BY PHIL. STEARNES. GOLD MINING CENTRE.

When I first took over the Gold Mining Centre, numerous people were mentioning the poor performance of the Garrett A3B and was very dubious about purchasing the Garrett Scorpion. What they had complained about was that the A3B was very noisy and it was nearly impossible to ground balance this detector on very highly mineralised ground.

As I knew the Garrett Scorpion did not suffer with this problem, I decided to investigate this further.

Firstly, I studied the circuits of the A3B and could not find any problems that stood out to cause this problem. I did however notice that the circuitry for the coil was basically the same as the Garrett Scorpion. Due to this similarity, I decided to do some test with the Scorpion 10"x 5" Elliptical coil.

The first thing was to make sure that it would detect OK in an air test, which it passed with no problems. Next was to try it on some highly mineralised soil. To my surprise, I found that I could actually ground balance it with little difficulty. Gone was the inherent double echo noise that the A3B was noted for. It actually became a different detector with this coil on; not noisy as it had been noted for.

I couldn't believe that this problem was so easily solved by changing a coil and couldn't understand why it had not been done before this. Further testing of the A3B against the well liked Garrett A2B with this new coil found it to be a better detector than its predecessor. It will not come up to the standard of the Scorpion but will become a much improved detector than it is known for.

There are know numerous A3B out in the goldfields with revitalised life due to this elliptical coil and for anyone with this detector ,should strongly consider this change. I know that the people which I have recommended this upgrade to, have been very happy in doing so. The last comment from such a client was, and I quote " at least I can ground balance it know"

This coil is available from the GOLD MINING CENTRE, Shop 2, 1048 Grand Junction Road,  Holden Hill, S.A.  5088