INTERNATIONAL EXCLUSIVE! Interview with the authors of “Inside the METAL DETECTOR” – George Overton and Carl Moreland

As director of AMDTT, I’m really happy and proud to have had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with Mr. George Overton and Mr. Carl Moreland, co-authors of the book “Inside the METAL DETECTOR” (Ndr. Now’s available the 2nd edition. Check HERE !), published by Geotech Press last month which, without any doubt, now probably represents the best technical reference text for anybody who’s interested in metal detector design and self-construction or for people interested to have a deep insight on technical and theoretical fundaments of BFO (Beat Frequency Oscillator), TR (Transmit-Receive), VLF/IB (Very low frequency/Induction Balance) and PI (Pulse Induction) metal detectors.

This valuable paperback handbook will be an incredible source of detailed informations, technical explanations, schematics and design tips that will make really happy any detecting-technology enthusiast and anyone who wants to self-construct metal detectors with performances  comparable to commercial models. In the Geotech’s site are also available the Gerber files, useful to build up the PCBs. The book is now only available in English language. We hope in some translated editions in the near future.

Here we have the interview… Have a nice reading!

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Leonardo Ciocca (Director of AMDTT): “First of all I’d like to thank George and Carl for the kindness they personally demonstrated to my person and toward the AMDTT’s blog readers. Let’s start this interview with the most classic question: how the ‘Inside the METAL DETECTOR’ project was born?”

George Overton (Co-Author): “Inside the METAL DETECTOR” became a collaborative project when both of us, Carl Moreland and myself George Overton discovered that the other was in the process of writing a book concerning metal detector technology. Although there are many books available on “how to use your metal detector”, and numerous others dedicated to particular types of finds (such as coins, buckles and buttons) there was a complete lack of any detailed information on the innards of the metal detector itself.”

Carl Moreland (Co-Author):”Right! Both of us had searched for such a book, without any success, and had independently decided to plug this gap in the metal detector literature. Surprisingly there was very little overlap between the information we had compiled separately up to that time. I was mainly focused on pulse induction (PI) design, while George had explored beat frequency oscillator (BFO), transmit-receive (TR), and very low frequency (VLF) designs.”

Leonardo: “Reading the book everybody noticed there’s an entire chapter on ‘dowsing’ and on Long Range Locators (LRL). I must admit I was somehow surprised to find even this issues in your book. Can you give your comments on that?”

George: “Ahahahaha… We were waiting for this question… Since we are both confirmed skeptics, where dowsing and long range locators (LRLs) are concerned, this collaboration was a perfect fit.

Leonardo: “George, you live in United Kingdom while Carl lives in the States. I know that you both are co-admins of Geotech forum, a real reference point for people interested in the technical aspects of MDing. Remotely co-administrate an Internet forum could be hard but not impossibile, but what about writing a book together? Do geographical distance posed an obstacle in the process?

George: “Although we have met face-to-face on a couple of occassions for a few days, the book was compiled, edited, rewritten (Carl: “We did it several times!”) and eventually published, via the wonders of the internet, email and FTP (Note: a computer technology used to remotely transfer texts, files, images etc thru the net). Which was very useful, considering we are separated by 8 time zones.”

Leonardo: “The book covers a lot of issues and the wealth of information is amazing! I’m sure it have taken a lot of time and resources!”

Carl: “Actually at first we expected the finished book would contain approximately 200 pages, but in the end wedecided to increase the size to just under 300. Otherwise we would still be writing now, and the book would have grown to an enormous size with a price tag to match.

Leonardo: “One of the things I’ve really appreciated the most, as I’m an ‘always beginner’ as a student of detecting electronics and also not being an English mothertongue (I’m Italian and I live in Italy), is the relatively ‘easy’ conversational writing style you’ve used while keeping an always rigorous technical dissertation. How did you come to this?”

George: “One of the crucial decisions we made at the very start, was to avoid a dry academic text full of equations, and to aim the content at the general Geotech readership. Consequently the book was written in a ‘relaxed’ conversational style, bearing in mind that many of the potential readers may not have English as their first language.”

Carl: “Yes! I can add this to George’s words. Of course, restricting the size of the book meant that a lot of information never got discussed, and other topics only received elementary coverage. But, in the end, I think we provided a good foundation in the basic elements of metal detector design, which was our initial intention.

Leonardo: “The inevitable last question is: ‘Will there be a second book?’

George: “It might take some time (Carl: “We’re still recovering from the first one!”) but we certainly have enough information to write a second volume. So watch this space!

——(END)——-

I personally want to thank again George and Carl for the gracious kindness in giving us this exclusive interview that, I’m sure, will be really appreciated by our readers.

Feel free to send me an email for further informations.

Leonardo/”Bodhi3″
Director AMDTT

PS: I beg pardon to all English speaking readers for my tremendous mistakes. Please send me comments and corrections. I’ll be happy to fix the text.