Kellyco Titan 9000, Owner'S Manual

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In most areas, once you've ground balanced, the ground balance
setting will remain satisfactory for a long time. However, if the soil
has been disturbed by digging or bringing in fill dirt, or if it's in a
geologically complex setting such as is commonly encountered in
gold prospecting areas, you may have to frequently rebalance to
accommodate changing soil conditions.
When you ground balance, the numerical value of the ground
balance setting will momentarily appear on the LCD screen. In
general, sandy or gravelly soils will tend to read in the 45 - 90
range, light colored loams and clays will tend to read in the 75 - 120
range, and red clays will tend to read in the 100 to 200 range. To
express it in other terms, in general the more highly weathered and
oxidized the soil is, the higher the numeric reading will be.
If you know through experience what the ground balance should
read in a particular area, if you inadvertently ground balance over
metal you’ll know it immediately because the number will be higher
than it should be. If this happens try another spot.
The Ground Monitor dial indicates how much iron mineralization is
present. For it to work, you have to be sweeping the searchcoil over
the ground. The higher the mineralization, the more necessary it is
to be ground balanced in order to get the best depth in the All Metal
modes.
If you are doing relic hunting, you can use SMART TRAC to take
data on the soils, which you can then plot on a site map. In this
way you may be able to locate areas which have been dug,
backfilled, or subjected to fire. This information in turn helps to
reveal the history of the site.
If you are mapping the soils of a site using SMART TRAC, the
Ground Monitor readings can provide additional information. To
use the Ground Monitor for geophysical mapping, "pump" the
searchcoil up and down a few inches over the spot you wish to take
a reading, until the dial stabilizes, which will usually happen in a
couple seconds. This technique gives more repeatable readings than
sweeping horizontally.