Summer Detecting

A mate and i decided to try a summer trip.

We were up at 5am and detected until 10am.From 10am to 4pm we rested in the shade with  heaps of cold water available. We then detected from 4pm to 8pm.

Did it work?? NO. From 10am to 4pm  it was basically unbearably hot. Official temp was 44.8c but that scorching wind was something else. We lasted 2days and left.

It was an interesting exercise though. cheers Pete.

ps found 11 nuggets.

Do you reckon gold nuggs give a stronger signal when thy are stinking hot as a against when they are cold.

I am going to put it to a controlled test.

I'm not sure Adrian. What i can say is that you needed gloves to isolate the nugget from the red hot dirt

I really look forward to your test results. cheers Pete.

I don't no about heat but I reckon that they give a better - stronger signal 2 days after rain

Last Tuesday I was detecting up at Kingower. I carry a wide bladed pick on my shoulder, but, It got so hot It was burning my shoulder, so I had to stand It on the ground,and each time I got a target I had to go back and get it. This is the first time since I began detecting in 1982 that I've ever had to do this! I bailed out at two o'clock.

Good on ya Pete. I enjoyed reading that one. At least you were brave enough to give it a go.

Cheers Kon.

Hi PB, What about the mozzies at dusk? Any?

I've noticed that the March Fly's are coming out already. Did someone forget to tell the fly's it is not March yet
wombat

No mozzies Pete, probably too hot and dry for them to breed cheers Pete.

Castlemaine, Bendigo and other little towns that are surrounded by thousands of diggings suffer after a heavy rains, these beautiful little receptacles that hold the water become a nice little nursery for wrigglers.
We've had a pretty dry summer so far but now we have had a down pour I'll be slapping on the deet and head net.That's my theory anyway

cheers moredeep

Back in the early eighties a mate and I gave summer detecting a shot on our WA goldfields. That was the first and last time.

By 10 00am the sun was beating down and the red ground was radiating the heat right back up. The old VLF detectors were near enough useless in those conditions.
The Engle never stopped running and battled to keep things cold!

Similar to PB, we retreated back to camp and laid up until about 4’clock. Even then it was still hot and the ground still shimmered.
During the hottest part of the day, we lay around in the shade on a couple of old shearers beds, gently sweating and swatting flies. Dozing off was a blessed relief.

I still remember always feeling thirsty. You could drink water until you felt bloated, but always felt like more. Perhaps it was something in the Cue water. Our daily beer ration of 2 cans pp was hopelessly inadequate.

It was a good learning experience. I think our planned 2 week trip might have lasted about 5 days including traveling time!

Thinking back, we were probably a little foolhardy too. We were out in the bush with no communications and with no one knowing our whereabouts. A vehicle breakdown could have had serious consequences in those temperatures!

On another issue, I have no doubt that for those warmer days, dawn and dusk are the prime detecting times (I am not a night detectorist). The ground is cooler, the detectors seem to run quieter and faint signals and small targets seem sharper.

Col

Hmm ,interesting discussion.  Apart from a good basting/roasting, there is little to gain when detecting during the hottest parts of the day, or during excessively hot conditions in general. This also includes detecting at night during high/hot humid conditions, where the ground mineralization/EMI  would be close to peak.
Even within solid rock, electrons tend to constantly be vibrating/moving. The higher the energy displacement of heat by the suns rays on the earth, the higher the electrons tend to vibrate within their atomic state/structure. This higher vibration of electron flow within ground minerals, is what increases  the mineralization levels within.
Mineralization, is like an invisible force field to the output frequency of the detector coil. The detector/coil is pushing out the same output frequency (meaning strength of detection field/sensitivity), but penetrating into the ground less, as ground temperatures rise. As heat on the ground minerals increases in strength, so does ground noise.
This is why, it is preferable to detect during the cooler periods of day or night, when ground noise is kept at a minimum & detection depth/sensitivity at maximum.
I'v found the best ground conditions to detect over, is when the ground is found to be cool/damp. Not saturated with water (wet or moist) but cool to the touch & damp moisture wise.
Finally a concoction of one third Dettol antiseptic liquid, mixed with two thirds Methylated spirit and rubbed on exposed body parts, should keep both mossies & fly's away for at least a couple of hrs till it wears off, necessitating another rub down.  

Cheers Kon.

And if you get no gold and run out of beer you could get stuck into the metho but then again methylated spirits is lace with epicac these days to induce vomiting

cheers moredeep

That's one thing you must never run out from. That fine golden blend of liquid, chilled to perfection, ready for Immediate consumption, on a hot summers day.

Cheers

By the way if you have 20 minutes to waste ,google epicac and watch a 20 min movie called epicac by kurt vonnegut,directed by willy tully, strangely nice.
The things you come across when you cross reference/check a word.

cheers moredeep

piston broke wrote:I'm not sure Adrian. What i can say is that you needed gloves to isolate the nugget from the red hot dirt

I really look forward to your test results. cheers Pete.

Tested audio response from no motion vlf with a 5g nugg at 6 inches in air down to -30 deg C and could not notice any difference between that and +28 deg Ambient. Tested with a db meter connected to the hp socket.
Some metals become super conducting at absolute zero but I doubt that we will ever find a nugg that cold aye.

Am still figuring out how to do the hot temp test

I will test a PI response later

piston broke wrote:A mate and i decided to try a summer trip.

We were up at 5am and detected until 10am.From 10am to 4pm we rested in the shade with  heaps of cold water available. We then detected from 4pm to 8pm.

Did it work?? NO. From 10am to 4pm  it was basically unbearably hot. Official temp was 44.8c but that scorching wind was something else. We lasted 2days and left.

It was an interesting exercise though. cheers Pete.

ps found 11 nuggets.

G’day Pete,Great story,

A few years ago we stayed in WA a few weeks longer than normal and on this day we were going to pack up to start heading back as the weather was starting to really heat up. The young bloke wondered back into camp and in his hand he showed us his finds for the morning, there was over half an Oz. Well everyone decided that they were going to get out their detectors and give it another day. Well the current Temperature was 42+*C.
I just got a nice signal and dug it out picked up a handful of soil which I quickly dropped again as it was so hot. (Not long after I got myself a scoop) it was a nuggy and the start of a nice patch the young bloke found.

Cheers.

Mike.

Great story Mike. That dirt was too hot to hold for sure. I ended up using my foot to move the nugget away from the pile. cheers Pete.

This makes me laugh we rest up during the middle of the day and start detecting at 4 pm,4-5 pm is the hottest part of the day,

If you enjoy wind, google search WINDFINDER [pretty cool],very interesting to see the wind flows across the globe.
may come in handy to check a fires path/smoke direction/or waiting for that cool change

cheers  moredeep