About 6 weeks ago I received a call from James Gifford and Heidi of Tesoro Electronics asking me if I would field test their NEW Eldorado detector. Of course there was only one answer to questions of this complexity. Can you have it here by this weekend?

In the past I have field tested several machines and promoted their excellence, as duly earned by each unit. This time the format will be a little different, a more objective type field test. I guess I am best known for my use of the Bandido line. I did start out, however, with the OLD Eldorado and considered the Bandido as a progressive upgrade. Well, we have all heard what goes around, comes around. The Eldorado had gone around and here it comes again, that is the 2nd generation. Yes, it is now reborn as a new generation and truly unrivaled. Tesoro has put a lot of thought into this machine and covered all the bases one could hope for in one unit. On top of this, the price is unchanged from the Bandido II µMax and the lifetime warranty is still intact.

I will now present the field test and conclude with a little more subjective closing as is more my style.

FEATURES

In about 3 days I received the Eldorado. Inside the box was the new 9 x 8 concentric searchcoil with a 3 foot cable. There were 3 poles to be assembled. The main body of the detector was attached to the pole with the arm rest. A fresh battery was also included so that immediate use of the machine was possible. Included was the lifetime warranty card which should be filled out within 10 days of purchase. It took no time to lock the poles together with the spring buttons. I next adjusted the length of the pole to just in front of my feet so that I could swing the coil without lifting up my shoulders. I then opened the battery compartment and placed the 9 volt battery in. No wires, I liked that. Now it was time to go outside and try it out.



On the face there were several buttons and switches. I will briefly go over these and explain what each does. 1) Ground Balance, 2) Threshold, 3) Sensitivity, 4) Discrimination Level, 5) Battery Test - All Metal - Discriminate Modes, 6) Frequency Shift.

1) Ground Balance is a state of operation using specialized circuitry to ignore the masking effect that iron ground minerals have over metal targets. On the Eldorado, the Ground Balance control knob is a 3 and ¾ turn potentiometer.

2) Threshold is a continuous tone that establishes a reference point for tuning the detector to ground balance it. The threshold tone also establishes the minimum sound level for deep targets in the discriminate mode.

3) Sensitivity is the capacity of a metal detector to perceive changes in conductivity within the detection pattern. Generally, the more sensitivity a detector can smoothly provide - the more depth it will achieve in sensing targets.

4) Discrimination level is an adjustable circuitry which ignores or nulls audio responses from a specific conductivity range. This allows positive responses to be heard from metals higher in conductivity above the discriminate control setting. It is designed primarily to eliminate audio response from trash metals.

5) Mode Toggle Switch includes Battery Test, All Metal, and Discriminate Modes. All metal is any operating mode or control setting which allows total acceptance of any type of metal targets. It is usually associated with the Ground Balance mode.

6) Frequency Shift is a feature which suppresses the audio interference (crosstalk) between two detectors using identical transmit frequencies in close proximity.

FIELD TEST

Now that we have an idea of what all of the functions mean, I will step outside and go into action. Knowing that the unit needs to be set up in the general location of its use, I waited until I was on my site to set up. My first area was a river bluff with a lot of sand. Though I had worked this site fairly well, I knew there were some deep targets making this a good test site. First, I found an area with no iron signals in the all metal mode, then I performed the ground balancing act. The Eldorado performed this operation more easily than any other machine I have used. I set the threshold at a low hum. Then all I had to do was raise and lower the coil from about 10" to 1" and adjust the threshold balance-clockwise if the sound went down and counterclockwise if the sound went up. I did not have to re-tune or do any other action. This took about 1 to 2 minutes. Now that I was ground balanced, I pushed the toggle switch to the discriminate mode and started searching. I had set my discriminate knob at iron reject. In a couple of minutes I had my first positive signal. As with the Bandido, any positive sound, even from just one direction, that repeats itself when your swing speed and direction is repeated is probably a good target. My target did just that and was about 10" down. When I got it to the surface, it was a piece of iron about 1 x 2" in size. I raised my discrimination to the Nickel mark and found this eliminated the majority of small and medium-sized iron objects. Larger iron tended to sound good at times. I found that in such a situation, I could put it into the all metal mode and the detector would give a wide response, or I could simply turn up the discrimination knob a little and if iron, it would phase out. This could be done with one finger. I believe that with a little practice this will be an easy and quick operation. One advantage connected to this feature is the ability to easily locate an activity site in the woods by picking up small iron and then raising your discriminate level once you are in the center of the area. This can also help you relocate an area. A lot of the newer machines will not allow you to do this.

