minelab e-trac

i was wondering if the e-trac will "lock" on properly in both audio,and numerical id at DEPTH on silver
better than the f-75 l.td. AND the white's v-3 in LIGHT to MODERATE mineralized soil?..
also,is the e-trac affected by e.m.i?..if so,to what degree?..thanks!

(h.h!)
j.t.

Can't speak for the E-trac, but if it is anything like my old Explorer SE, I would have to say it locks on very well to silver. I've only used the F75 LTD briefly, and never found silver with it, so I can't comment. It did seem like the TID was a lot more jumpy than the Explorer, though.

My Explorer never seemed to have any problem with EMI, unlike the F75 LTD.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2010 07:32AM by Mojave.

I had an E-trac, and I would say when it detected deep silver, ID locked as well as earlier versions.

thanks for the replies!

(h.h!)
j.t.

I hunt with several folks that use the Etrac, and from what I've witnessed they are far better at accurately ID'ing and detecting deep small silver coins (dime sized) at depth then the F75 LTD....at least in my dirt (northern California moderately mineralized soil).

Brian what kind of depths are you referring to on dime size targets in your dirt?

Thanks
Tom Z

I wouldn't ever entirely trust target IDs. If I have the time, I dig it all and let my eyes sort it out!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2010 11:11PM by Gary in Daytona.

Tom I would say 8" and deeper. Even at 6" - 8" the F75 LTD can be iffy......larger silver it's fine with, for instance I dug a measured 11" deep SLQ with the F75 LTD and the TID and tone was spot on, but it has trouble with smaller silver, I would assume due to it's higher frequency. I do dig smaller lower conductors that are deep and sound very good on my LTD, but if you're a deep turf silver hunter, from what I can see, the Etrac will best the F75 LTD

Jackpine Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Brian what kind of depths are you referring to on
> dime size targets in your dirt?
>
> Thanks
> Tom Z

I agree with you, but deep small silver (dime sized) targets do not necessarily have great audio characteristics either in most of the areas I hunt (1800's inner city trashy parks with mineralized soil). I think it's pretty well established that multifrequency machines are able to handle mineralized soil far better then single frequency macines. Even my CZ-70 Pro does better in mineralized soil then my F75 LTD, BUT it's an entirely different machine and there are pros & cons between it and a new machine like the F75 LTD or Omega. I'd love to see Fisher get back into the multifrequency game, but it doesn't appear that Dave Johnson has any interest in it for whatever reason. The new Gold Bug SE seems to be doing quite well handing mineralized soil from recent reports, so perhaps FT has new advances in VLF coin shooters in store for us (an Omega with boost mode, a trigger and a back light would be my perfect machine).

My Omega is doing a better job at smaller silver, if the O8 had a boost mode (or just more depth) it would be a killer machine for deep (8"+) silver turf hunting where 90% of the silver coinage is dimes.



Gary in Daytona Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wouldn't ever just trust target ID. I dig it all
> and let my eyes sort it out!

Brian,

Correct. And yes, a lower freq (silver resonant) unit would be better/well suited for deep silver coin hunting. Single freq units handle iron better....giving better ID.....less falsing. The newer single freq Fisher units are doing quite well in bad dirt,,,,,,,,, much better than previous generation units. In fact, under certain circumstances, I've witnessed the single freq F75 slightly trump the multi-freq CZ. ... Pulse is still the way to go; but ID capabilities with a PI needs to advance. Lower freq's penetrate the dirt better....and are more resonant to silver.........but will miss the deeper lower conductor targets. This is why higher freq's do better with lower conductor relics; yet, higher freq's are attenuated to a higher extent IRT penetration abilities.

tom!
in layman's terms,a 6.5 khz (v.l.f) single frequency detector
with equal transmitting power as the multi frequency e-trac,will (i.d) a silver dime
in light to moderate mineralized soil as well as the e-trac,or perhaps better because of the lower frequency?

thanks!

(h.h!)
j.t.

Brian, I believe the deal on 7"+ dimes is partly why the Omega has become so popular. Although the T2 and F75 are an improvement on silver vs previous mid / hi freq machines, no matter how you shake it, coil for coil lower frequency is going to give a stronger response on dimes. While results on 'in the clear coins' may differ a bit here and there, throw in trash and masking and I'll take the lower freq machine every time for those deeper dimes.

Edit: Well I did not read all the prior posts so most of this is duplication. Tom D stated the reasons well.

Hopefully the new high performance 'front end" of the GB/G2 (at the 'right' freq.. whatver that may be) will morph into a deep dime machine.

