Here's an old blog I wrote a few months back on my old XLT.
Today I…for the first time since 03 went beach detecting. I figured that if for whatever reason I couldnt get out gold prospecting as often as I would like I could at least keep my metal detecting skills honed by coin shooting at the beach. So i planned a Sunday run to Coronado, just north of the famed Hotel Del Coronado and as usual, it was Saturday evening about 10:30 pm before I had actually remembered that plan, so I scrambled to get my gear together.
First, I needed to see if my beach detector was still working, so i pulled it out of its canvas tomb of the last 8 yrs and loaded the batteries in it, closed my eyes, and fired it up….ah yes music to my ears, I thought to myself as my Whites Spectrum XLT came to life with a very bird like, digital acknowledgement of power. As I examined my detector I noticed the cover over the liquid chrystal screen was coming off, this was very strange because it hasnt been touched, moved, or anything else for 8 yrs and now all of a sudden the screen is falling off, oh well if it actually still works then I will glue it back down later….for now its three pieces of scotch tape and we’re golden, the next problem is that the liquid chrystal screen is kind of …well, unreadable, in that it has horizontal blank lines going through the screen every 16th of an inch making it very hard to read any of my old programs and for those of you that are familiar with the White’s Spectrum XLT, you know that this was indeed the Cadillac of detectors back in…say 94. It was an amazing machine that you could program the way you want, it had a big beautiful liquid chrystal screen that told you everything you need to know about whats under your coil except the date on the coin!! It had pinpointing, it had a depth meter, and it would even tell you the denomination of the coin and be fairly accurate! and now my screen was…unreadable!!
Well too late to change plans I will work it out at the beach! 6am came quickly on Sunday…a little too quickly and I decided that 6am was foolish! 7am would be much more accomodating, well there I was, ready to go and it was only 8am and still cool outside. At the beach I had my scoop and my detector, normally I carry a small trash bag but I didnt want any trouble with the city’s union workers so when I uncovered a piece of trash, I just left it there for the union workers to pick up at a more convenient time.
Now my screen was still not working perfectly but I figured if I used the detector for a few hours it might work itself out, it did show enough for me to set up on one of my old programs….the rest will have to be done “Jedi” style, strictly by feel, anyway off I went swinging my “Hothead” aftermarket coil, Blackbird amplifier and living the dream!! Three hours and roughly 7 cents later (one nickel and two pennies)I figured that I had sufficiently sharpened my detecting skills…”Jedi” style….ofcourse, while also lending the city’s unions a helping hand by leaving dozens of pulltabs and tin foil wrappers exposed and ready for pickup, and now I was beat and ready to head for home, on the way home I was thinking what a great detector this has been over the years and how I would like to get it back into perfect working condition, and anyone who has ever owned this particular model of White’s knows that this puppy has earned its stripes and will forever be one of my favorite all-time machines, and for that i would like to endow this magnificent machine with the Bucket & Boomer Stamp of Approval!!
Pulling out the XLT brought back a lot of beach hunting memories and I still remember doing battle with KellyCo over the fact that the blackbird didn't work when they sent it to me and after calling them enough times they resorted to calling me a kook and hanging up on me....now keep in mind I really am a kook, BUT...that's not their job to decide that, and when you call someone a kook you better make damm sure they are not in a position to make a video and really let you have it!! Anyway I ended up calling the mfg of the Blackbird and they said it was a simple matter of getting a stereo to mono plug at radio shack for a buck...problem solved and a lot of grief from KellyCo could have been avoided. I have never bought anything from them since.
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