The depth that the Eldorado was getting was really exceptional. The next target was a nice soft positive signal from both directions which repeated itself. At about 10" I got a 1" pewter button , no marking, nice though. Over the next 2 hours, I unearthed buttons from 1cm to 4cm in size from 6" to 12" deep. Now that is fantastic for a worked out area. I did find one coin, an 1819 large cent about 8" down. I guess that was my reward for persistence.

The second test site was at our club's beach hunt at Tybee Island. Here I was in competition with about 30 other machines in a 40-yard area. Guess what, no interference from anyone. However, I did cause interference to one other hunter so I changed frequency mid-stream by simply pushing the toggle switch from 10.6 to 10.2 kHz, and I was no longer a threat. Need I say more about this unique feature? I did find a lot of coins and one token which won me a year's subscription to the North South Trader and my picture in their magazine. Another bonus.

The third test site was in the middle of the woods. This was a late colonial homesite, again searched for many years already. A little different challenge here with a lot of undergrowth, thick pine straw and more humus soil. Again, I was not disappointed. At first I had trouble finding the spot, but then I got smart and lowered my discrimination below iron. For a while I got no sounds, then a signal here and a signal there. Turning my knob above iron, they disappeared. Soon I was getting into the good area and the good finds. Note: The discriminate level may vary from machine to machine. With some of the other detectors you could not use this feature to find a site. As with many of the very sensitive units, I may get a signal when hitting a root or sapling, but this is easy to figure out since the sound would not repeat itself. Here I found a handful of buttons, some at the 12" level. My grand prize was a white gold ring with a ruby and two turquoise stones. The engraving was done by hand. This ring dated between 1790 and 1830. No disappointment here.

The fourth and last test site was at Panama City Beach, FL. On the beach sand, which was like dry white sugar and similar to hunting a flattened plowed field, I was truly hoping for a nice gold chain or diamond ring, but the law of averages was against me and I only found pocket change recently lost. I did get quite a few of those corroded tokens they call pennies. A lot of these were 8 to 10 inches deep and had been wet for a long time. Oh yes, 2 hotel keys which I turned into security. Now it was time to go to wet sand and surf. Over the wet sand I had just a few false signals but very few. I did dig a penny from 10" down, so I was able to confirm a positive difference between false and true signals. Standing on a high spot I put my coil underwater when the waves came in. Here I did get a false signal so I turned my sensitivity down to about 6 - 7 and all the false signals disappeared. Unfortunately, before I was satisfied with my settings, a big wave came in and covered my shoes and my pants. Oh well, so much for control over one's environment.

SUMMARY

In conclusion, the new Eldorado is a high-tech, multi-functional metal detector at a low cost and low operational complexity. It considers the fullest range of uses and adaptations of any metal detector and weighs only 2.2 pounds. The battery life is 10 to 20+ hours depending on the use of headphones. It uses only one 9 volt battery. Its unique features include a frequency shifter to give you the edge at competition hunts and around electrical interference. The Eldorado's simplicity of ground balancing is reflective of its entire character.

In this field test we have put the Eldorado through a number of different environments and found it to be most adaptable. I was surprised at how well it worked on the beach and in the salt water, much more stable than earlier machines. I would recommend the new Eldorado to anyone who likes variety and wants a high power, multi-function machine which is easy to operate and has a similar cost and weight factor: LOW!!

Happy Hunting!