Tom



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2010 12:01PM by Jackpine.

A single freq 4 - 6 Khz unit should match (yes, possibly exceed) the Explorer on deep silver.......yet, there are so many variables. One of them being........who & how is the lower freq unit 'engineering build quality'. If the same engineer builds BOTH units.....this would be close to being 'fair'....IRT final performance.

I would like to see a 4.5 - 5.0 Khz single freq unit ...... and built by Dave Johnson or maybe Bruce Candy.

The E-TRAC locks onto the TID shallow, deep, or in trash better than any Explorer and better at depth than the F75/T2. It beats the heck out of the Explorer because ML straightened and expanded the conductive line. On the Explorer the conductive line had a sort of curve and was vertical. The cursor on the Exp will jump on a deep target from the upper left to the lower right... an experienced user can read this though and glean info from the jump. However the inexperienced user will have to work through hours and hours of use to come to the place where this jumping is useful. The E-TRAC on the other hand has a conductive line that runs from left to right and runs from 1-50... the ferrous readings on most good targets are bunched around the 12 ferrous number but can run between 8 and 16 or so as targets get deeper and/or more masked. The ferrous numbers being bunched around 12 aren't really the true ferrous reading but are a bit arbitrary in order to help the user to ID good targets... BUT... the big thing here is the straightened conductive line. If the cursor bounces on the ET, it bounces up and down on the ferrous line... not upper left to lower right like the Explorer... SO... the conductive number remains stable both in trash and at depth (though the ferrous number may vary and bounce a bit... usually it will not go above 25 or especially above 30 and still be a non-ferrous target.

In short the conductive number will almost always be true and the ferrous number will be close. When a target is masked, the target may only hit correctly from one direction but it will consistantly hit correctly from that direction. If the target isn't masked and is either shallow or deep the conductive number target will usually hit with a correct conductive number from at least two directions though as depth increases the ferrous number will become more unreliable. The conductive number is the key to getting deep and/or masked targets with the ET and the Explorer lacks this ability. The F75 and hte F75 LTD gives me an unreliable TID at depth but it could be the mineralization here. I don't know if the TID would be better at depth in neutral soil.

The SovereignGT also has an amazing TID on targets at depth but not on masked targets... the E-TRAC rules the roost on masked targets as far as I can tell, though I must say that I am interested in trying the F75/T2/Omega with 0 disc, identifying the common iron at a site and then digging iron signals that are different... that may be a game changer.

I am convinced that I can do everything I want or need to do with an E-TRAC, F75 LTD, T2, Omega-8000, SovereignGT, and a Tejon... and a whole bunch of coils... laff.

Sounds right huh? Seriously though the E-TRAC is an amazing machine and it is easy to use if you will just trust it and NEVER, EVER try to make is be an Explorer!!

Julien

Julien,

Quite definitive..........and is the exact justification to REALLY learn a machine. The little nuances are what sets apart a general detectorist from a very serious (and successful) hunter.
In my findings.........the F75 LTD is quite TID/VDI accurate on silver coins that are deep (and/or fringe depth); yet, there is usually a 'up-averaging' on these targets....especially in the presence of iron oxides and rust flakes. This is in mild and neutral dirt. I found the E-TRAC to become more prevalent to masking failures ... with it's stock coil.........in the nail infested sites (old homes, churches, Forts, schools.....building structures) in mild dirt. The exceptionally tight EM footprint of the stock F75 LTD coil.......vs.......the E-TRAC footprint bears a lot of the brunt/blame. In somewhat open/clean/clear fields (sans trash)......the E-TRAC has a slight edge in this mild dirt.

If I can find a detector that can 'trump' the current one that I am using today.............even by just 1%..............then the 'today' detector is shelved for the new trump card. Currently, the F75 LTD is the prioritized choice for relic hunting. Bad dirt..........and I would be living the E-TRAC.

Once again..........very good report.

tom!..i ask this because i have noticed many posts that have intrigued me by reporting "clear" audio,and
accurate "lock-on"id on very deep dimes using the multi-frequency e-trac,and was wondering IF the e-trac does,in fact have a"clear"
advantage to single frequency detectors when 'turf" hunting for deep silver!..thanks for your response!

(h.h!)
j.t.

Understand.

.....In general...............as long as there is absolutely nothing (no flecks/flakes/specks/slivers) metalic on the way down to the deep silver coin (((which is hardly the real world)))....then the multifreq unit(s) will lock-on to a better ID. Then..............also..............heavy mineralization can come into play.

thanks tom!..as you mentioned,mineralization
is the "game changer!"

(h.h!)
j.t.