Hi Greg,
I'll be very pleased to share the reflector model I built. But please have
in mind that I live in a small town far from everywhere else in Brazil, so =
I
had to be very creative and try to do my best with what I could get, not to
mention the budget restrictions.
It was very funny how I got to this setup, so I guess you folks might enjoy
knowing it.
First of all, I walked all across town trying to find some used small TV
antenna parabolic reflector, but did not succeed. Frustration. So, a couple
of days later I had to drive some miles to a nearby town in order to get my
car repaired, and had to hang around for a couple of hours. Time to go look
for a parabolic reflector again! Antenna shops, nothing. TV repair shops,
nothing.
After all, by chance, I ended up meeting a friend of mine who works in a
swimming pool supplies shop, to whom I told my story and the device I was
looking for. Well, he came to me with this 18-inch aluminum showerhead that
they sell for people to place outside their houses. PERFECT! The showerhead
was the reflector, and the pipe was the handle. It took me about a full day=
'
s work to take the whole thing apart, set it up, paint it and adjust the
focus (thanks to some of this list's folks).
Basically, I used the showerhead itself as the reflector, the pipe as a
handle and two old spotlight supports to hold the mike (a Sennheiser ME 62)
in place. The "handle" was then wrapped with an old bicycle tire inner tube
to give it a better grip. The mic's wire goes through the pipe and comes ou=
t
at its far end, which I then stuffed with foam in order to avoid the sounds
of the cable hitting the inner part of the tube. The whole set can be easil=
y
taken apart for transportation needs, especially the mike, which can then b=
e
used handheld (with a spare cable, as the one in the reflector is kind of
hard to remove). The mike is kept in place by a small clamp, which
originally was holding my bicycle's speedometer in place (but I'm
considering getting a test tube clamp, which might be more efficient).
I haven't yet had the chance to test it in the field, but some recordings I
made on my backyard have proved it to be quite good for what I was
expecting. The whole thing does not weigh too much, maybe 2 kg (4.4 lb). I
wonder if it will capture the deepest bass sounds, like some Doves and the
Blue-crowned Motmot, though. I'll let you guys know!
The whole set's cost was about US$ 20.00 (not including the mike and cable,
obviously!).
I am sending some pictures of it to your private e-mail, and if anybody els=
e
wants to receive them, please e-mail me in my private address <
>. I would appreciate it very much to hear som=
e
opinions on whether this will work well or not. If it doesn't, I can always
take it apart and put together a shower in my backyard to cool off, since
the temperature here now is 39=BAC/122 =BAF :)
Cheers to you all,
Daniel De Granville
Bonito, MS, Brazil
Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 10:26:04 -0000
> From: "Greg Winterflood" <>
> Subject: Re: parabolic set up
>
> Hi Daniel and all
>
> Just wondering Daniel if you could share the design for your cheap
> parabolic reflector?
>
> I'd like to get a parabolic from Klas; but last Saturday I bought a
> new house and so must be watching the pennies!
>
> I chose the particular house because it has plenty of White Plumed
> Honeyeaters - my favourite - in the back yard. That was enough for
> me, so I didn't bother to check the state of the roofing or
> supporting beams.
>
> Cheers
>
> Greg
> (So flat-out with house buying etc, that I haven't turned the
> Marantz on in a week.)
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