Well went ahead and got me a Minelab CTX 3030 and I must say (5/18/2013 using 50 tone conductive to unmask in nail's VIDEO)

Hey Keith, I thoroughly enjoy your shared knowledge that you have shown thru your use of the CTX.I have never ran one and am trying to understand what you were saying in the passage below from you.You talk about conduct being the most powerful mode yet unusable on high conductors.???What is ment by that?? Where I hunt I have very little iron,large or small to contend with, and all Im after are deep copper and higher conductors.If I wanted to set up the CTX in one of its deepest modes would I run wide open screen, the highest manual gain the ground will let me and use conduct or combined?? Not sure what these both do and do I need them if my woods hunting is sparse of iron.Thanks Keith for your knowledge, Steve


I also Might add the ability to use combined all the time allows for more depth than the explorer or etrac at this point...conduct being the most powerful mode on all of them yet unusable on high conductors because of iron issues is a moot point with the CTX, with the ability to use combined I get depth on a higher accuracy level than the etac and explorer...

What I mean by that Steve is when using open screen no disc patterns ....If you are in Conduct mode the nails will ring up High tone as will silver, large brass etc...

Why becasue when you are in conduct the tone applies left to right on the screen....

so you can see..


That the left of the screen is low tone the right of the screen is the highest tone....

but you can see aslo that the nails hit at the far right bottom....so the tone assigned to this is the 46 Co tone...not the 35 Fe tone....the problem is the tones for nails is now the tone for copper and such towards the top becasue the tone reading come from the vertical bin's in conduct...So all you can do is run a disc pattern or try and stare at the screen in iron ringing nail's looking for a high corner hit the same tone as the lower nail corner nail hit... or go into ferrous mode and stay open screen then the nails are low tone for 35 and high tone being 1 towards the top... a dime will read like 12/36 or so so then you have the tone being Fe 12 which is High ....

alot of people Know to run the screen wide open for performance and are usually stuck with switching back and forth...the Fe tone works well for the high conductors yet is not as sensitive to small conductors for some internal programming reason I am not privy uc..yet Condcut works well for low conductors and is also hot on high conductors and i.d.'s more precise....

Well now with the invention of combined you can have both at the same time....you can assign the ferrous bin one tone which I set just for nail reject at line 32 with a super low bass tone of 130Hz...then you can have the other bins reading left to right low tone to high tone in 4 bin's....So now when you get a high conductor on the right of the screen you know it's high and good because although the nails is still at 46 Co the tone is generated from the the 35 line which is in the bin assigned to 33-35 low bass tone.....

Combined mode



I might add just because the cursor is somewhere on the screen the tone can be different ... they work independently of each other...audible and Visual that is...

another added advantage is you can now tell when iron is falsing better becasue it will jump fromthe iron bin to the high condcutive right bin ...so you get the ever popular tone roll ........all this while being able to use combined...

What I would like to see is the ability to split the ferrous line vertical like the conduct....that way you could slide inside the horizontal ferous bin left or right and assign the lower left a higher tone...because on occasion in dense nails the lower conductors on the left of the screen can drop in the iron bin if the nails are thick...It should be doable with a software download upgrade....

thats why when I am really getting sleuthy with it I still have to use 50 tone Conductive and just listen for the low tone because on a dead site only the lowest of condcutors are usually left and I can nab some of the smaller pieces lurking in the bottom left that even the new combined will not get because of the 33-35 tone assignment bin is in the ferrous ...

I know its all starting to get overwhelming at this point.. So see if we are on the same page..and then we can proceed further if you like...

Keith



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2013 03:50AM by Keith Southern.

