Merits of in-air testing or otherwise

[cr15]

I have searched the entire website and cannot find any discussion on the merits or otherwise of in-air testing. If I have missed it please put me right.

So, I have been in the hobby for a long time, in fact I believe Carl's site and mine (long since defunct), were probably the first two technical metal detecting websites on the internet (1998 ish) .

Anyway, I have always said that in-air testing is good enough for comparisons between different machines. Sure in-ground testing is the best but what do you all think?

[Carl-NC]

Air tests are a good "minimum level" test. That is, if you want a detector to pick up a nickel 12" deep then at a minimum it should do that in the air.

Air comparisons between different detectors have the potential to be misleading because one machine might do a much better job with ground than the other. Still widely done, tho.

What was your web site?

[cr15]

Hi Carl. If I say "radiometer Ferret" it should all come back to you. My site was on http://members.aol.com/omlcgm/radiometer/radiometer.htm, but this has long gone. I am trying to resurrect it on Webnode under the name of Ambit Detecting. Tough going I can tell you as it looks like I have to reconstruct everything.
I last dabbled in the electronics of the hobby in 2010 when I modified my Rapier making it much more sensitive. UK 2p coin 240mm in air. At that time Nokia R & D was closing down so I had plenty of time to play and all the test equipment I could possibly need, so I built 2 Bandido IIs utilising the support department to make my PCBs.
Now I just buy and get out there! I went to a ML Explorer XS which improved things, then a Golden Mask - very good, followed by an XP Deus - not terribly impressed so sold it on, finally a ML Equinox. I'm not totally smitten with that either so I did an in air test with the five machines I have, hence the question!
Results were: Rapier - 240mm, Equinox - 230mm, Explorer - 215mm, Golden Mask - 210mm, Bandido - 210mm.
It doesn't seem that we've made much progress in the last 30 odd years!
Anyway, it's good to see you are still hanging in there! Take care. Cris.

[Carl-NC]

Sure, I remember that, it was part of the Detectknowledgy site. It's still out there in the ether:

https://web.archive.org/web/20070127...cknowledgy.htm

Ironically the term "detectknowledgy" popped into my head a couple of weeks ago and I wondered, "what ever happened to that web page?" And then here you are.

[cr15]

Good grief! Well fancy that. This is a really early version of my website. I later got rid of that annoying pop up introduction every time you went back to the home page. I was experimenting with different elements.
I constructed it using AOL Press, a really simple but very useful tool for visual HTML. They never progressed beyond version 2 and now it won't run on Windows XP or 7. Maybe I'll set up a PC with Win95 just for this! Lol.
I'm furloughed with this covid crap so I have a bit of time now and I can do some of these little jobs. I should have retired four years ago but I would have only gotten bored.
Anyway, I'll let you know when or if I eventually re-publish.

[WM6]

I'll let you know when or if I eventually re-publish.

It would be great.

Many of us are interested in this interesting ID experiment.