What is solar magnetic interference?

[Mike(Mont)]

Most people familiar with long range locators have heard about solar magnetic interference. They might even have heard that it moves the signal line off to the side of the target or that it overpowers the target signal and makes the response weak or not there at all.

Without going into detail, the solar storms change the strength of the earth's magnetic field. Usually this only lasts a few minutes as a time but when a train of solar flares hits the earth these can double-up and produce a long and strong impact. The earth's magnetic flux line are squeezed closer together and shift, too. So how does this affect the LRL? If the LRL is set to work at a certain frequency compared to the earth's magnetic field strength, then when that strength changes the LRL is no longer set right. The signal line is pulled off the target. Some say it usually is pulled to the left. But the point is it is no longer aimed at the target.

How to correct this? Well, like I said it usually only lasts a few minutes at a time, so just waiting five minutes and rechecking your test target to see if it hits right on is the simplest way. But another way is to adjust the frequency to the new magnetic field strength. Anybody familiar with the H3TEC knows it had a magnetomer inside it that adjusted the frequency accordingly, or at least that was the idea. Didn't work that well. I tried it on a version of the Contraption and shelved it for the time being. It always gave a different, even wild reading every time. I tried averaging the mag output, still didn't help. Probably a more stable mag would help, but I haven't done enough research to find one. Of course another option is a stand-alone mag that is stable enough to give an accurate reading and then set that strength into the locator manually. But if the field strength is constantly changing it becomes of game of Whack-a-Mole or beating around the bush where you chase the signal around. This one looks nice but I don't know how stable it is and it is not inexpensive.

https://www.alphalabinc.com/product/em2/

But to get back to the title of this thread, solar magnetic interference is somewhat of a misnomer. Too early for my weak brain to come up with a better term, but I don't like the term "interference" so much. It's really just a shifting of the magnetic field strength. Some people have come up with gimmicks to try and solve this, even come up with names like ghosts or whatever to try to explain the problem.