Morse Code - A Language Without Words

The other evening I was watching an old war film where soldiers were communicating via morse code, obviously the guys sending and translating the messages were masters of their art. To an untrained ear the beeps created sound like a nondescript load of random noise, to those that have mastered it it's very much a language. I equate understanding the language of morse code to the language of audio only metal detectors. 

To A Trained Ear It's A Language

When people that have never used an audio only analog machine they can approach it in a very literal way, what I mean by this is - when you hear a beep you dig, when a signal is broken you don't dig. Just like with my morse code example, if you haven't learnt the audio language of the machine you're using then it can sound like a load of random beeps with very little in between. This is where a lot of confusion comes into play, if you haven't mastered a machine correctly or grasped its language, in every sense of the word, how can you give an honest opinion about its performance. I've said it before, using an automated digital detector is as far away as you can get from using a fully manual analog machine. People have a tendency to carry their digital frame of mind over and this is the first mistake.

Tesoro's are a great example to use, but this goes for all the brands of detectors that I swing, many self proclaimed experts out there that use automated digital detectors rubbish Tesoro's and all other analog metal detectors because, in their opinion, they're dated pieces of junk that just don't perform. From where I'm standing the guys that are peddling this bullshit, without being aware, are actually showing their total inability to understand how Tesoro/analog detectors actually function. Many claim they've dug endless lumps of iron with them, that's because they haven't learnt how to identify iron correctly, it really is that simple. The tone given on iron isn't the same as non-ferrous, just like morse code, to an untrained ear it might sound the same but it isn't at all. 

Tiny targets sound different to small targets, masked targets sound different to iron, the list goes on and on but, like all analog detectors, they're not designed to SERVE and do all the thinking for you. You have to do the thinking and this appears to be something that a lot of people seem incapable of. Does This Make Analog Dated & Shit?  nope, quiet the opposite actually. When people have asked me about all the machines I use, especially Nexus, I explain that every single element you need to be able to successfully metal detect is on the machine. If you then marry coil position in relation to the targets you're swinging over, combined with the audio you're hearing, you can successfully identify both ferrous and non-ferrous metals etc with ease. 

It's A Sense Not A Science 

I've made this point before, when you aren't visually relying on something then it allows the other senses to kick in. For me personally the ear is the best discriminator, with extensive use of any audio only metal detector the ear and the brain will learn very quickly. This is why when I'm hunting in iron with my Nexus Standard MP V3 or V3+ I turn the meter off and use VCO audio, it's amazing just how focused the mind becomes when you're suddenly not looking at the RGB meter. When hunting in dense iron like you get on the river using a screen to try and identity non-ferrous would be a complete waste of time because the terrain is so contaminated with millennia of iron junk. On an environment like that my ears tell me everything I need to know.