Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 18:31:27 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Norm Saunders Subject: Re: Backyard monitor systems MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sherry Peruzzi writes: > Our daughter gave us one of those "Mother Nature's Monitor" gadgets for > Christmas in 2001. We almost never use it -- here in Columbia there are too > many other devices around, causing a constant high-pitched hiss that's as loud > (or even louder) than the birds. This "background" noise is so unpleasant that > we can't stand to listen for more than a few minutes at a time. In addition, > the unit's hearing ability is very limited -- if a bird is loud enough to be > picked up by the monitor, we can hear the song through closed window without > it. Sherry, My experience with the baby monitor is that it is excellent at picking out many species that we can't hear with the windows closed. Further, background noise is hardly ever a problem unless there are high or gusty winds blowing. I finished building a wind protector for the transmitter and I'll report how well that works the next time I get down to the shore. Interestingly enough, the baby monitor doesn't transmit (at least in my range of hearing) any of the songs/calls of Brown-headed Nuthatch. If I'm outdoors, they stand out sharp and clear. Inside they fade to almost nonexistence. I'm sure an engineer with sophisticated instruments could measure frequency response, etc, and tell me why this is, but for the most part I'm absolutely pleased as punch with the performance of the baby monitor. And for $45, what a deal! Best, Norm Saunders Colesville & West Ocean City, MD marshhawk@att.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================