Hi greenriver and welcome, don't let the lightness of the detector fool you, after swinging it for 3 or 4 days straight for 6-7 hrs your arm and kidney knows about it.
I have a 505 and they are similar except you have the gold pack, auto tracking and balancing and some extra sensitivity and discrimination nos and extra preset as well as salt/beach setting. You can switch on and go with the factory presets and play and learn in the field. With the 705 only use the gold mode with the 10x5 eliptical coil when in the goldfields, for coins and relics use the coin mode and 9" concentric coil.
Although you can switch on and go it is best practice to check your noise cancel and ground balance are suitable for the ground you are on. So switch the machine on, make sure it's in coin mode, if the ground is fairly free from junk use all metal otherwise use the preset with the least amount of discrimination which should be 1.
So the first step is to set the noise cancel to the quietest channel, you have an auto noise cancel so always use auto, while setting the Noise Cancel Channel, make sure you hold the coil away from any large metal objects. And, hold it in a horizontal position as you would while detecting.
next set your threshold to a level that gives a low but audible hum, don't have it too high as you will mask the small targets, the Threshold tone is a starting point where all audio signals begin. If it is set too high, you wont hear those subtle changes. In some instances a negative threshold is beneficial, but that can be learnt later when you have adapted to the machine.
Next, check your Sensitivity setting. if you are detecting in a wide open area with relatively few targets, run the Sensitivity up as high as you can,without causing false signals. These false signals are more apparent as the sweep speed is increased or when switching directions with the coil. But running it on the brink of being too hot allows for maximum depth of detection. However, do not be misled into thinking that a higher Sensitivity always results in more depth. In areas congested with targets, or areas with high levels of mineralization, running a high Sensitivity can have an adverse effect on the depth of detection.
next set the volume i have mine on 20 but you can have it higher, just remember a big target will give a big response and you don't want to blow your head off. Oh, also the settings for headphones are separate to the settings without, so make sure you adjust the volume for both scenarios.
After adjusting the Sensitivity setting, you need to set the proper Ground Balance (GB). I like to set my Ground Balance with my X-TERRA in All Metal so I know that I am not setting the GB over anything metal. You can set up in a Discrimination Pattern. But if you happen to have the coil over a target that is set to reject, youll get an incorrect GB setting. Regardless, make sure you dont actually touch the ground on the down stroke. As the coil is lowered to the ground you will hear a change of tone. If that tone has a low pitch, the current GB setting is numerically lower than the site requires. When this happens, increase the ground phase setting by pressing the + pad. If, on the other hand, the tone is high, the ground is more mineralised than your detector is currently set for. Thus, youll need to decrease the ground phase setting by pressing the - pad. Continue bobbing the coil and make the appropriate adjustments. Your objective is to find a setting that allows for the least pitch variation when lowering the coil. Once you have a proper setting, press the Pinpoint/Detect pad (or press the GB pad again) and youre ready to hunt.
The previous step was for manual ground balancing, your X-TERRA has the Auto GB function, you can accomplish a proper Ground Balance by pressing the Ground Balance pad, then pressing the Mode pad while bobbing the coil a few inches off the ground. The letters AU will appear on the display, and within a few seconds, your X-TERRA will have set the Ground Balance for you. It is always best to use the auto features where available.
whether you set the Ground Balance manually, or Automatically the GB value will remain until you physically change it. All youve done differently by using Auto GB is to allow the detector to select the proper ground phase setting for the earth below the spot where you were suspending the coil. If you do want to update this locked in Ground Balance (ground phase setting), you can by following the same steps as when you initially set it. when running with a fixed GB, you need to check it every few minutes, just to make sure you are running with optimized settings. If youve not checked yours while you are hunting, Id encourage you to do so. You might be
surprised at how much variation there is in the earths mineralisation, within any given site.
your model also has Tracking Ground Balance, know that Tracking allows your detector to constantly update the ground phase setting, on the fly. That means that if you use this option you dont have to set your Ground Balance before hunting as it will set itself within a couple sweeps. After a few sweeps, you can either lock in the current ground phase setting by pressing the Tracking pad again, or you can continue to hunt in Tracking.
Be aware that while in Tracking, repeated X-ing over a target might result in your detector thinking that the target is part of the ground matrix. If that happens, it could Ground Balance to the target instead of the ground. So while x-ing over a target repeatedly switch the tracking to off or conversely use the pinpointing mode.
Once these steps have been completed you will just need to decide if you are going to deyect in AM (all metal) or discrimination mode. I use both, AM in relatively clean sites and disc 1 in trashy sites. you will also need to choose how many different audio tones you want to use, i think 4 is good for target separation, i also think 99 will drive you nuts as it sometimes sounds like the chipmunks are in your ear.
There are a host of other specialised settings in beach mode and gold mode, however, i don't have these settings and therefore can't advise on them. Details for these settings will be in your manual.
We'll that was hard work, but it should be enough info to get you to my level, as i said previously, you can just switch on and go in factory settings and you will find all the easy targets. As the targets get far and few between, that is when you need to tweak the settings to hunt down those last targets in a site.
Happy reading and good luck, it will become addictive. SS.
