Beach Hog mono on Impulse AQ

[bklein]

My Beach Hog 4”x18” mono worked great on a GP Extreme but on my AQ it is not practical to use. It is sensitive to altitude changes above the sand and any abrupt movements or shock. It has great depth as long as you don’t walk with it. Tweaking ATS and delay affect it and make it ok for just standing in one area. What would it be about the coil design that causes this?

[Carl-NC]

Abrupt movements or shock would likely be that something is moving in the coil. How are things anchored inside?

Height sensitivity is usually due to salt reaction, and usually solved by increasing the delay. If it's not too bad then a faster SAT speed might do the trick.

[bklein]

The coil had been working fine on the Extreme - even in the saltwater. I’d run parallel to the beach and it would just scim over the top of the water!
Now the issue must be something about the AQ that makes it unusable. Maybe the mono coil should be twisted into a figure 8? The AQ designer did something in the design related to ground balance that prevents its use for nugget hunting - would that be the issue?
I was setting ATS to 19 and optimizing the delay setting to get it quiet for very careful/slow use. It’s the first time I had seen the delay setting actually affect anything.
I highly doubt something is loose inside the coil but I can look at this on the bench with a surf pi I have.
Too bad I don’t have the Extremes anymore.

[bklein]

I just took the plug apart on the Beach hog. It has a mix of signal and shield connections and my adapter just had a P and N as the 3rd pin on the AQ coils seems not connected. I could get them open to verify - I’d break the base first. I’ll look at this tonight and maybe get things good.

[bklein]

Does this seem right:
1 and 5 copper outer coax shield
2 and 3 hot signal
4 inner coax shield
?

[bklein]

Just a note to say I had the gpx wiring all wrong, fixed it, and now this thing is really sweet. Absolutely no chatter or pulsing in my front yard where there is usually a lot of EMI. Have to turn up the threshold to tell it’s on. Sensitivity cranked full up. I just need a longer lower shaft for it. I can’t get to the beach this weekend but can try some air and black sand testing.