What operating frequency is best for finding gold?
The frequency of the older style TR detectors that were “state of the art” about ten or fifteen years ago was in the neighborhood of 100 kHz. The first new VLF detectors operated at about 2 kHz, and while they penetrated deeper, it was more because of how they operated than their frequency. Typically, most VLF detectors made today are operating in the range of 5 to 15 kHz, while gold detectors typically operate at about 20 kHz. The increase in frequency gives a minutely greater response to little tiny bits of gold, but again their increased response to small targets is because they typically have about ten times as much gain as general purpose detectors. Increasing the frequency much above 20 kHz gives a tiny bit more response in air testing, but the detector will lose that increase as soon as a target is laid on the ground.
