FIELD TEST Silent But Deadly... Prizm Technology and Bigfoot Coil NEW for 2005 By Greg Moscini Trans Bay Metal Detectors Foster City, CA Au4greg@sbcglobal.net

Whether you own a Prizm II through IV with the 8” STD, or the Prizm V with the 950 10” STD, The Bigfoot will be an excellent SECOND search head maximizing your Prizm’s Performance by…. · Improved Ground Cancellation · Improved Power Line Noise Reduction · Improved Sensitivity to smaller micro-jewelry as well as coins · Improved Area Coverage per Sweep with full 18” Coverage covering a ball park in the fraction of the time it takes with the standard loops.

In July of 2004, White’s caught the Industry by surprise and by taking their tried and true Classic

ID technology @ $450.00, and completely re-designed and added features in the All New Prizm

Series starting at $250.00 for the Prizm II, $350.00 for the Prizm III, $450.00 for the Prizm IV

and $550.00 for the newly released Prizm V.

Since July 2004, new Prizm Owners of the II, III and IV which come standard with White’s 8” Coil (Royal 800 concentric design) have only had one accessory coil choice, the Prizm 950 also a concentric design. The newest Prizm V, just introduced at the end of 2004, comes standard with the 950 and short of purchasing the standard 8” which would not make too much sense, there were no other coil options.

Size really does matter when it comes to Search Coil or Loops Designs. While Small Coils 7” to 4” have their advantages in being able to ‘SEE’ tinier targets as well as snipe or separate multiple targets (trashy areas), they have their drawback in that detection depth falls way short of standard and larger search coils.

Larger Coils from 8” + cover more area per sweep but once their size increases past 15”, sensitivity to coins and rings starts to diminish. Larger Coils like the Applied Creativity Magnum Force 25” are really designed for MAXIMUM Depth and Area Coverage larger than individual coin size targets.

Wouldn’t it be GREAT if you could develop a loop for the Prizm that covered a larger area in a single sweep with NO loss of sensitivity, even an INCREASE in sensitivity to Micro-Jewelry and a super-wide window/footprint to minimize overlap and INCREASE area coverage? WAIT NO LONGER, or is that All Good Things Come to Those that WAIT?

Developed in the 1990s, Applied Creativity’s Bigfoot Loop is an impressive 18” Long by 3 ½ “ wide. First developed for the White’s Pro Series, and last year for the MXT and DFX. Now, for 2005, the latest in the Bigfoot Family has just been developed for White’s popular NEW Prizm Metal Detectors.

At the core of this performance is a carefully engineered Differential Design which gives Bigfoot its EDGE and Maximizes Prizm’s Performance….

• Eliminates 85%+/- Ground Noise-Reactivity

• Eliminates 75% +/- 60 cycle or electrical power interference

• Covers up to TEN Times the ground compared to other conventional loops.

• Pin Points Dead Center with a sharp Null

• Excellent Side to Side Target Separation

This whole issue of Depth seems to confuse a great majority of new comers to our wonderful hobby. Trans Bay’s definition of Maximum Depth is your detector’s circuit SEEING that deepest target and you as the operator HEARING and RECOGNIZING the desirable target signal. Thus BEST Depth is achieved by any metal detector when it is tuned to the proper gain/discrimination level resulting in a Clear Audible SIGNAL while keeping the Ground Reactivity and other NOISE factors minimized if not neutralized. Unfortunately for most makes and models, in order to achieve this, requires optimizing your sensitivity or gain control, by REDUCING your sensitivity.

More Conventional Concentric Based Loops (Standard on the Prizm Series) generate a primary

CONICAL or ICE CREAM CONE shape primary electro-magnetic field which transmitted into the ground, narrows down to very small area the size of a 50 cent piece at the deepest fringe area.. Such a narrow field requires the detectorist to carefully overlap to avoid missing the deeper targets over five inches. The Double D or Wide Scan Configuration improves the ‘footprint’ somewhat but still requires at least a ½ coil overlap and don’t reach out as far as a Concentric and are generally a bit more reactive to power line noise..

