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Teknetics Gamma
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Joe Roberts
Nov 28, 2013, 12:55:41 PM11/28/13
to
Any ideas?
Last week I got a new detector, a Teknetics Gamma 6000. It will supplement
the Fisher CZ-7a, which will be used mostly for salt beach detecting.
First impressions are pretty good after just one outing. It got a clad dime
at 7 inches that lay less than an inch from a rusty iron nail at the same
depth. The Gamma bounced between the iron and dime signals, which shows
decent resolution. It seems to have a fast response.
At first I was reluctant to go for the Teknetics "Greek" line of detectors
(Alpha, Delta, Gamma, Omega), as they seem to have been inherited from
Bounty Hunter. But keeping an open mind, after reading reviews and field
tests, I decided to go for the Gamma.
It has the standard 8-inch concentric coil. I might go for a Double-D, but
first want to get used to the present coil. Teknetics has 10-inch and
5-inch DDs and I might go for the 5-inch as there are some really trashy
areas around here.
Does anyone have any suggestions? All ideas are welcome.
Cheers,
Joe
Last week I got a new detector, a Teknetics Gamma 6000. It will supplement
the Fisher CZ-7a, which will be used mostly for salt beach detecting.
First impressions are pretty good after just one outing. It got a clad dime
at 7 inches that lay less than an inch from a rusty iron nail at the same
depth. The Gamma bounced between the iron and dime signals, which shows
decent resolution. It seems to have a fast response.
At first I was reluctant to go for the Teknetics "Greek" line of detectors
(Alpha, Delta, Gamma, Omega), as they seem to have been inherited from
Bounty Hunter. But keeping an open mind, after reading reviews and field
tests, I decided to go for the Gamma.
It has the standard 8-inch concentric coil. I might go for a Double-D, but
first want to get used to the present coil. Teknetics has 10-inch and
5-inch DDs and I might go for the 5-inch as there are some really trashy
areas around here.
Does anyone have any suggestions? All ideas are welcome.
Cheers,
Joe
Relichunter
Jan 14, 2014, 11:27:06 AM1/14/14
to
On Thu, 28 Nov 2013 12:55:41 -0500, "Joe Roberts" <josep...@att.net>
wrote:
Hi Joe,
Been a bit of a while since I have been here, holidays, surgery for my
wife, and seemingly never ending work for a retired person:)
Happy to hear about the new detector. Can't say I know anything about
it though. I always thought that Teknetics made a pretty good top of
the line detector. If I am not mistaken (which I probably am), the
parent company of Teknetics also manufactures other lines of detectors
such as the Fisher, maybe Bounty Hunter, etc.
Anyway, wanted to say Hi!, and have some fun with the new detector.
Me, I am frozen in for the next several months:(
Warmest Regards,
Relichunter
wrote:
Hi Joe,
Been a bit of a while since I have been here, holidays, surgery for my
wife, and seemingly never ending work for a retired person:)
Happy to hear about the new detector. Can't say I know anything about
it though. I always thought that Teknetics made a pretty good top of
the line detector. If I am not mistaken (which I probably am), the
parent company of Teknetics also manufactures other lines of detectors
such as the Fisher, maybe Bounty Hunter, etc.
Anyway, wanted to say Hi!, and have some fun with the new detector.
Me, I am frozen in for the next several months:(
Relichunter
Joe Roberts
Jan 14, 2014, 12:29:16 PM1/14/14
to
It's good to see you again, RH.
The Gamma seems excellent on "regular" ground, stable and sensitive and easy
to see what's going on. No spectacular finds, just some clad, but it's only
been out a few times as the weather has been cold and drizzly here in
northern Florida too.
Yesterday it went out to the beach for the first time. I simply couldn't
get it to ground-balance on the wet salt sand. After getting home I surfed
the Web forums and found that's an issue discussed by users of "single
frequency" detectors, including ones besides the Teknetics, which is a 7.8
Khz design.
The threads on forums seem to be that dual-frequency units balance easily on
wet salt sand, very low frequency ones do so too (some units seem to be
around 2Khz), but the single-frequency ones up around 8Khz aren't so good at
it. Some guys are happy and able to balance their units on salt sand, while
others aren't. Maybe it's a familiarity issue, or some differences in wet
salt sand beaches.
