I spent $600 on a 'ground penetrating radar' app for my phone and it found nothing, but a $12 trowel proved me right

Val Sullivan · 2026-10-10T03:10:04.122115+00:00

I got really into the idea that you could find buried foundations without digging, so I paid $600 for an app that supposedly used my phone's sensors to map what's underground. I tried it on my uncle's farm outside Topeka where we knew an old cabin stood, and it just showed random blobs that meant nothing. My uncle finally grabbed a $12 garden trowel and found the corner stones in about twenty minutes of poking around. That was the moment I quit trusting the fancy stuff and went back to actual field walking. Now I read dirt, look for stains, and dig small test pits before I ever trust a gadget again. Anyone else get burned by tech that promises to skip the digging?

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I spent $600 on a 'ground penetrating radar' app for my phone and it found nothing, but a $12 trowel proved me right | Archaeology Discoveries - Discusd