If you ask most drillers what ruins a good bore, they will not say “the rig”. They will say “the signal”. Active interference, rebar, long shots, deep shots, city streets packed with utilities, all of that puts pressure on your locating system. This is exactly the world that the DigiTrak Falcon F5 locator was built for.
Falcon F5 is DCI’s flagship wideband walkover locator, designed to push past the limits of classic fixed frequency systems. Instead of locking you into one or two narrow frequencies, the receiver scans more than 1000 frequencies between roughly 4.5 and 45 kHz, groups them into bands and lets you work on the quietest ones for that jobsite.
One locator for noisy, real world jobsites
Not all ground or interference is the same. A residential street with light utilities behaves very differently from a downtown crossing under tram lines and steel reinforced concrete. Falcon technology measures noise on the site, shows you several “quiet” bands, and lets you pick the two best for the bore. If conditions change halfway through, you can switch to another band mid shot instead of fighting a signal that keeps dropping out.
This is a major shift compared with older systems that work on a single fixed frequency. With Falcon F5, the locator is no longer hoping the chosen frequency will behave. It actively adapts to the environment, which means fewer lost beacons, fewer mystery depth jumps and fewer emergency pull backs.
Deep range, precise control
On paper, Falcon F5 offers depth up to about 100 to 125 ft and data range up to around 150 ft, depending on transmitter and conditions, with telemetry range to the remote display up to about 1800 ft when paired with an Aurora screen.
In practice, what crews notice is this:
- Stable depth in fringe areas where older systems start to flicker
- Full scale pitch resolution of 0.1 percent, which is essential for gravity sewer work and other grade critical bores.
- Enough data range that the locator can stand in a safe, convenient position and still feed good information to the driller
The locator runs on a rechargeable lithium ion pack with a typical battery life of 8 to 12 hours, so one charge usually covers a full shift.
Built around real HDD workflows
Falcon F5 is more than a clever frequency scanner. It is built as a complete guidance platform. The system supports Log While Drilling and Datalog, so crews can record bore paths for documentation and as built packages. Many setups include fluid pressure monitoring from the transmitter, which gives an early warning if something starts to go wrong downhole.
Transmitters are available in multiple lengths and styles, including wideband units for general work and Sub k “rebar” transmitters that drop into ultra low frequency to punch under reinforced concrete. Multi Power modes let you choose between maximum power for deep bores, lower power for longer battery life, or faster data rates when you want more responsive steering.
All of this is controlled from a locator that still uses familiar trigger and toggle controls and a full color LCD, so experienced DigiTrak users do not feel like they are learning a completely new language.
When does Falcon F5 make sense
Falcon F5 is not overkill for every contractor. It is the right tool when:
- You work regularly in high interference environments, for example under power lines, near substations or in dense rebar.
- Your bores are deep, long or both, and you cannot afford to “hope” the signal holds.
- You handle grade critical work where small pitch errors turn into expensive rework.
- You want one locator that can follow your crews from easy fiber shots to difficult river or highway crossings.
Many companies keep one Falcon F5 rig as the “special projects” unit, while other rigs run simpler systems on shallow, predictable jobs. That mixed strategy keeps capital costs under control while still giving you a high end option when the stakes are high.
Getting the most from a Falcon F5
Buying a Falcon F5 locator is only half the story. To really benefit from it:
- Match it with the right wideband and Sub k transmitters for your work mix.
- Train locator hands to use the Falcon frequency optimizer instead of leaving it on a default band.
- Build a transmitter pool with enough spares to handle failures without shutting a rig down.
- Take advantage of LWD and datalog features so your bores are documented automatically.
Do that, and the “locator” stops being the weak link on your site. With the DigiTrak Falcon F5 locator at the center of your guidance setup, the conversation shifts from “can we hold signal here” to “how fast and how cleanly can we finish this bore”.
