Bats and detectors

[Tony Hardie-Bick]

On 05/10/10 01:21, K9 Kai Niggemann wrote:
> At first I was struggling. There were single bats, passing by, leaving a few
> squeaks on my recorder. But then I thought of the downtown square in front of
> the cathedral. It was perfect. About 3-5 small bats (pipistrellae?) were
> hunting for insects close to the moon-like lamps and near the buildings.
>
> The scanner works amazingly well, has quite a bit of noise, but a really good
> output level on the headphone out.
>
> Here is my first recording:
>
> http://soundcloud.com/kainiggemann/batcalls-muenster-domplatz-05-10-10

Ah - great!!! Shining a light into the dark of what humans cannot see with their 
ears :) I guess the chirp sounds are classic broadband echolocation, utilizing 
the dismbiguation through a plurality of wavelengths. Beautiful stuff, whether 
your code is genetic or otherwise :)

Yeah - I know it's heterodyne, so, the harmonic series is displaced (ie, what 
for bats would be octaves are rendered as something completely different), but 
nevertheless, it's a window onto a world, we can hear they are living things, 
sensing out their world just as we do with our eyes and sense of touch.

Wonderful...

I think building your own bat-listening gear counts as a cosmic sign of respect 
to nature :)

Tony (HB)