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RE: Re: Seeking Low-cost Commercially Available Parabolic system

Subject: RE: Re: Seeking Low-cost Commercially Available Parabolic system
From: "Jerry Berrier" <>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 15:42:08 -0500
Wow, this is sounding good.
My biggest problem with construction is that I am totally blind and
therefore unable to look at a picture and then try to use that as a design.
I've never had my hands on a parabolic system, so I don't know exactly how
the various parts fit together.
I did put together a very crude one a few months ago using a plastic
umbrella and a cheap mic, and even that actually worked surprisingly well.

If I were able to get a set of explicit verbal instructions, I could follow
them and perhaps construct a system that would be usable.
I'm mechanically inclined and can usually do a project once I can fully
understand it.
I understand that the mic faces into the parabola instead of away from it.
I think the mic can be attached directly to what might be called the shaft
of the umbrella, and it can be adjusted by sliding it up or down the shaft.
I don't fully understand the concept of the focal point; seems to me that
would be in the exact center of the parabola, but evidently that is not the
case.




-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Griswold 
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 12:07 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Re: Seeking Low-cost Commercially Availabl=
e
Parabolic system




what if you got a telinga replacement dish      $100 ?
and made a pvc handle (see below)               less than $100
and got a shure 183                                             $100
and had someone change the plug                 less than $100
then you could add another 183 for stereo       $100
and still be under budget.

not exactly off the shelf, but not a whole lot of diy involved either.
The handle involves screwing together off the shelf threaded pvc
fittings.

the guy at my local hardware store really got into helping me.
Hopefully you will have similar luck. (I have the original handle, but
I wanted another one that would slip down over the top of a mic stand).

an electronics repair place could change the mic plug. I used a
switchcraft right angle plug ($7), but there are cheaper, easier to
find plugs.

I did it myself over a cup of tea, so it shouldn't take them long.
Someone (Rob Danielson?) posted instructions that you could give them.

good luck,

Mark



"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
Yahoo! Groups Links











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