Ground noise .....

Gday all ,

Just thought I would ask , as I couldn't find any commentary about it .. :?

Is there any setting / settings that may help lessen or eliminate Ground noise
on a GPX machine     

Or over time if you are moving dirt ( say an inch ) and the signal appears the same
Are you confident enough to leave it or would you keep going ??

Anthony   

G'day Anthony.

The only setting I know of that completely eliminates ground noise as well as any surrounding EMI,is to prospect with the power switch in the "Off" position.  Nah seriously Trash,the best one could hope for is to have the machine in Enhance or Sensitive/smooth (4000) with a low gain and even that won't entirely get rid of the hottest pockets of mineralized soil or hot rock.Having the coil slightly elevated off the ground also helps to reduce false signals,but once again not completely.Besides if there were a way to completely eliminate coil falsing over pockets of extremely hot ground or hot rocks,the GPX would have to be that dumbed down in gain,reducing both the sensitivity as well as depth to a very reduced level on overall positive targets.
From my experience,any target faint or not,which comes in as a sharp mellow sounding signal,when swung over from any direction,will increase in signal strength,as the coil gets closer to the target,as top soil is removed.
Any signal that sounds off from one direction only when crossed back and forth with the coil,at various 90 degree angles,is most likely a false mineralized target signal response,but a signal that comes in as broad or faint when swung over from any direction,could either be a deep positive target,or tiny target closer to the surface,which will require further digging down.(a few more inches to confirm).If the signal response,remains the same in tone or strength,after digging several inches down,this means that you'v struck a pocket of highly mineralized ground.For some deep but positive sounding targets,within say,the 20 inch or more mark,the removal of several inches of dirt (6 inches +) might be required before the target kicks in and intensifies in signal strength,letting you know that its a positive target and not a highly mineralized pocket of dirt.

    Cheers Kon.  

Hi TT
I hope you check the soil you scrape/dig as well. If the hole signal is the same (or louder ?) and the scraped/dug soil is hot, then I'd be more inclined to let it go. However, it depends on the "quality" of the signal over the hole (eg. Kon's strategy & others).
Cheers

The quickest way to find out if its ground noise is to ground balance your coil over some of the soil that you have already dug out, then swing the coil back over the signal, if it is ground noise in most cases the signal will be gone.

I've endeavoured to get my unit to work on 'reasonably' mineralized ground here in Mareeba but without success.
It continues to ping/bong, whatever, and on digging there's nothing to be found. I don't get that.