Hey Rob it's here!!!

[Lamar]

Dear Rob;

All rightttttttttt!!! The package finally arrived my friend! I opened it up and did a careful recieving inspection and everything is fine! Wow, I ordered a lot of stuff, huh? Funny thing is, when I looked at everything on my wish list, it didn't seem like a lot of stuff, but after I opened the box and spread everything out, well gee whiz, that's a lot of stuff! You also sent me more stuff than I needed too! Stuff like the original Minelab AC and DC battery chargers, the orignal ML battery harness, RPG headphones and 2 bungee cords. Do you want me to try and send this extra stuff back to you? BTW, in case anybody is wondering what all of this stuff is, here is the list:

SD2100v2 detector

Coiltek 7800 mAh Litium-Ion Pocket Rocket system

1 spare 7800 mHa Lithium-Ion battery

Coiltek external speaker/amp combo

2 Roo pouches (they make great gifts!)

Heavy duty bungee cord

Otto full fiberglass upper and lower shafts

ML Commander 15X12 Mono coil

CTK 14" Round Mono coil

CTK 11" Round Mono coil

CTK Platypus coil

CTK Mono Joey coil

CTK DD Pro coil

After assembling everything and charging the batteries, I played around with the detector for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, and familiarized myself with the controls, practiced ground balancing, etc. I brought a couple of test nugs with me and I buried them at various depths, etc. Here are some observations after playing around with it for a while. The SD2100 seems to be able to pick up the nugs at pretty much the same depth as my GP3K although the signal from the SD2100 doesn't seem to be nearly as bright and clear as it is from the GP3K. It's one thing being able to distinguish a planted nuggie in the ground if you KNOW it's there, but it's something else to try and pick out a nug from the background noise in it's natural setting. This is definitely an advantage to the GP3K, IMHO. Also, it takes much longer to tune and balance the SD2100 but once everything is set up it seems to stay where it's at pretty well. The GP3K is much easier to balance initically BUT I seem to have to balance it much more frequently, for some reason. My SD2100 has a smooth, sweet threshold, but it seems to be quite a bit softer and weaker than the threshold on my GP3K. In closing I would like to it sum this way. I feel that the SD2100 might be a good machine for a beginning detectorist because of the simplicity of controls and the very short INITICAL learning curve, however training your ear to be able to pick out small or deep nugs from the background will take much longer than it would with the GP3K and much more practice is necessary to be able to master the SD2100 than it takes to master the GP3000. Now that I have a quiver of coils I am going to start some coil experiments and compare the GP3K against the SD2100 and see if there are coils which respond better to one detector over the other. Again, thanks a million for everything Rob! You are the man!!!!!!!

Your friend;

LAMAR

[rexb]

It will be nice to hear results of the comparisons whatever they may be, I've not heard alot of actual testing being performed between the two detectors by the same individual. Thumbs up smiley. I also of course am interested in any coil capability comparisons, depth and target size.

[Lamar]

Dear rexb;

I enjoy running depth/sensitivity tests when I am working because it keeps me from getting bored and it's also a fantastic way to learn how to set up a detector. This is how I learned to use my GP3000, by burying targets of different sizes at different depths then playing around with the controls trying to find the brightest signal return. I feel that using this method allows the operator to learn at his/her own pace and what they experience, they remember much more easily than if they read it or saw it on a video.

Your friend;

LAMAR

[rexb]

Lamar,

I agree, I also like throwing out a test nugget of sorts (0.18 gram melted solder lump) and trying to tune the detector to hear it. I need to do more of the burying larger targets at depth and running my own tests. There is nothing better than learning by doing something yourself.

Rex

[nuggethunting]

Hello Lamar,

Glad everything arrived, even a bit extra! Just keep the extra stuff that was shipped. I meant to ship (2) bungee's since I knew you could always use an extra. The headphones and other stuff, just keep them and try to make use of them in case something goes down.

I would like to "Thank You" for all your business and business you have directed my way.

Ok, now I heard about some gold you found .... When do we get an update?

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison

[Lamar]

Dear Rob;

The gold that I *found* was extremely strange, to say the very least. I went to Oruro with a friend who has never been prospecting for gold before. We went to some abandoned dry wash diggings to see what we could scare up and started working the pilings. I found a couple of small bits but nothing worth writing home about. They dry washers had dug out a lot of overburden so it was slow going for us and we were just about ready to give up on this one particular tailing when I got a nice signal. It was a 3 gram piece and it was situated in the last 20' of the tailing. That started everything. On the next swing I found 3 pieces in one hole! That last 20' produced over 4 ounces. 4.73 ounces uncleaned, to be exact. I am still trying to figure why it produced so much gold. Perhaps the dry washer wasn't adjusted properly. It is very puzzling to be sure. Anyway, we literally ended up tearing down this piling! The first evening we only had my surplus German military entrenching tool but we went and bought a couple of regular picks and shovels for the next day and we ended up leveling the last 20' of the piling to the ground and literally sifting through the dirt with our hands. It was astonishing to say the least. I've never heard of anything like this happening before. The digging was abandoned about 20 years ago and there has been very little activity in the area since then. Well, my new partner now thinks that this is all there is to prospecting and he is raring to gear up and go! I've tried explaining to him that this NOT the norm but I don't think he's listening to me! You very well may be shipping another detector to Bolivia soon so be prepared for it, my friend.

Your friend;

LAMAR

[nuggethunting]

Hello Good Friend Lamar,

It's great to hear stories like that. I guess I'm going to have to come visit you very soon! Haha ... I'm sure there's a lot of virgin ground that needs to be explored with a good Minelab. The advantage you have is the fact your ground hasn't been beat to crap and back by the oldtimers. I'm sure there has been some minor gold rushes there, but nothing like the attention the States have received over the last 150 years with hundreds of thousands of prospectors trying to make a living searching for gold.

Just think, when you find something there, the possibilites could be huge. Not that we can't find the same here, but then again most of the major placer deposits have been located and worked over and over.

I'm sure after your friend seen what you found with the Minelab, he will be calling me. Tell him the prices have doubled now! Haha...

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison