Bats and detectors

[K9 Kai Niggemann]

Bat sounds.

I built a bat detector, actually a bat-scanner, one that scans from 10-80 Khz.

It's my first electronics project in a long time and I ordered a kit, complete with parts and case for 60 EUR, which was much easier for me at this point.

now I have the satisfaction of having built my own and listening to the erie sounds of the hunting bats (the last days of the season, I guess)

This is the kit I got:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bat-detector/Scanner/

ordered from his German friend Frank.

Since it's a (scanning) heterodyne detector (that means it is a sort of ringmodulator that makes the sounds audible by re-synthesizing them), the sounds itself sound a bit like a Synthi AKS. Not too bad, but nothing out of this world. But the moment of being able to hear what the bats are emitting is just beautiful. I was standing in awe in front of the church, passers-by probably thought I was having some sort of epiphany...;)

Kai