There are discussions about how to manually ground balance it on wet salt
sand, but I found the sensitivity going lower at something like the same
ratio to the ground balance adjustment. This is going to take some more
time to see if I can it going, as it was the first time at the beach with
the unit.
It looks like it's going to take some more reading and experimenting.
By comparison the Fisher CZ-7a is rock solid and still sensitive on wet salt
sand. It even has a "Salt" mode setting. It's a dual-frequency unit (15Khz
and 5Khz).
Any ideas are surely welcome.
Cheers,
Joe
The Gamma seems excellent on "regular" ground, stable and sensitive and easy
to see what's going on. No spectacular finds, just some clad, but it's only
been out a few times as the weather has been cold and drizzly here in
northern Florida too.
Yesterday it went out to the beach for the first time. I simply couldn't
get it to ground-balance on the wet salt sand. After getting home I surfed
the Web forums and found that's an issue discussed by users of "single
frequency" detectors, including ones besides the Teknetics, which is a 7.8
Khz design.
The threads on forums seem to be that dual-frequency units balance easily on
wet salt sand, very low frequency ones do so too (some units seem to be
around 2Khz), but the single-frequency ones up around 8Khz aren't so good at
it. Some guys are happy and able to balance their units on salt sand, while
others aren't. Maybe it's a familiarity issue, or some differences in wet
salt sand beaches.
There are discussions about how to manually ground balance it on wet salt
sand, but I found the sensitivity going lower at something like the same
ratio to the ground balance adjustment. This is going to take some more
time to see if I can it going, as it was the first time at the beach with
the unit.
It looks like it's going to take some more reading and experimenting.
By comparison the Fisher CZ-7a is rock solid and still sensitive on wet salt
sand. It even has a "Salt" mode setting. It's a dual-frequency unit (15Khz
and 5Khz).
Any ideas are surely welcome.
Cheers,
Joe
Relichunter
Jan 14, 2014, 2:34:43 PM1/14/14
to
On Tue, 14 Jan 2014 12:29:16 -0500, "Joe Roberts" <cd...@comcast.net>
wrote:
Snipped
Oh man, the learning curve again:( I just realized my XP Deus has an
upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0. Just downloaded the software and will upgrade
the firmware this evening. Hopefully it will be an improvement:)
Here we go again:)
Warmest Regards,
Relichunter
wrote:
Snipped
Oh man, the learning curve again:( I just realized my XP Deus has an
upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0. Just downloaded the software and will upgrade
the firmware this evening. Hopefully it will be an improvement:)
Here we go again:)
Warmest Regards,
Relichunter
Relichunter
Jan 19, 2014, 2:08:47 PM1/19/14
to
Hi Joe,
I finished upgrading my XP Deus to the new 3.2 version software.
Don't know if this is worth anything, but I had noticed you had a bit
of difficulty ground balancing on the saltwater beach.
You mentioned the Teknetics is a 7.8 KHz design.
The XP Deus is a single frequency detector too but it can be operated
at 4, 8, 12, & 18 KHz.
I looked at the default frequency for the XP Deus "canned" wet beach
program and saw they use 18 KHz.
For my purposes I normally use the XP Deus set to 8 KHz which seems
best for general searching in mild mineralized ground but will jump up
to 12khz in more heavily mineralized areas. I never really tried any
serious searching at 4 KHz or 18 KHz.
Just contemplating if the base frequency makes it a bit more difficult
to ground balance on saltwater beaches.
Warmest Regards,
Relichunter
I finished upgrading my XP Deus to the new 3.2 version software.
Don't know if this is worth anything, but I had noticed you had a bit
of difficulty ground balancing on the saltwater beach.
You mentioned the Teknetics is a 7.8 KHz design.
The XP Deus is a single frequency detector too but it can be operated
at 4, 8, 12, & 18 KHz.
I looked at the default frequency for the XP Deus "canned" wet beach
program and saw they use 18 KHz.
