As you all know last winter was pretty well a wash out and most of my spare time was left catching up on all the magazine interviews, reviews, etc what seemed to frustrate me was that all around me in our club there was nothing but E-TRACs. I was the only one with the Fisher F75; was I missing something?
So around Xmas I decided that I would have to buy one - my mind would not rest until this was done. Finally Santa had arrived - my very first impression was the quality of build compared to the F75 - it just felt more robust, balance and weight were very similar so equal marks there as for the initial set up and operations the F75 was so much easier to use the E-TRAC manual took me to space and back there was too much on the patterns and discrimination they are there to be used but myself with the both machines I like to open them up to full sensitivity [subject to conditions] all metal and make my own decisions, I decided that I would keep both machines until like buying a puppy it would come to me. The first dig scheduled was New Years Day 2013 lovely medieval village in the heart of the island this would be my first proper outing with the E-TRAC.
My set up was all metal--sens [manual 25] threshold 15--- audio two tone ferrous there are various settings that you can set to your own preference the overall settings were similar to how I set up the fisher but the difference from the F75 was how much stable the E-TRAC was in top gear that was a bonus to my ears it can be a long day with the F75 [if your into heavy metal music you might like it] but the E-TRAC felt like an orchestra in comparison another point I should make is that the F75 can be stabled but you lose a lot of depth as for the target response fisher does take a lot of beating it's the formula one the E-TRAC is a little slower so I had to make a change to my walking pace and swing most would say low and slow isn't a bad thing I agree the F75 was better at pinpointing but after a few outings with the E-TRAC things got better, Numeric ID on both machines were very accurate to a point but should only be used as a guide if it sounds good dig if I had relied solely on the id screen I would have missed both of the rings in this article numbers change from inch to inch so I use both the visual and tone of the find to make my own decision no machine in the world has ever told me what is in the ground only a guesstimate Body fatigue over a 6 hour dig not a lot between either finally after four weeks my decision was the E-TRAC for 2 reasons build quality and noise stability, it's been 7 months with the E-TRAC and I feel really pleased with its overall performance over the last few months I have had some good finds.
A complete Medieval silver-gilt 'fede' finger-ring (1400-1500] & 22 carat gold posy ring [1680s] various hammered coins, bronze age hammer, silver stater 1915 gold half sovereign [beach find] my detection rate has improved with the E-TRAC but that could be down to various factors sometimes " a change is as good as a rest " some words of advice from our senior member a veteran of forty years "keep it low keep it slow"--"the more you sweep the more your reap" and finally "don't be a fool dig it all".
Eric - England, UK
