Minelab CTX 3030 Metal Detector

CTX 3030 Best Settings Made Simple
Sometimes advanced metal detectors like the CTX 3030 can seem overwhelming. Don’t worry, the settings are easier than you might think.

Set Your CTX 3030 Program
The CTX 3030 settings come with ten factory pre-set modes: Coins, Beach, Relics, Silver, High Trash, and more. These programs can be edited or customized to your liking. Or use the CTX 3030 factory pre-set modes if you just want a turn-on-and-go detector.

Set Your CTX 3030 Tones
The CTX 3030 Allows you to modify your tones, both in pitch, in ID (identification) profile. Select from 1 tone, 2co, 2fe, 4co, 4fe, 35fe, 50 tones, and combined tones.
You can also modify your audio response with options such as:
Normal Short audio response.
Long Continuous audio response
Smooth is Similar to Long but reduces variability in pitch thus making a smoother tone.
Pitch Hold Continuous tonal response with no rise and fall in audio, just the strongest tone from every signal as you move from target to target.

Set Your CTX 3030 Recovery
There are two types of recovery:
Fast This option reacts faster to targets, however, it can result in less accurate target identification because of the demand on the detector's processing speed. This feature is great for high trash density sites.
Deep This option only affects weak signals and so enhances the target identification of small deep objects. Beware that signal processing becomes slower and could cause more blending of targets. This option might be used for less trashy sites.

CTX 3030 Seawater Feature
Seawater is a CTX 3030 beach setting and simply allows you to run at a higher sensitivity without the falsing. This feature is specifically designed for the variability of beach detecting.

Know your CTX 3030 Ground Balancing
CTX 3030 ground balancing has two options:
Auto Tracking This feature ground balances as you go automatically, however, users don’t advise it because it may track out small targets at maximum depth.
Manual Ground Balance Manually ground balance your machine. This feature allows you to do it yourself. Users recommend doing a fresh ground balance (with nothing under the coil), near any suspected small deep targets, this will clear up the ground around the target and help identify it better.

Know Your CTX 3030 Target Separation Modes
Minelab has provided four key modes to better help you discriminate trash from the treasure in various hunting conditions. These modes are really all about the processing of the target. By selecting one, you’re simply telling the detector what kind of environment you're detecting. and how you want it to process what's in the ground. The four modes are:
Low Trash This mode processes targets efficiently in a low trash density environment with low to medium ground mineralization.
High Trash This mode processes targets efficiently in a high trash density environment with low to medium ground mineralization.
Ferrous-Coin Use this mode if you're detecting coins in high FE (ferrous, iron-rich) conditions but with low mineralization.
Ground-Coin Use this mode if you're detecting coins in highly mineralized soil.

Set Your CTX 3030 Target Trace Mode
Target Trace allows you to see multiple objects on the detector screen at the same time.
Target Trace Pinpoint Mode is activated when in pinpoint mode and uses colors and layering to help you see whether a target is an iron, what the shape is like, and how many targets are under the coil.

CTX 3030 Target Identification (TID)
CTX 3030 finds can vary, especially when finding gold and attempting to use gold numbers. Gold TID numbers on the CTX 3030 fall under the same TID numbers as aluminum, pull-tabs, and other types of metal trash.

When performing a CTX 3030 depth test, one will find very different numbers doing an air test vs. a ground test. These are important factors to consider, especially when detecting in very trashy sites where TID numbers are blended, or using the CTX 3030 to get maximum depth on coins where TID’s can become less reliable the deeper they are.

Below are just a few CTX 3030 Target Identification Numbers (TID) to help you, on the left is the ferrous number, and on the right is the conductive number for the target. Like the Minelab Etrac, the CTX will display both ferrous and conductive numbers on the display screen when over a target

CTX 3030 Target ID Chart