Nokta FORS Gold+

Nokta Detectors is a new name to most people in the United States. Nokta Engineering is a company based in Istanbul, Turkey since 2001. The FORS Gold+ is an update of the earlier FORS Gold and is aimed at the prospecting market. The Nokta FORS Gold+ was introduced in 2015 and was discontinued in late 2018. The Nokta FORS Gold+ has been replaced by the Nokta Anfibio 19, new for 2018.

The main changes in the FORS Gold+ include boosting the frequency from 15 kHz to 19 kHz which should enhance the sensitivity to small gold. The stock coil has been changed to the 10" x 5.5" DD coil popular with gold prospectors and a 5" round DD coil is also included. The smaller coil is good for working nooks and crannies and will provide the best sensitivity on the smaller gold nuggets. Optional coils include a 10" x 5.5" concentric and 13.3" x 15.5" DD. The concentric is new for Nokta and offers extra performance in mild ground combined with more accurate ferrous identification properties for trashy locations.

A very new feature is what Nokta is calling the iSAT control. This allows a person to customize the threshold retune rate for ground conditions. A fast threshold retune smooth's ground responses but can also smooth faint gold signals. A slow retune rate can enhance faint signals but also enhance false ground responses. The amount needed varies with ground conditions and the type of gold being found. This setting is preset in most detectors and so by including it Nokta is offering a degree of control not possible on many prospecting detectors.

Finally, the three tone "coin mode" on the original FORS Gold has been replaced by a Fast retune two tone discrimination mode suited for hunting bad ground. This is in addition to the already existing Boost discrimination mode for work in milder ground.

The Nokta FORS Gold+ comes with two coils - 5.5" x 10" DD and 5" round DD

Here are some details in the three modes offered on the FORS Gold+. There is a true threshold based all metal mode that has no discrimination control. There is no variable discrimination in this mode but the on screen target id does kick in for targets in discrimination range. Because all metal reaches deeper than discrimination modes the deeper targets will give an audio signal but no on screen target id number. This is how you locate deep targets beyond what a discrimination mode can detect.

Then you have preset two tone discrimination modes. In two tone mode it is low tone ferrous and high tone non-ferrous. These discrimination modes are "silent search" with no threshold sound.

In both the disc modes you have a variable control called ID Mask. It is just like the control on a single knob disc machine, up and down with anything below the setting rejected. This is on top of and in addition to the tones. However, ID Mask is not like on most detectors where it starts at iron and goes up from there. The control starts all the way down in the ground range and goes up from there. This is important because many detectors cannot be set for a true "zero disc" mode but always have a little iron discrimination built in even at minimal settings. The FORS are like other Euro machines that let you fine tune the ferrous responses for extracting targets out of thick ferrous trash. This combined with the small coil makes it deadly in ferrous trash.

Nokta FORS Gold+ 19 kHz gold nugget detector

ALL modes always have an active on screen visual VDI number. If you want you can run ID Mask very high to eliminate foil or aluminum or whatever on the high end, but like other machines you will lose nickels if you go too high. There is no notch function. Run ID Mask up to just below nickel range. Now you get no signal on targets that fall below nickel, nickel on up will produce a high tone.

My FORS reads 56 on a nickel. If I turn the ID Mask up to 56 it still accepts the nickel. If I turn it to 57 nickel breaks up badly. At 58 nickel is gone.

There is no threshold in the disc modes so no threshold nulling. The rejected targets are simply gone, and nothing pops up on screen for VDI. So on screen VDI is not 100% independent of settings.

If you turn the ID Mask up to 99 nothing goes beep so the control operates over the entire discrimination range unlike many detectors that do not allow the control to run into the coin range. The ID Mask control has exceptional range all the way from ground on one end up to silver coins and above on the other end.

I like the out-of-box thinking Nokta is displaying in the design of their detectors. The FORS Gold+ has a small LED flashlight built into the handle to illuminate the work area in low light conditions or to just use as a flashlight when you get back to your vehicle in the dark. The two coils, both manual and automatic ground tracking, 19 khz, new iSAT control, dual discriminate modes, and more all add up to a metal detector worth very serious consideration. The new discounted price of $578 with two coils makes this a real bang-for-the-buck option for those wanting a full featured nugget detector at a great price.

Nokta FORS Gold+ Color Brochure

Nokta FORS Gold+ Instruction Manual

Nokta FORS Gold+ Photo Tour

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*Notes on Technical Specifications - Detailed notes about the specifications listed in this chart.