But as i wrote it im sure they wont mind a plug!!
General setup guide for metal detecting in the UK
Less is more when it comes to adjusting some of your metal detectors settings.
Discrimination: Should be set to no higher than iron nails.
Any higher and you will start to loose good small, non ferrous targets. If you are digging silver foil and the odd large or irregular shaped bit of iron then your discrimination is set about right. Some machines you can run in all metal and use the audio for discrimination, with iron giving a low pitch and non ferrous giving a higher pitch. If your machine has this ability then you should use it.
If you have an Minelab CTX, Etrac or Explorer then the optimum way of running them is with Conductive Sounds, Smooth Audio and Manual Sensitivity selected as it will give the greatest target annunciation/separation/depth, providing your ears can put up with the constant sounds.
Notch: If your machine has it, never use it in the UK.
Ground Balance: If your machine has the ability to ground balance this should be performed every 10 to 15 minutes to ensure maximum depth/sensitivity.
Some machines have an auto ground balance feature and will compensate for ground conditions automatically and will therefore not have any controls to manually set ground balance.
Sensitivity: Should be set as high as possible while remaining stable. i.e not sounding off erratically.
The only time you might want to reduce the sensitivity is amongst iron, when you have already swept the area using high sensitivity, then reduce it right down to around about 10% of it’s full on value and sweep the same area again. The reason for this is that some deep large pieces of iron can mask smaller closer to the surface non ferrous targets. By reducing the sensitivity, the larger deeper iron is not seen by the detector allowing it to pick up the small non ferrous targets previously masked.
When sweeping the coil across the ground make sure you’re your sweep speed is at least 2.5 seconds and the coil is scuffing the surface.
If you go out once a week and your not replacing the coils scuff cover at least once a year you are NOT SWEEPING THE COIL LOW ENOUGH!!
Headphones: Always detect with headphones, they cut down on background sound and enable you to hear faint deep targets.
And more importantly you wont annoy the crap out of me if im on the same dig!!
CTX and the Flossymode
Instructions for loading programs into Xchange2 and the CTX
Click on the link above and download Flossymodetheone.mlf file to desktop.
Plug CTX into the computer and switch it on.
Open Xchange2 program.
Click on file on the LHS of the screen.
Click on the up arrow in the centre of the screen (this is the import button), Click on choose file.
Navigate to the desktop (where you downloaded the Flossymodes. mlf email attachment).
Click on Flossyprogs. Mlf then click on open, all the files will now appear in the file window.
CTX icon will now appear at the top LHS above All.
Now drag any modes you want onto the CTX icon.
When you have finished eject the CTX by clicking on the remove media button next to the clock on the task bar and unplug the CTX from the computer. The CTX screen will now say updating and then return to the detect screen.
All the new modes will now be accessible.
The important bit how to use the program
When you use this program you MUST use headphones with a volume control, If you dont it will drive you to distraction with the constantley changing loud tones and you'll soon revert to some easier but less rewarding program. When you first switch on the machine drop the audio via the headphone volume control to a comfortable level then find a patch of ground with no metal in and while slowly swinging the coil from side to side lift up the sensitivity until the machine starts randomly sounding off. Drop back the sensitivity until a stable threshold is acheived. When beginning with this program use the first detect screen which has the one line of discrimination (which coincidently is where the program gets its name from) along the bottom of the screen. Dig any continuous unbroken signal. Once you have mastered the first screen switch to detect screen 2 which is wide open. The low conductors will be easy to identify as they will be a low pitch, the ones which will give you the most trouble are the high conductors which can sound like iron, but with practice the subtle diffrences can be recognised.
Happy Hunting Boys and Girls
