For the experts out there...what is my Etrac telling me, or trying to tell me when it emits a tone when swung from one direction? In other words, get a tone swinging left to rt, but silent when sweeping back from the other direction.
I know, I should dig and uncover the mystery myself...but when it gets hot outside and in my 70's...I just keep on looking for a better, more probable target. Problem with that is - my curiousity meter is pegged!
This is probably a $ 64,000 question here.
I understand what you mean by wanting to limit your digging,,when it is hot,,I sure don't dig every signal that provides some sort of good tone one way or another..
But to answer your question,,,there is no true correct answer IMO,,,now playing the percentages,,a one way signal probably not a good target-- but no absolutes,,,and this goes for all Vlf detectors IMO.
As far as etrac,,and CTX goes,,I have run them both quite a bit,,some things to watch for,,as mentioned earlier here,,turning 90 degrees after getting some tone tone on sweeps,,,definitely a much better indication of a nonferrous target,,,but just because you turn 90 degrees and the tone drops out--- no guarantee of bad target.
Tone repeatability on sweeps,,once you find that close to,perfect sweep speed and coil position,,,how repetitive does the Minelabs provide tone,,,a person will have to develop their own percentages here for a go, no go,,like out of 10 passes of the coil does the signal repeat 7 times,,and does the tone sound consistent tonally,,,the rise and fall,and actual sound.
Watching the cursor position can give clues too,,,many times when an etrac or Ctx lock on to a coin say colocated with iron,,higher ferrous numbers may be provided yet a good (copper or silver conductive #),,, and as one sweeps the cursor will get drove down on the meter,,,and may actually ( on a good target) drive down all the way down on the screen to the 26 or 27 range,,,usually iron will go even further,,and the cursor will upon sweeping the cursor will get hung below the 28 line ferrous and stay their for a longer duration,,,it is very posssilve for say a good high conductive coin colocated with say nail,,for the ferrous number to get drove down past line 27 ferrous,,but op will notice the cursor doesn't hang in this region,,and jumps back up on the screen moreso than iron or a nail does.
And of course a person can check their pinpoint of a suspect target,,,does it pinpoint the same or very near area where it sounds of in your hunt mode??
Again this is not an absolute,,but still a good technique.
And trying to execute this areas loaded with nails and iron,,,can be very difficult,,because pinpoint will lock on to any other ferrous item that may be near, and a person could,get fooled,,,sometimes better to just dig where the tone is coming from.
Probably the best advice here,,,if a person has made some good deeper finds ,,and has discovered some nails or iron,,or they notice their threshold is dropping out often,,,,,this is a site to ,definitely take more chances on those shakier I call them signals.