Martyn
I have not had the opportunity to use the Pettersson D1000X Bat
detector but I do have two Pettersson D240X Bat detectors that I use
nightly. They work very well and are well made.
The Pettersson D1000X Bat detector looks like a wonder piece of
equipment. It seems to have two advantages over all other detectors;
it has a digital recorder built into the detector and has the
ability to record lat/long into the files if you have a GPS
connected to it. The downside to the Pettersson D1000X Bat detector
is the price, over $5000. You can get the same recordings for less
than a third of that price.
You did not say what you plan to do with your bat recordings. How
you plan to use them will probably determine what type of detector
will best meet your needs. Assuming that you plan to use them as
audio files that people can listen to, your detector / recording
gear will need to convert the bat ultra sound down to the range of
human hearing. There are a number of ways to do this. At
http://www.binaryacoustictech.com/batpages_files/bat_detector.htm
there is a good explanation and samples of what each conversion
method sounds like. I would guess that you probably would do best
with a time expansion / stretching or a frequency compression
system.
The Pettersson D240x is both a time expansion and heterodyne
detector. You can out put either conversion to the recording device
of your choice. The heterodyne output is real time and continuous.
The time expansion mode records for 1.7 or 3 seconds. It then
expands the recording by a factor of ten, so that the output is 17
or 30 seconds long. The one limitation of this is that while it is
outputting for the 17 / 30 seconds it is not recording. The 240x
sells for $1449 at
http://www.batmanagement.com/Ordering/acoustic/acousticmain.html
If you want to be able to record for longer periods of time you
should take a look at the AR125 at
http://www.binaryacoustictech.com/batpages.htm This is a frequency
compression system. You have to record directly to a computer. The
length of your recording is limited only by the size of your hard
drive. I have used the AR125 for about a week and so far I am
impressed with the results. The AR125 cost $995 and the SPECT'r
software you need to run it cost $195.
Ralph Arwood
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