Report on the Whites GMT

The White’s Goldmaster Tracker  (GMT), is unique among the VLF range of detectors available today.  It’s auto tracking, coupled with a variable user controlled Self Adjusting Threshold Speed (V/Sat), make it, I believe, the best VLF machine available.  I have not found any ground that it cannot be made to run in, both smoothly and understandably.

It’s mineralisation meters make it unique, as the operator can at any time “see” what type of ground is being worked.  As well as that, black sand and highly mineralized deposits can also be located.

For extremely difficult ground or unusual mineral/ground make up, the machine can be switched to manual and operated via the touch pad display.  Even users of the previous Goldmaster range will find this detector quite different from predecessors.  In the past, turning up the V/Sat meant a significant loss of target response as it crossed the 70% mark, this had to be done though to compensate for rapid ground changes that make most detectors noisy to use.  The GMT V/Sat is very different, in that as the S.A.T. speed is increased to the same level, target response is sharpened so that the faintest targets are now audible.

Along with adjustable S.A.T. is also an adjustable Gain, this is the power delivered into the ground control.

Never be afraid to turn it down, using too much gain is like turning your high beam on in the fog!  It bounces back at you making vision difficult, the standard low beam works the best.  Mineralisation is the fog, too much gain and it bounces back at you making all the excess ground noise.

Every detector has a limit, when it gets uncontrollably noisy, that means your detector has reached its limit, you’re now more than likely losing depth, and if you have no control over gain (power into the ground), or V/Sat speed, you will miss gold.  By reducing the gain and increasing S.A.T. speed under these conditions you will hunt at the maximum possible depth for that particular patch; without it being reduced by too much gain or too low S.A.T. speed.

There are many other auto tracking machines around but none can run with the same level of efficiency as is obtainable with the GMT.

In ground that changes underfoot  (not easily noticed by many prospectors), by watching or occasionally glancing at the mineral meter, you can see any drastic change in mineralisation and make sure the necessary alterations are made to the machines’ controls, thus enabling maximum performance in every situation.

The Iron ID system is also a big difference from past goldmasters.  It has a three stage function, with a constant LED bar graph readout from 0 to 100 which is working all the time with no depth or target response loss.  There is also a three position trigger switch located under the display pod that is easily operated by the forefinger.  Pushed forward it adds an audio discrimination response called the “Grunt”, when iron is detected.  The trigger, pulled back towards the operator, uses digital analyzing to determine the probability of being ferrous.  In high iron junk areas, these three forms of discrimination make detecting so much easier, they are very dependable and hence  a  fantastic machine to use once fully understood!

The auto tracking which is called “Fast Auto Tracâ” is just that, fast tracking, to balance the machine it only takes two pumps, even in really bad ground and it has no trouble keeping up.  You can scan slow or fast, it makes no difference.  I have never seen a VLF detector able to be operated so tamely in bad ground and still retain depth and sensitivity.

If the weight of a detector is of concern to you, with others having heavy lead acid gel cell batteries, this machine weighs less complete with the batteries than just the battery of these others, and these give forty hours plus usage for just one set, probably closer to 70 hours in non junky areas.  As the GMT is so light, and no cables to get caught up in bushes it is highly manoeuvrable and especially on the sides of hills, eroded creek beds walls and other such places where heavy machines make it very difficult to use.

The GMT’s sensitivity even in bad ground is amazing, I have detected gold in lumps of clay that gave a very good signal that weighed less 1/20^th of a gram.  I have dug up small specimens inches deep that had no more than 1/3^rd of a gram of gold in them!

Numerous times I have dug up to one foot holes, unfortunately only for junk to present, and the targets have not been horse shoes either.  A couple of shotgun solid slugs, and a trigger guard off an old gun were to name a couple.  The fact that they have never been dug proves there is still good targets out there still to be found using a GMT, it’s just a matter of time.

Happy Hunting

Brett Turner