Parabolic dish and microphone

[wiiawiwb]

I've been wrestling with the decision of whether to make or buy a parabolic dish setup.  Clearly, making one will save a lot of money and I can fashion it exactly to my specs. My problem is I'm not very handy and when I've gone to plumbing stores or Home Depot to look at plastic pipe, my eyes glaze over.

 

I've frittered away too much time being indecisive so I finally made the decision to go out and buy exactly what I want. I'm going to get one from Wildtronics.  Most of my sasquatching involves backpacking into an area so the unit must be able to fit on my backpack.  There is either a 22" dish or an 11" micro-dish.  The 22" is supposed to amplify sound x 10 while the 11" x 5.  Never having used a parabolic dish before,  my preference would be the 11" as it is lighter and can be backpacked  and carried more easily.

 

For those of you who have used or won a parabolic dish, would an 11" dish with a x 5 sound amplification be enough to detect something walking in the woods? Remember, that I will be away from civilization so human noises (cars) will be eliminated.

 

https://www.wildtronics.com/store.html#!/Pro-Mini-Parabolic/c/16104026/offset=0&sort=normal

[SWWASAS]

In my experience the dish would be good if you encounter a bigfoot moving about that does not know you are there or thinks you are so far away they cannot be heard.     My first encounter had two segments.      The first segment was the approach.    The two bigfoot apparently did not know I was in the area and were making a lot of noise, whooping back and forth, and breaking and crashing through the down wood coming towards me.      With a dish I could have heard them a mile away.   As it was, without the dish I think I heard them whooping for about a half mile, and only heard the footfalls the last couple of hundred yards.  .     The second phase was after they discovered me and I let them withdraw.    I was only a few yards away from their last position and never heard so much as a muffled thump.  Super stealth mode I guess.     I doubt I could have heard anything as quiet as they left the area using a dish.         I guess what I am saying is I doubt that your dish will be any use with a BF that is trying to be quiet.    So a long term camping situation you might not hear a thing since any BF that approaches will be in stealth mode.  .     Introduce into an random area,  listen on the dish,  and  you might catch movement from a BF who either does not know you are there or thinks you are too far away to hear them moving about.  

[bipedalist]

Those wildtronics units are sweet.  I would say if you primarily pack and don't drive in camp the smaller dish would be helpful. Might consider a small tripod which is portable making it all the more useful so you can go hands free when needed for other tech. I have heard squatch tiptoe before, problem was it was a drought and the dry leaves sounded like cherry bombs going off the closer they got.  I have also heard them crash around, fall down a mountainside and generally not seem so stealthy.  If you become predictable they might get used to not muffling their normal modus operandi.  Still if they stand off on a hillside and you are below them that unit will pick up Samurai and it will sound like they are using a megaphone even if they whisper.  High quality recorder is key with backup and backup memory cards

Edited January 28, 2020 by bipedalist

[SWWASAS]

The dish is a useful tool that can extend our own hearing ability.     One of many tools but certainly not anything magic.    I wish I had more capability with electronics.    There has to be a way to use CW radar and pick them up at a distance.    If that could be done, we could track movement  and figure out their patterns of travel.    They hole up someplace.   If not in caves or lava tubes they must withdraw to very remote places.    Find those places and we might solve the problem.  

[bipedalist]

Tracking with geolocation definitely would be a "game changer" (buzz word like compelling in most uses).  How to integrate that with other tech, strategy, tactics and "what ifs" is the issue.  I would like to know more about portable broadcast speakers that are light-weight, compact and high-powered in conjunction with the dish. I don't broadcast knocks and wild monkey calls generally but do enjoy using whistles and bird calls to gain their attention and it does work. I am not super crafty and have problems just gluing precut PVC let alone trying to imagine and create something to construct or do home plumbing. 

Edited January 28, 2020 by bipedalist

[SWWASAS]

I think my next step will be to deploy geophones.      That can be done with off the shelf gear and has the potential to pick up movement at a distance.   You cannot weigh what an adult BF does and move about without making small earthquake tremors.     Since rock and soil transmits sound better than air,    I have hope that the useful detection distance will be beyond what a sound dish can do.      I wonder what that NEON site in SW WA has picked up that the scientists cannot explain.   I found a BF footprint within 200 yards of the place.  

 

Capable speakers are heavy.    Modern high dynamic movement speakers are lighter than the speakers of yesterday.       I have some Klipsh speakers that are so big they are not even made any more.    4 feet high,   3 feet wide,  and two feet deep.     The woofer is 15 inches.    They are great for classical but not good for rock.   Not something I would want to drag into the woods.  

Edited January 28, 2020 by SWWASAS

[NorthWind]

I am just about to start soldering up the Velleman Super Stereo Ears kit I got from ebay for the Squirrel Baffle Parabolic microphone I posted in another thread. I think I have found a way to run the output to a digital recorder, and also transmit the audio via radio to a standard FM radio. 

 

This means I should be able to deploy the mic pointed at a canyon(or area of interest), cue the recorder, turn on the transmitter then head back to camp, and listen on the radio maybe while having dinner or a nice cigar and a nip of Jameson. Or coffee.  I will post updates in the other thread as it progresses.

