Sounds like your off to a start mate and when the partner joins in, its even better!
First thing I always do with a new detector is find myself a patch of gravel or grass with no signals ( you may need to dig all signals to make a patch at home ), and on this blank ground, I then lay several items about 1 foot apart; rusty iron nail, new galvanised screw, various coins, 1c, 2c, 5c, thripence, sixpence, hapenny, penny, 20c, 50c, $1, $2, a gold ring, a silver ring, various bottletops, alloy pull tabs, alloy slag and aluminium can. Whatever you have about, throw it on the ground to scan. I then go through the settings and see what each setting does and how the detector responds.
Unless you want to be digging rusty iron all day ( or you specifically want iron relics ), you want to make the detector not pickup iron. This is what 'discrimination' is useful for. It discriminates out metals and targets, tuned by the knob to the bottom right of the control box. Usually I have it set around 6-7 for coins, but around 5 for most targets ( including gold rings and alloy foil
)
If you have a gold ring at hand, wave it under the coil. You may or even may not get a signal unless its physically touching the coil. Let me know how that test goes.
You also need to have the machine set to a discrimination mode like GEB DISC, TR DISC etc for discrimination to work. If you have a sensitivity knob, set it at full. Hold the coil 1/2 - 1 foot off the ground making sure the coil is horizontal or parrallel with the ground surface and press the red button.
Now my memories playing with me here, mabey numpty can help, but you either hold the botton with the coil above the ground and turn the tuning knob until it goes quiet..OR...you press the button with coil above the ground, release the button, then lower the coil to the ground and rotate tune until a 'mosquito' noise is barely heard and targets should be very obvious.
You can also google the manual for the machine model which has the info