For my purposes I normally use the XP Deus set to 8 KHz which seems
best for general searching in mild mineralized ground but will jump up
to 12khz in more heavily mineralized areas. I never really tried any
serious searching at 4 KHz or 18 KHz.
Just contemplating if the base frequency makes it a bit more difficult
to ground balance on saltwater beaches.
Warmest Regards,
Relichunter
Joe Roberts
Jan 19, 2014, 4:27:50 PM1/19/14
to
Thank you for the explanation of the how the XP Deus uses the four
frequencies. It's interesting that they'd used the highest frequency (18
Khz) for beaches. Food for thought there.
I haven't been out to the beach with the Teknetics since the last post.
(Did go a couple of nights ago with the wife to watch the full moonrise over
the horizon, but left the detector in the car.)
Right now I'm trying to get permission to detect around an old abandoned
house. I left a note for the homeowner in case he comes back to check the
property, but nothing heard so far.
Cheers,
Joe
frequencies. It's interesting that they'd used the highest frequency (18
Khz) for beaches. Food for thought there.
I haven't been out to the beach with the Teknetics since the last post.
(Did go a couple of nights ago with the wife to watch the full moonrise over
the horizon, but left the detector in the car.)
Right now I'm trying to get permission to detect around an old abandoned
house. I left a note for the homeowner in case he comes back to check the
property, but nothing heard so far.
Cheers,
Joe
Relichunter
Jan 21, 2014, 5:56:48 PM1/21/14
to
On Sun, 19 Jan 2014 16:27:50 -0500, "Joe Roberts" <josep...@att.net>
wrote:
Snipped for brevity
Hi Joe,
The XP Deus uses approximately those frequencies. The actual's are:
4.026
7.862
11.655
17.606
From what I have been reading, the 17.6 frequency is used to detect
smaller low conductivity items such as small gold chains.
From the manual are the following descriptions relative to frequency:
4.026
Large, mainly ferrous and non-ferrous masses.
Coins of sufficient conductivity and size.
All other medium or relatively small targets in non-mineralized ground
relatively
uncontaminated by iron.
Good for ferrous masses and militaria.
7.862
General use.
Coins and large masses, militaria.
Medium and small targets in low-mineralized ground.
11.655
General use, small coins.
Coins of all sizes in medium to highly mineralized ground.
17.606
Small coins made from any alloy (gold, silver, copper, etc.) and
bigger but very fine coins,
low conductivity gold coins, lead, rings, sheet metal, aluminum foil.
Small objects can be found even on mineralized ground contaminated
with iron.
Discriminates (distinguishes) coke more easily.
More unstable on non-mineralized and moist ground.
One thing I also found interesting has to do with operating in the
"Wet Beach Mode":
1. Selection of Wet Beach Mode activates calculation of the ground
balance on the zone corresponding to highly saline wet ground, so as
to reduce interference caused by conductive salt water.
After selecting Beach ON, you need to adjust the ground balance
manually or by pumping on the wet zone concerned, in order to cancel
out the ground signal.
2. In Manual Mode, adjust it from 00 to 30
3. To improve stability on wet beach (salt water):
Reduce Audio Response (0-1)
Increase Reactivity (4)
Power: Level 1 maximum.
Sensitivity: (70-85).
The sort of standard default manual GB number for general use is 90.
All of the canned programs default to 90 with the exception of the wet
beach mode. The default GB for it is 27.
Since I don't get to saltwater beaches I have to assume it's a lot
tougher to ground balance. The user manual recommends "in situ" GB
setting somewhat frequently.
Just thought you might find that interesting. I did:)
Warmest Regards,
Relichunter
wrote:
Snipped for brevity
Hi Joe,
The XP Deus uses approximately those frequencies. The actual's are:
4.026
7.862
11.655
17.606
From what I have been reading, the 17.6 frequency is used to detect
smaller low conductivity items such as small gold chains.
From the manual are the following descriptions relative to frequency:
4.026
Large, mainly ferrous and non-ferrous masses.
Coins of sufficient conductivity and size.
All other medium or relatively small targets in non-mineralized ground
relatively
uncontaminated by iron.
Good for ferrous masses and militaria.