[7.62]

Never used one but it would pick up every sound it's aimed it and amplify , bugs , frogs , birds , squirrels , chipmunks walking and running about so maybe I 

can't really see a whole lot of use for one. Maybe if they are vocalizing then I can see but detecting movement noises ?

 

A squirrel can sound as loud as a 200 pound whitetail going through leaves.

[Catmandoo]

A bounding little rabbit on dry leaf litter sounds like 'bipedal walking'. I watched it. The bun-bun was small. I could have held it in cupped hands and the distance between 'landings' was several feet. I was surprised that a coyote was not bearing down on the rabbit because the noise was loud. One needs to see the source of the noise instead of things that go 'bump' in the night.

[7.62]

Just now, Catmandoo said:

A bounding little rabbit on dry leaf litter sounds like 'bipedal walking'. I watched it. The bun-bun was small. I could have held it in cupped hands and the distance between 'landings' was several feet. I was surprised that a coyote was not bearing down on the rabbit because the noise was loud. One needs to see the source of the noise instead of things that go 'bump' in the night.

You're talking to a deer hunter  

[SWWASAS]

2 minutes ago, Catmandoo said:

A bounding little rabbit on dry leaf litter sounds like 'bipedal walking'. I watched it. The bun-bun was small. I could have held it in cupped hands and the distance between 'landings' was several feet. I was surprised that a coyote was not bearing down on the rabbit because the noise was loud. One needs to see the source of the noise instead of things that go 'bump' in the night.

Your post reminded me of my first experience with my big dish.    I listened to leaves fluttering all the way across my property and  bee buzzing around on a flower.     Then it sounded like I was being buzzed by a World War II fighter.    I literally ripped off the head phones and looked around.    A humming bird had flown by in front of the dish about 20 yards away.  

[wiiawiwb]

17 hours ago, SWWASAS said:

The dish is a useful tool that can extend our own hearing ability.     One of many tools but certainly not anything magic.    I wish I had more capability with electronics.    There has to be a way to use CW radar and pick them up at a distance.    If that could be done, we could track movement  and figure out their patterns of travel.  

Is CW radar something you'd need a federal license for?

 

Where I go, there are a lot of ponds. I would use the parabolic dish to listen to anything that is across the pond and moving about.  It could help narrow down the location and maybe help get a thermal video of whatever is heard. Before going to bed for the night, I would place the dish away from the tent but pointing in the direction I would expect a sasquatch to sneak up to see more. I'll record the sound on my SONY and listen to it when I get home.

[7.62]

3 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

Is CW radar something you'd need a federal license for?

 

Where I go, there are a lot of ponds. I would use the parabolic dish to listen to anything that is across the pond and moving about.  It could help narrow down the location and maybe help get a thermal video of whatever is heard. Before going to bed for the night, I would place the dish away from the tent but pointing in the direction I would expect a sasquatch to sneak up to see more. I'll record the sound on my SONY and listen to it when I get home.

I don't see why you would it's pretty much what boaters buy for their boats . Or is this some thing different ?

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by 7.62

[SWWASAS]

CW is continous wave.     I think it mostly is used around military installations to detect human movement  (think Area 51)       You beam a radar signal at a section of forest.  Most will be adsorbed,  some reflected, and you watch a graffics trace of what gets back to you.     Stationary objects would be just stationary postitive segments of the wave form.       A moving bigfoot would appear as a return that moves across the trace.     That could be computer processed to not show stationary objects.        If transmitter is below a certain wattage then it would not need to be licensed.     Above that it would.    Without experimentation I am not sure how strong it would need to be to get a usable range.      Certainly off the shelf surveillance gear would work but the cost would be prohibitive for most.     Not sure if a boat radar would show a soft return like a biological entity.   I think CW radars operate in the lower frequency,   longer wavelength bands.    You don't want to microwave cook what you are looking for.   Longer wavelengths are not as damaging.     That is how the microwave oven was invented.     Engineers developing radar during WW II got burned sticking their hands in front of radar antennas.    Soon they learned they could heat up their lunches.  

 

A laser could be used in the same way.     That would avoid FCC license issues.    It might blind a bigfoot that stares at it. 

[7.62]

35 minutes ago, SWWASAS said:

CW is continous wave.     I think it mostly is used around military installations to detect human movement  (think Area 51)       You beam a radar signal at a section of forest.  Most will be adsorbed,  some reflected, and you watch a graffics trace of what gets back to you.     Stationary objects would be just stationary postitive segments of the wave form.       A moving bigfoot would appear as a return that moves across the trace.     That could be computer processed to not show stationary objects.        If transmitter is below a certain wattage then it would not need to be licensed.     Above that it would.    Without experimentation I am not sure how strong it would need to be to get a usable range.      Certainly off the shelf surveillance gear would work but the cost would be prohibitive for most.     Not sure if a boat radar would show a soft return like a biological entity.   I think CW radars operate in the lower frequency,   longer wavelength bands.    You don't want to microwave cook what you are looking for.   Longer wavelengths are not as damaging.     That is how the microwave oven was invented.     Engineers developing radar during WW II got burned sticking their hands in front of radar antennas.    Soon they learned they could heat up their lunches.  

 

A laser could be used in the same way.     That would avoid FCC license issues.    It might blind a bigfoot that stares at it. 

Thanks for the info SWWASAS