For the purpose of my field test, I used BOTH the Prizm IV as well as a Prizm V Prototype starting in November 2004.

A word about the Prizm Series....

The Prizm Series and earlier Classics are the Quietest of the two filter detectors I’ve ever used, keeping the NOISE down to minimal. White’s Engineers have internally set the Prizm to handle a range of ground conditions. An internal trim pot can be accessed by the end user, to adjust the ground balance for regional ground conditions; however this trim pot is very fragile, so it should be left alone if the Prizm is lowered to the ground in the pin point mode and the threshold hold doesn’t change or SLIGHTLY increases.

Connect the Bigfoot to the Prizm and SIGNAL to NOISE Characteristics are substantially improved because of Bigfoot’s virtual elimination of Ground Noise and Power Line Noise BEFORE these noise factors reach the Prizm’s receive circuit. Bigfoot enables higher sensitivity settings over the standard White’s loops, resulting in increased performance/depth.

FIELD COMMENTS AND REPORTS FROM THE PROS

In November, I managed to get out with the Prizm-Bigfoot Prototype about twice. Went to Burlingame where I knew of a gold bracelet that had been lost. Unfortunately, upon my arrival, the most of the field was taken up by teens playing Lacrosse. I managed to get about an hour in and working away from the crowd, managed about several dollars in clad, the deepest about 6”. Working the perimeter area, I encountered lots of trash signals, but the Bigfoot and Quick Reaction Response of the Prizm V enabled me to snipe out many targets. I couldn’t detect the specific area for the gold bracelet due to the other on-going activities.

I then passed off the Bigfoot to Tom Collins, aka MT or Montera Tom, who has been detecting longer than I have. Tom took the Bigfoot to a black sand beach and it performed fine. Tom who hates to detect with HEAVY loops, loved the light weight feel of the Prizm-Bigfoot Combination.

Front Yard Test Garden: Gold Wedding Band (small) at 7”, Silver Dime at 8”

Mineralization Moderate, Power lines under street.

At the Default setting, IRON and FOIL zones are defaulted to OFF. I opened up the zones for added insurance. I increased the sensitivity to full gain and got a repeatable loud alert on the dime and gold ring. The target tone audio was also on and the fly motion depth reading indicated 8”. The phase angle of the dime and gold ring at that depth read LOW Zone 1 on the visual indicator and sometimes jumped up to the HIGH Zone 8. The Depth Indicator which is active in the motion discriminate mode indicated 6 to 8”. The DEEP Depth Reading made it a NO DOUBT DIG IT OUT Target. There was NO hint of any power line interference.

PINPOINTING with BigFoot I found to be just plain neat while a conventional coil will pin point the target by increasing sound or pitch which can be at times annoying and hard on the ears, BigFoot pin points with a NULL which is a very definite break off of the threshold. This UNIQUE method of pin pointing eliminates the need for having to DETUNE the target when using a conventional coil. When you change to the all metal mode to pin point, the bottom half of BigFoot actually goes null so you must make sure that your over the target with the first 9”s of coil.

The actual depth reading of the target is achieved in the middle of that positive section of 9”. By pushing BigFoot forward the threshold drops off rapidly and abruptly NULLS or goes silent. That’s when you’re DIRECTLY over your target. The Prizm’s ergonomically friendly

thumb activated PIN POINT mode kicked on the single channel all metal mode and I could hear softer-modulated all metal response of both the 7” gold ring and 8” dime so clear and definite as to its size shape and depth.

Off to a small town park that has yielded many rings and coins over the years. It has been a popular spot for Volleyball, Soccer and other sports. I only had a couple of hours before the sun set, and I wanted to cover the high probability central area of the turf which had yielded so many rings and coins). I was able to make a North to South Pass and then a 90 Degree West to East Pass before it was time to quit thanks to the 18” Long Full Response of the Bigfoot. If I would have had the standard 8” Coil, I would have been lucky to cover ½ the area.

