In article , Gregory L. Hansen wrote: [...]
I think 2 toroids inside two solenoids will work better.
You place a toroid inside a solenoid with its axis at right angle to the bore of the solenoid. You drive the toroid with an AC current that just saturates it in each direction. The solenoid coil will develop a voltage proportional to the external field at twice the drive frequency.
Such a design will have trouble with picking up stray AC fields. If you place 2 side by side, drive the toriods at 90 degrees to each other and wire the coils to subtract, you get more than twice the signal and a lot less pick up.