7.862
General use.
Coins and large masses, militaria.
Medium and small targets in low-mineralized ground.
11.655
General use, small coins.
Coins of all sizes in medium to highly mineralized ground.
17.606
Small coins made from any alloy (gold, silver, copper, etc.) and
bigger but very fine coins,
low conductivity gold coins, lead, rings, sheet metal, aluminum foil.
Small objects can be found even on mineralized ground contaminated
with iron.
Discriminates (distinguishes) coke more easily.
More unstable on non-mineralized and moist ground.
One thing I also found interesting has to do with operating in the
"Wet Beach Mode":
1. Selection of Wet Beach Mode activates calculation of the ground
balance on the zone corresponding to highly saline wet ground, so as
to reduce interference caused by conductive salt water.
After selecting Beach ON, you need to adjust the ground balance
manually or by pumping on the wet zone concerned, in order to cancel
out the ground signal.
2. In Manual Mode, adjust it from 00 to 30
3. To improve stability on wet beach (salt water):
Reduce Audio Response (0-1)
Increase Reactivity (4)
Power: Level 1 maximum.
Sensitivity: (70-85).
The sort of standard default manual GB number for general use is 90.
All of the canned programs default to 90 with the exception of the wet
beach mode. The default GB for it is 27.
Since I don't get to saltwater beaches I have to assume it's a lot
tougher to ground balance. The user manual recommends "in situ" GB
setting somewhat frequently.
Just thought you might find that interesting. I did:)
Warmest Regards,
Relichunter
Joe Roberts
Jan 21, 2014, 7:54:47 PM1/21/14
to
Hi RH,
Many thanks for the ideas and insights.
In your post about the XP Deus:
> The sort of standard default manual GB number for general use is 90.
> All of the canned programs default to 90 with the exception of the wet
> beach mode. The default GB for it is 27.
That's interesting indeed. Although the two detectors are different
hardware, the GB values are also in those ranges for the Gamma.
The issue I had was in bringing the GB down to the 10-30 range to quieten
the falsing on the wet salt sand, and then finding the sensitivity value had
also gone down. I hadn't tweaked the sensitivity setting and didn't expect
the settings to interact. It could be the learning curve, however, and I've
got to get more time on the beach to play with it.
By contrast, in salt mode the Fisher CZ-7a's ground balance doesn't interact
at all with the sensitivity. I can run the sensitivity all the way up and
just get a slight "buzz" in the headphones when swinging the coil and going
an inch or two vertically up or down from the wet salt sand (away from the
GB setting). The sensitivity stays up, and the GB is stable.
I'm hoping it's just the learning curve with the Gamma. Got to get back out
on the beach soon with it.
Usually I like to go on Monday (after the weekend tourists have left),
arriving somewhere ahead of low tide.
I look forward to your posts, with learning more about the "French and
Indian" and and other historic sites. They're a great read.
Cheers,
Joe
Many thanks for the ideas and insights.
In your post about the XP Deus:
> The sort of standard default manual GB number for general use is 90.
> All of the canned programs default to 90 with the exception of the wet
> beach mode. The default GB for it is 27.
hardware, the GB values are also in those ranges for the Gamma.
The issue I had was in bringing the GB down to the 10-30 range to quieten
the falsing on the wet salt sand, and then finding the sensitivity value had
also gone down. I hadn't tweaked the sensitivity setting and didn't expect
the settings to interact. It could be the learning curve, however, and I've
got to get more time on the beach to play with it.
By contrast, in salt mode the Fisher CZ-7a's ground balance doesn't interact
at all with the sensitivity. I can run the sensitivity all the way up and
just get a slight "buzz" in the headphones when swinging the coil and going
an inch or two vertically up or down from the wet salt sand (away from the
GB setting). The sensitivity stays up, and the GB is stable.
I'm hoping it's just the learning curve with the Gamma. Got to get back out
on the beach soon with it.
Usually I like to go on Monday (after the weekend tourists have left),
arriving somewhere ahead of low tide.
I look forward to your posts, with learning more about the "French and
Indian" and and other historic sites. They're a great read.
Cheers,
Joe
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