hearing aid Tag | The Ring Finders

200th Return by Richard Browne Member of TheRingFinders.com Centerville, MA

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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February 24, 2025

It was the second warmest day since January 1st and a grate day to clean up some of the winter’s wrath on tree limbs. Dan was in the wooded area next to an old cranberry bog behind his house doing just that. He was carrying a fallen limb to the rear edges of his property when a low hanging branch snagged one of his hearing aids from his ear. After hours of searching, without finding the hearing aid, Dan reached out for help.

A call to Eleanor, at J&E Enterprises, got Dan two useful bits of suggestions. First he was encouraged to call one of TheRingFinders and in the meantime he could try dragging a magnet. Dan called me first. I answered the call and I was on my way. While waiting for me to arrive the search with a magnet was on. Something I had never thought of while searching for any of the 6 hearing aids that I have returned.

As I had done the day before, I adjusted my detector to the specific model hearing aid I was searching for. The area was again less than a 20 foot diameter around the branch. A standard cross hatch search pattern because of the foliage and terrain was about impossible. About 20 minutes passed with many bogus iron alerts from my detector, right tone but wrong numeric reading. A slower, shorter swing of the detector started on the outer  edge of the most probable area that the hearing aid would be in. Low and behold right under the branch that had caused the loss and again, as in yesterday’s find, the hearing aid could not be seen while standing above it. I had to get on my knees and carefully move the foliage that was covering the hearing aid before retrieving it for Dan.

This was my 200th return since I joined TheRingFinders and as I did on the 100th return I wanted to give something special to the owner of the lost item. Unfortunately I did not have the Carpe Diem token with me and I had to return to Dan’s home the next day. The token was designed by a metal detecting friend, Jim Wirth. Sentimental Memories are something that cannot be replaced and I am so fortunate to have so many. Thanks to all that have reached out to TheRingFinders for help and in making Unforgettable Memories.

 

 

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Lost Hearing Aid Found and Returned, Yarmouth Port, MA

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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February 23 2025

The month of January and first 3 weeks of February have been very cold here on Cape Cod. I had only been out detecting one day since the first of the year. Well the Temperature had got into the 40’s and people have been getting out for a walk the past two days. Anne was one that got out for an extended walk with her sister and dog. While on the walk she lost a hearing aid. After not being able to find the lost hearing aid she contacted friends, including one of my neighbors, Eleanor of J&E Enterprises who in turn contacted me. It is great to see how people come to one’s aid when help is needed.

During the walk with her dog a low hanging branch caught Anne by surprise and dislodged the hearing aid. Anne and her sister looked for several hours and could not find it. The hearing aid’s app showed the location to be in the Cul-de-Sac area. Good information but not much help. A cell phone app for locating a “lost” hearing aid gives the location to be within 30 feet or so of where the two were disconnected. Knowledge of the tree lessened the search area to a 10 foot circle within the Cul-de-Sac. A visual sight search was about impossible as the bronze hearing aid and ground cover blended in perfectly with each other.

Using the second hearing aid as a “standard” I adjusted my detector’s notch filtering and sensitivity settings to give a good indication to the missing hearing aid. The exact location of the lost hearing aid would be known when the detector’s coil was passed over it. Starting at the tree where it was believed the loss occurred, it took only a couple of minutes to locate the hearing aid. However, I could not see the hearing aid until I got down on my hands and knees and moved some leaves.

Anne was right with me as I recovered her hearing aid and was very grateful for the service I provided. She called her husband, thanked me many times, chatted with my wife as I put my gear away. I know she is waiting for this blog to be posted.

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Lost Hearing Aid at Gull Lake Saskatchewan In The Snow

  • from Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan, Canada)
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I received a call from Hamid on Friday He lost his Hearing aid on trap line North of Gull Lake Saskatchewan. He had tried his Metal Detector’s and they wouldn’t find his other hearing aid. At a loss and looking at replacements that could cost up to $3000. He did some research finding the ring finders website and my number.

We decided that Sunday morning I would meet with him and go out on the the trapline. Before we left he had me check to see if the detectors I brought with me could find the hearing aid the Garrett AT Gold locate it ringing a solid 2, the Minelab X Terra 70 had weak signal.

I started the search from the location on the trail where he notice it missing. At this spot he had a tree branch brush the side of his head, and is the first time he noticed it missing. I started searching in wide grid pattern working from the left side of the trail to the right thought the tress and brush, moving in the direction he came from. There was a couple signals along the trail but they were a high VDI reading and about 6 inches in the ground I was looking for a shallow target. After sometime I got a solid signal of 2 about two feet next to the trail a inch deep in the snow aways down the trail.

Hamid couldn’t believe it when I bent down telling him it was his hearing aid and moving the snow away revealed the hearing aid. Its a great feeling being able to give back a lost item that some has lost being the smile on their faces!

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Needle in a Haystack – Lost Hearing Aid Found in Paddock!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Pete was ushering some skittish cattle around a paddock yesterday, and was moving under a line of trees to get around them.    As he emerged from the low branches under the tree line he realised that his valuable hearing aid was no longer where it should be. Not the cheapest of items and subsequent efforts to comb through the grass were fruitless.
This morning, I got a message from his daughter in law asking if I would be able to assist.

Hearing aids are notoriously difficult to detect as the largest piece of metal in them is the battery – about half the size of a pea, and even then the metal is only the skin surrounding the battery chemical pastes.

I said I’d give it a go, being a very recent loss.
On arrival, I asked Pete to drop his spare earpiece on the ground so I could tune in and hopefully get a tone off it.
Instantly I heard the pops and whistles of electric fence interference – Easily sorted, and he wandered away to turn the fence off. Now I was able to only just hear the sound of the hearing aid, I had the machine running so hot in order to pick up the tiny flecks of metal in the hearing aid that I was now getting interference from the neighbours fence. Have to put up with that…
Pete had marked the area where he thought they had parted company, and I gave it a quick scan although with the background interference and a ‘million’ ancient fence staples and rusting wire fragments it was mentally exhausting work analysing everything the machine was telling me.
I retraced his path back under the line of trees before circling around to where he had emerged for a real intensive scan of the likely area, on hands and knees working the coil hard into the grass to ensure I would squeeze every last bit of signal out of the aid, should the coil pass over it.
A little over an hour after I had started searching and many false alerts, I got a small but repeatable target.
I carefully picked through the grass and saw a sliver of clear silicone tubing… A big grin crossed Petes face as I held the wayward hearing aid out to him.
The proverbial Needle in a Haystack!

 

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Lost Kids Hearing Aid at Seymour Mountain Vancouver, BC…In the Snow

  • from Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada)
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I got the call the other night and this call I knew would be a tough search, because it was for a kids hearing aid and they are hard to find due to the little metal used to make them. I talked to Sue and she said that she was pretty sure of the location it was lost in so I said lets meet and take a look.

We were to meet the next day at 6:45 am and when we got there it was a nice day, still not light out but nice that it wasn’t snowing. I took a few detectors not expecting them to work as I’ve had some tough times with these hearing aids in the past. I noticed that the one detector wasn’t doing that good with getting a strong signal so I took out the trusted Garrett carrot and started the long process of grid searching on my hands & knees.

I told Sue that she and her husband & son should go for breakfast as it could take a few hours, before they left I asked if I could test the other hearing aid with my last detector…The Garrett AT Gold and bingo! I got a good strong signal.

I went back and started re-searching the whole area and I found it under a couple of inches of snow by a small tree!

What a great felling to know that I will be able to give it back and surprise them all…

 

 

 

 

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