Anecdote. Not serious, so delete now, if you are!
Walter, writing in praise of MKH mics, said:
"I still have no plans to abuse mine unnecessarily."
Nor had I! But ...
There are times when time stands still - or seems to: Time seemed frozen,
and so was I, as the mic lead unwound from around the wind shield leaving
my MKH-815 dangling a foot or two BELOW the surface of the Blyth River in
Arnhemland in the Northern Territory of Australia. (Salt concentration
somewhat higher than that of the sea.)
I had stumbled when trying to land from a dinghy. Notwithstanding the
healthy population of Salties (Crocodylus porosus) in the Blyth, I wished
I'd gone in, and the mic stayed dry. But I had some luck which I'll
explain. But first to set the scene:
The Blyth R. was Harry Messel's "calibration river". Knew every croc in it
by its' first name. He could then do standard surveys of it and use the
results to develop a correction factor to apply to surveys of unknown rivers
so as to derive an estimate of the actual population, from the crocs found
by spotlight in the survey.
I was working (by invitation) as one of the navigators on his survey
dinghies. We were recapturing yearling crocodiles that had been caught and
marked as hatchlings the year before. Harry wanted the Queensland National
Parks and Wildlife Service to hire him and his team to survey Queensland
rivers for crocs and, as a NP officer, I was invited to observe. But there
were no free-loaders on Harry's boat. If you were aboard on one of his
surveys you had to work as a member of his team.
Perhaps I should explain that Harry was Physics Professor at Sydney
University. Canadian by birth, and a brilliant scientist. He had been
tracking polar bears by attaching radios to them and I gained the impression
that this was actually cover for his real activity of surveillance of
potential enemies of Canada and/or the USA. Anyway he became hooked on
radio-tracking wildlife and he explained that when he was appointed to the
Physics Chair at Sydney, he looked around for a species that needed work and
would present a challenge to his radio-tracking expertise.
He arrived in Australia at a stage where crocodiles having been almost shot
out for the skin trade were protected by law for the first time. Harry
reckoned that if he could build a radio that could be successfully attached
to crocodiles and perform for a reasonable time, that was about as severe a
test as you could find. He succeeded ... and a croc very nearly dined on
one of his team during the survey. An interesting story which I'll put in a
second email. (You have been warned!)
Also aboard Harry's ship (The "MV Harry Messel" - what else!) was a botanist
working on mangroves - tolerated rather than encouraged by Harry, I suspect,
for Harry regarded any aspect of biology as not being real science, as was
Physics. But "Wellsy" (the botanist Graeme Wells) was allowed the use of a
dinghy for his mangrove surveys when neither he nor the dinghy were required
for the croc work.
So my mic takes an unwelcome dip in the river. I reckoned that Harry, being
a top physicist, and moreover, having worked on radios for the croc study,
would be able to advise me on what to do. Back on the boat, I ask him. Not
in the least interested. No sympathy; no advice. Fortunately, Wellsy was
present and took immediate action.
It is not possible to make specimens of mangroves simply by shoving them in
a plant press to dry them. First they were killed by putting them in a
plastic bag with absolute alcohol. So Wellsy grabbed my mic, rinsed it
thoroughly in several lots of distilled water, then shoved it into absolute
alcohol. After that we put it in the engine room to dry out.
If I'd had enough patience that might have fixed it. But I didn't, and
after a day or so, couldn't resist trying it. It worked for about five
seconds, then died. But at least when back home, I could get it to a
Sennheiser dealer, it was repaired and back to about 90%. That was c. 1980,
and I used it successfully for another 20 years years thereafter, but it
seems now to have lost much of its sensitivity. Unless it's just that my
sensitivity has been greatly increased by using a Telinga mic!
One could certainly say that I subjected that MKH to unnecessary abuse. And
it says much for Sennheiser's quality, that it was able to be repaired.
Syd Curtis in Brisbane, Australia.
> From: Walter Knapp <>
> Reply-To:
> Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 16:53:22 -0400
> To:
> Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Re: MKH
>
> Wild Sanctuary wrote:
>>
>> The MKH series of mics are the most reliable systems we've found in
>> the field...and that's after 35 years of recording under the most
>> extreme circumstances...cold, hot, wet, dry...in various combinations.
>
> This is the real thing about MKH, it's got the track record. Spending
> the chunk of change for one is a bit easier knowing about that track
> record. There may be something else that will do it as good, but it's a
> unknown.
>
> I still have no plans to abuse mine unnecessarily.
>
>> A philosophical addendum: the more experience one has in the field
>> using any currently avaliable technologies to record, the less
>> "expert" one becomes. The conundrum is that we know so little. As
>> soon as one claims to be an expert in the realm of field recording,
>> run as fast as you can.
>
> This is true of almost any technology now. But recording is so complex
> that it's especially true. I figure I need a few lifetimes to even get
> started on expert. And I don't believe I'm allowed those :-(
>
> It just snowballs, each thing you learn just shows you a whole bunch
> more you don't know. It's probably the easiest when you get that first
> recorder and mic and do your very first recording.
>
> On the other hand, part of staying alive is having new challenges to
> meet. Otherwise you just vegetate.
>
> Walt
>
>
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