Hey Keith, I think Im understanding it a bit more. Those graphics do help a lot when Im mostly a show me on pictures type of guy. These bins you talk about I assume they appear to be like tone break areas between 1-50 and are fully adjustable. Are you also able to adjust the bin width as you go 1-35,ferous? Like 1-10 low 11-20 med, 21-27 med high and 28-35 high tone or opposite, high to low tone? Not sure really what this kind of set up would serve. So you are doing your type of hunting in 4 tone. Is there really an advantage or certain areas to where you would use 2 tone ferrous which I thought a lot of guys prefer for relic hunting? Thanks again Keith for the well explained answer.Steve

yes the bins are adjustable ...except for the 50 bin's...the 2 or 4 modes bins can be slid around and also the tones can be whatever you like inside them...

the multi which is 35 ferrous or 50 conductive can not be slid....but the tones can be adjsuted from the lowest tone to the highesgt tone...sort of like a shift...

yes till now the relic hunter liked the 2 tone ferrous.. and it still is a nice mode especially with the ability to slide the ferrous range to your liking for better unmasking...but the main reason the relic hunters liked it was becasue they ran open screens and that was the only way to dig the High condcutors without digging nails which rang up the same tone in conductive as large brass bullets and such.....

But with the advent of the combined you can do the the same and get better perfomance.....

the combined mode is 4 Co Bins and 1 Fe bin only...but totally adjustable...if you would like it to be 2 tone only you can assign the 4 top conductive bins the same tone...

At this point I am more inclined to use the 2 tone ferrous for large iron retrieval more than anything else...just set it on 34Fe and dig all target's to get the gun parts and such...

That is the beauty of the CTX with the high trash/low trash options and the souns long ,smooth ,normal and tone breaks etc you can set up for alot fo different need's..

Some talk ablout the fluety sound gone on the CTX and they are in away for a reason...its because the tones dont like to roll even,, in multi like the older FBS machine's...the I.D. is more accurate and holding to the exact I.D....but if you set it up muti low trash the tones do get quite flutey....yet th high tone is not quite as high as the Etrac or explorer...

But I promise its so much more than those machines...It can match what ever those machine can in trash or depth and it can aslo do more in both areas with proper settings and adjustment's.. It's an upgrade in just straight perfomance yet the total package offers so much more...

Its a very adaptable detector with filter's and recovery speed option's and such and yet you cant go to far and mess it up at the same time...

Its a slick machine and once you come to grips with what setting does what and when and where to use certian setup's you will find the machine is almost addictive...And also Productive...Thats the main thing though coming to grips with the total understanding of the unit...and knowing when and where to reign it in and also when and where to unleash it....

It may seem complicated at first jsut reading and looking at it but its really not...and its as simple or advanced as you want it to be....

To be honest I have not even turned the GPS on yet that seems more intimidating to me than the setup and use of the detector.LOL!!
Probabaly never be in the salt water over once in a few year period if that....but its nice Knowing you can handle whatever needs to be handled if the need arises....

Again is it for everyone or a needed must have to produce machine ? NO....But if you really savor the detecting life and can JUSTIFY it... I strongly recommend the detector if all it takes is a few other machine's or some gold rings or relics or whatever can be sold to procure one then its a win win in my way of thinking....

Dont do the buy try a week and sell though....stay on it and watch for result's....You know the routine its not finding nothing I paid 2500.00 for this thing...My other machine all ways gets something...Well that's true but you know your other machine very well....get in tune with the new one for awhile. then see what you think in a month...

I love to hunt and think of hunitng all day but this machine has pushed my drive even further....And I did not think that posssible...

Keith

Thanks again Keith, very informative. Im starting to feel this itch. What you said; the intimidation factor of this detector. Up until now I really paid no mind because I just thought it is too complicated to learn and Im not the brightest bulb when it comes to computers and such. But Im starting to think now that I could figure this detector out after several,several hours use. Thanks for the confidence boost, Steve

Go For it Steve!!!

Keith

Everyone thought I was insane passing on getting a Deus and spending 2500$ on my CTX3030. But my finds prove me right. Big silver 50cent pieces in the middle of grassy areas people have hunted for 30years+, with rusty fence wire next to the finds. Silver from so called hunted out parks and in heavy iron/nail areas.

Glad your happy with it Keith, it won't fail you. Got my 17" coil this week, hitting an old horse racetrack park this weekend. Hope to find some good stuff. I'm gonna try out your mode with the 6" coil in some heavy nail spots soon.