TUNING: I chose to Open up all Eight Segments which Includes Segment #1 / Iron as the deeper coins/rings in mineralized ground can signal iron because phase angle changes. To add to my selectivity, I activated the Tone ID. With Tone ID on, any signal in the Lowest Segment IRON Range was investigated if 6” or over resulting in some coins over 7”. Coins within True Target ID Range will sound off with a higher Tone on Nickels, Clad and Silver.

One thing I noticed was due to its differential design, on shallow targets the Bigfoot will give kind of a quick double Beep off the rear 9” which is instantly recognizable. The front nine inches will respond with the more conventional single beep. This is due to the Two Filter circuitry of the Prizm Series and the Differential Technology of the Bigfoot’s Loop Geometry. I used this to my advantage for quickly locating the target and centering up on

I found many of the coins from 4” to 7 V2”s. On the deeper coins, I used my NEW Target Buddy, a 4” Diameter Plugger (for moist ground) which made target recovery a breeze. The highlight of the evening was a nice loud High Tone Alert Signal which registered Segment 7 (Dime/Copper Penny) on the Prizm IV’s display at approximately 6”. On the first plug, using my knee, I pushed it out and ran it across the front tip of the Bigfoot.... NO REACTION. Taking Bullseye Electronic Pin pointer, I confirmed the target was about center in the hole. I carefully used a Jimmy Sierra Coin Popper and up came a nice looking sterling silver ring. After another 30 minutes locating some more dimes and quarters, it was starting to get a bit dark and cold, so I decided to call it a day and walked off to the Subaru with my ‘haul’ of clad and silver ring. This was actually the second silver ring found with Prizm-Bigfoot.

TIPS and Strategies: What worked really well with the Bigfoot is when I encountered a target, I would first pin point the target and then leaving the Prizm in the ALL METAL Pinpoint Mode, gradually lift the front 9” off the target and listen carefully to the size and signal modulation which easily told me it was a coin/ring target versus a larger Sprinkler Head target. Toward the latter part of the field test, I started hunting in the all metal mode using Bigfoot which gives off a positive response on the front 9” of the Loop and an overshoot response on the back half when a target is encountered. When no target was encountered, the differential loop technology engineered into the Prizm Bigfoot was canceling out the Ground Noise/Reactivity regardless of where the ground balance point was factory set.

Your All Metal Mode is not only used for pin pointing, but is used also for further analyzing the target by its harmonic response, shape and width characteristics. Since Bigfoot neutralizes the ground noise, the target signal is clearer and easier to listen to.

Conclusion

Whether you own a Prizm II through IV with the 8” STD, or the Prizm V with the 950 10” STD, The Bigfoot will be an excellent SECOND search head maximizing your Prizm’s Performance by….

· Improved Ground Cancellation

· Improved Power Line Noise Reduction

· Improved Sensitivity to smaller micro-jewelry as well as coins

· Improved Area Coverage per Sweep with full 18” Coverage covering a ball park in the fraction of the time it takes with the standard loops.

Note: Bigfoot has been carefully engineered by Applied Creativity and approved by White’s Electronics. As always, in order to maximize the ability of Bigfoot, the user must have an understanding of how to correctly tune their detectors whether its an analog or digital. As with most detectors, most new detectorists make the mistake of using too much sensitivity/gain when their ground conditions don’t allow it resulting in falsing on the ground or even overload. Lower discrimination levels will ensure maximum signal from deep targets and minimal trash masking.

Note: Greg Moscini is the owner of Trans Bay Metal Detectors, a multi line detector dealer since 1983 and a detectorist since 1978. Cottage Based Business located at 321 Sea Horse Ct. Foster City, Calif 94404

650-574-2012. E-Mail: au4greg@sbcglobal.net

.

Where to Buy: BigFoot loop can be purchased through authorized Whites Dealers carrying Jimmy Sierra Products.

Copyright 2005