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How to Interpret Metal Detector Signals

You can find coins, gold, jewelry and relics with a metal detector. A metal detector transmits an electrical field into the ground underneath the detector's coil and back again to a receiver in the coil. Any metal within the field will interfere with the return and produce a signal indicating you've found metal. Learn to understand the signals your metal detector produces and you can start recovering treasure.

Things You'll Need

  • Metal detector
  • Garden trowel
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Instructions

    • 1

      Read your detector's manual. It explains the features of the detector and what different sounds mean. Many detectors give different signals. Some sound tones for good and bad targets, some warble, some run silent and some maintain a low hum.

    • 2
      Finding rings is easier if you can tune out interfering signals.

      Test your detector. Lay the detector on a bench and pass both good and bad targets in front of the metal detector's coil. Vary the distance as well as the sensitivity and discrimination settings on the detector to see if there are any differences in the signals. Sensitivity controls how deep into the ground the electrical field goes. Discrimination tunes out different types of metal, like iron or aluminum, so that desirable metals, like gold or silver, can be heard more clearly.

    • 3

      Plant a "test garden" of targets at different depths in the ground so you can practice with the detector. This gives you a better idea what signals sound like under actual conditions. Put good and bad targets close to each other in one section so you can hear the effect a bad target, such as a rusty nail, has on a good target, such as a quarter. Mark each target's location with a golf tee so you know where they are located.

    • 4

      Dig all targets the first few times you hunt with your detector. Signals can change when targets have been in the ground for years and have begun to oxidize. Compare the signal you hear with the actual object recovered and you will better understand your metal detector's signals.

    • 5

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