GL & HH

It's out there fellows! Go get it!
"Ged Peacehavens"

Keith, it is clear that the CTX setup is superior to the E-Trac pattern below. The problem with dividing the conduct into quarter screen audio with the E-Trac was always the massive amount of DISC (red striped areas in image below) needed to silence all the areas that junk resides. It was always a problem having a High Tone silver coin giving the same audio as a worthless iron nail. As most know, the more DISC used the less sensitivity and depth. With the CTX the DISC can be reduced greatly (or not at all in your case).



With the E-Trac in 4TC, there are similarities with the tone arrangement so that Low Tone is reserved for small conductive targets around iron (lower-left screen). One big drawback for the 4TC, and the reason I didn't use it, the High Tone was great for silver or high conductors, but the majority of nails would fall into the 20-29Fe zone (gives unwanted audio response) and it became irksome to hear High Tones on nails. If you DISC this area too much you'd lose deeper copper in iron dirt.

Have you found a CTX pattern that would differentiate between nails and deeper coins and still give a High Tone on silver and high conductors?

I set the machine up for my hunts in the POWERFUL combined mode....

No disc pattern...

I dig NO IRON....

the CTX is not like the Etrac or Explorer...things happen more precise....more within boundries...less floating of target i.d's and tone's....

I set the ferrous line at 31Fe...

evrything below 31 to 35 is low tone 130Hz..

then the 4 top bins like you have on the Etrac in condcutive I leave stock no need to change them for my hunt....

the iron targets that do sometimes try to go high tone upper right will also flip flop to the ferrous bin so you know its a bigger piece of iron falsing....

on the Etrac in Conductive this is not possible wihthout disc because of the scenario you used in that nail's are high tones like coin's..

well no more ...We get the powerful Conduct mode and the excellent iron I.D. ferrous mode in one and I see no need for any disc so I have full power to the soil....and with a more accurate I.D. to boot and also better mineral handling... with virtually no ground noise I have more depth plain and simple...


that's the point I am trying to get across ...

people that run patterns alot on both machines will notice the VTX is more accurate..

People that run no patterns on both machines and have to swtich back and forth on the Etrac explorer will come to realize just how powerful the combined is....and just how much more usable accurate depth you will get...

The engineers thought this out.. and I am amazed at what the did with it...

The Explorer etrac mindset really needs to be forgotten and the new 21st century style of hunting needs to be applied to this machine...

its so much more than what we had on prior FBS if you really delve into the differences...

the real gains comes from the ability to really open the machine up if you get my drift...less disc more depth.. simple solutions for tough problem's till now..

I hate to sound like a broken record but if you can swing one dont look back at the other FBS detector's...unless your nostalgic...People want the CTX to be the Etrac or the Explorer...WHY???? I want the CTX to be the CTX....its as good and also its better....but we have to stay open minded and experiment.. and the CTX has the ability to handle all scenarios thrown at it....very tweakable...very sluethy...fun to run ....Will make finds in hard to hunt and hunted hard spot's....

I can see it a machine to run with for quite awhile...

Make no mistake this is a fine detector!

Have you had a chance to see how it handles emi?

It is very EMI resiliant...

its actually very quite around High lines, cell towers ,broad band.. etc..

I can run it pretty hot on the sides of the high ways ...wide open sens...

the same spot the explorer could not be ran wide open without a ton of noise......I believe the coil communicating with the box has digitalized the signal and removed alot of the noise that the etrac and explorer pick up in the cable before signal processing..The x-terra type coil communication is used in the CTX it seems but on a more cleaner scale...

the signal is digitized and becomes binary instead of a analog noise acceptable transmission from coil to housing like the days of old....allowing for a more cleaner truer less emi alterable signal...

so they have worked and got the EMI issue to be a non issue..

I am sure theres places that can get it..I have not been around electric fences they could be troublesome or they could not?

but if you had sucess with the noise cancel of the etrac en explorer this is that and more on reducing noise...

in other words it handles EMI very very well Ray...It uses a less emi prone digital data coil-control box link,,,real clean..

Keith



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2013 03:44AM by Keith Southern.