Fresh finds, coil demos, and more
My better half (Jo) and I had many a long discussion about buying a good detector and taking it slightly more seriously than just a hobby. It is a substantial investment, but living in Darwin, it’s only an hour and a bit of travel to known goldfields, so we agreed to take the plunge.
Saturday morning rolled along and the better half suggested “how about we drop the kids at the grandparents and head up to Maryborough for a detecting session and spend the night out the bush for Valentines Day”……. How could I refuse that offer!
The day had finally arrived, the bags and supplies were packed, the wheels were spinning and we were on our way to enjoy our yearly adventure in the wilderness, detecting the WA goldfields, meeting up with friends and having a jolly good time.
Butch Holcombe from the American Digger magazine has published a product test on the Coiltek 11” Anti-interference Coil. I had already tested its performance around urban electrical interference, and other detectors, and was very impressed. Yet, I wanted to give it the upmost challenge: using it underneath active high voltage lines
In resurrecting a childhood interest in detecting, I engrossed myself through months and months of internet research and conversation with many a knowledgeable person in efforts to find a suitable detector. I quickly realized metal detecting had come a long way since my interest had first peaked some 35 years prior. I was now looking at some serious detecting hardware, notably commanding some serious outlay of coin!
After trying the Coiltek DD 10 x 5″ elliptical Joey coil at an old ruin with great results, I decided to try some of those trashy high traffic areas around the club rooms at a local football oval and some local netball/tennis courts. Surprise, surprise, the football oval was no different than most with a multitude of pull tabs, screw tops and bits of squashed up foil littered everywhere making it very difficult to detect successfully.
