the fully counter-clockwise position, the G2 is in Discriminate mode. A turn to the right puts it into “ALL METAL” mode. To adjust the audible “hum” you hear, continue rotating the knob to the right. The adjustment goes from -40 to +40…at zero, you’ll begin to hear the “hum”. While using “ALL METAL” mode, you’ll notice the LCD turns into a ground phase reading.

That’s about it for controls! How simple is that? Now to the good stuff….

Using the Teknetics G2

I’ve mentioned that I’m mainly a coin hunter and while the G2 is going to become a legend for relic and jewelry hunters, it can also clobber coins!

I’ll be honest with you…I did not expect much from the G2 in the way of coin hunting abilities. After all, it’s an 19 kHz machine (higher frequencies love low conductors but not silver….usually!). It also doesn’t have fancy little “icons” to tell me what it thinks will be my prospective find. What it does have, however, is a “no nonsense” approach of raw power, razors edge precision and amazingly accurate ID. My first trip out the the ol’ coin test garden was mainly to see how it did on my buried nickels. I had visions of the G2 being an old nickel killer! My guess was right…it kicked butt on all the nickels…even one that is near an old piece of iron! I quickly was slapped in the face with the realization that the G2, combined with the awesome 11” DD elliptical coil sorts through targets like a laser pointer! The G2 offers a darned-near “real time” view of what’s in the ground. The knife edge of the DD coil separates amazingly well…and the processing power of the G2 can keep up with it. Somehow, coins are still VERY visible even when nestled amongst junk and iron…more-so than with any other detector I’ve used.

Okay…next up was to try it out on some buried silver coins. 4 inch Quarter…yep, no problem. Accurate ID and depth reading. 6 inch Dime, once again…loud and clear. Okay now…surely this thing won’t be able to hear or see my 8 inch silver dime? But…it did! Not only did the G2 “see” the dime, it LOCKED on the dime with an amazingly consistent ID! The audio was very modulated and soft, but consistent. Folks that are going to use the G2 as a coin machine; Invest in some good headphones! The G2 “talks” to you with the amazingly descriptive audio. One thing I wish the G2 had is an internal volume control, but most serious hunters will have good headphone with their own audio controls.

REAL WORLD…

Away from the test garden, the G2 continues to impress me. It’s rugged enough to handle the rigors of swingin’ in the woods…and a MUCH better coin machine than I could have ever predicted. On lead and brass…wow! Easily THE DEEPEST DETECTOR I’ve ever used on low conductors! I’m not really a “relic guy” but I’ve been digging lead shot and .22 caliber bullets at depths I’m afraid to put into writing! (disclaimer time…in my dirt!) There’s a lot of discrimination resolution on the lower conductors too. On coins….it’s right up there with the “big boys” at much higher retail value! Now…the G2 is not designed as a coin machine. However, it DEFINITELY can find ‘em!

I hunted one area I’ve hunted dozens of times (literally). This spot is THICK with old iron, aluminum fragments, foil, etc. The area is only around 10 feet by 20 feet. I cranked up the Discrimination on the G2 and started hunting. The G2 picked out two copper pennies very quickly…neither one was deep (only about 2 to 4 inches), but they had been “masked” in the past by the trash…and invisible to at least a dozen other detectors. The G2 had no problem sniffing ‘em out… Not valuable finds, but an example of the “see though” ability of the G2. I was impressed!

During my G2 adventures, I hunted near an electric cattle fence. On most of my detectors I have to crank down the gain or sensitivity (or twiddle with threshold). The G2 handled the fence in Discrimination mode with gain “cranked”…within 20 to 30 feet. No audible “pulses” from the fence were heard. Switching to All Metal mode, I could “hear” the fence, but it wasn’t distracting. The G2 circuitry handled it quite well! All indications are that the G2 seems to run smoothly in areas that have given me problems due to electrical interference.

Summary

The Teknetics G2 is definitely a multi-purpose metal detector! Want to search for gold nuggets? Want to go crazy deep on brass buttons and bullets? Want to still have the ability to hear deep silver with amazingly accurate ID? If so, check out the G2!

What will owners of the G2 notice? Here’s what Teknetics Engineer Dave Johnson has to say:

“The stark simplicity and effectiveness of the user interface. The amazing “see-through” in iron trash. The hots on low conductivity targets.”

He also says this:

“This platform sets a new industry standard for simplicity combined with leading-edge performance, going well beyond the previous such standard, the Omega.

Although this platform is primarily a gold prospecting and relic hunting machine, it is also very good at finding coins in trashy areas. Its characteristics are not optimized for “deep silver”, so customers whose beeping is primarily deep coin hunting in non-trashy areas should probably look into some other machine such as the T2 or F75 with boost mode, CZ3D, or Omega with 11″ accessory searchcoil.”

Teknetics G2 Specifications:

• Mechanical: S-rod with electronics housing on rod, 3-piece breakdown construction, nonmetallic telescoping lower rod, adjustable position arm rest
• Weight: 2 Ibs, 8 oz with battery installed
• Standard searchcoil: 11″ elliptical biaxial DD
• Batteries: Single 9 volt rectangular alkaline
• Operating principle: VLF induction balance
• Operating frequency: 19 kHz, crystal controlled
• Reactive overload: 10,000 micro-cgs (with standard searchcoil)
• Resistive overload: 1,200 micro-cgs (with standard searchcoil)
• Ground balance range: From ferrite to salt water inclusive
• Discrimination ground suppression: Combination of 2nd and 3rd order methods
• Target ID ground suppression: 3rd order
• Battery life: 15+ hours on good quality alkaline
• Operating temp range: 14 to 122 degrees F (-10 to +50 C)
• Operating humidity range: 0 – 90% non condensing

Find out more about the Teknetics line of metal detectors at www.tekneticst2.com

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