Also Nathan, I use a small hair blow-dryer to dry things out--used on
low heat, not too close to the components--when I'm recording around
Hawai`i, where wet conditions are a normal hazard, a blow-dryer has
become essential in my traveling gear bag.
David
--- In Nathan Pieplow
<> wrote:
>
>
> Hello all,
>
> I record with a Fostex FR2-LE and a Telinga Pro 6 Stereo DAT
> microphone (with parabola). Yesterday morning, I took my gear on a
> very cold and rainy hike up Saddleback Mountain in Maine to try to
> record Bicknell's Thrush. The thrushes were not singing in the
rain,
> but I did manage to record some of their calls from the porch of
the
> ski lodge, which was sheltered from the rain. For the hike up and
> back, I disassembled my parabola and carried all the electronic
> components of my rig inside a plastic garbage bag inside my
> backpack. It worked fine to record the thrush calls.
>
> This morning, however, it's not working fine. It works, but the
> levels are WAY low...at normal mic trim levels (the 3:00 position
per
> earlier posts to this group), max gain, and half monitor, I can' t
> max the levels out even by yelling directly into the microphone. I
> can hear the ambient sound perfectly well on both channels if I
turn
> the monitor and/or the mic trim levels to max, but obviously the
mic
> is not picking up like it should. Is this because something in the
> unit is damp? I can't tell where the problem may be--it affects
both
> microphone channels equally. The recorder and monitor/headphones
> seem to be working fine--together they play back yesterday's
> recordings at full level--so I think it's either the mic or the
cord.
>
> I know my gear didn't get truly wet yesterday, but it was
definitely
> exposed to a lot of humidity both inside and outside the plastic
bag,
> and some drops of water may have gotten on it here or there. I've
> been trying to dry it for a couple of hours today (assuming
humidity
> was the problem), but it hasn't seemed to help yet. Any advice
would
> be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks--
>
> Nathan Pieplow
> Boulder, Colorado
>
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