I so seldom use any audio equipment for Astronomy or Security work that I never considered using an microphone. That is until concerns about home property have been discussed in my family. After certain incidents involving less than gracious college age neighbors I have begun looking at the more serious evidence aspects for "helping law enforcement" do their jobs, enforcing the law and making sure the bad guys get caught and justice gets served.
Rather high ideals, but they are something to strive for when dealing with home property and making sure your private property, home, valuables, and heirlooms stays the way you should expect them to be. It also serves as being able to depend on equipment, because some neighbors that you may come in contact would rather turn a blind eye to anything wrong in their neighborhood.
With that in mind I decided I wanted to add some sound to my little hobby of home protection/video surveillance. I figured, it's my front yard, my property, and I'm catching part of the public street and public sidewalk. Since I'm not seeing into anyones windows, I should be good. Don't assume, make sure you're complying with local laws or you'll end up getting yourself in trouble.
However, for "testing" equipment for the larger scheme of things I wanted to see how well the PA3 microphone worked. The specifications are rather spartan, a small microphone and circuit board approximately 1cm X 1cm x 3cm in size. There is a female power plug and male ended rca jack and the over all cord length is 6 feet long. That's all that's needed to give a person sound recording capabilities as long as you have something to record sound to.
The S.C. catalog says that the power acceptable is 12 Volts DC and the current draw is 20ma. The sound increase is supposedly 8db amplification from what is really heard, so it should be louder than what a person hears, but not enough to bias the recording. The signal to noise ratio is rated at > 58db. Since I'm not a sound expert I'll just cover my "user experiences" in how it worked and what I do and don't like about it.
Installation was easy. I setup the microphone between my window and storm window looking out of my breakfast nook facing our street where all the excitement of urban dwelling is. I plugged the power end into a split cabled 12 volt dc 500 ma pulse power supply that only supplies amperage needed based upon consumption. Talk about efficient little coil-less ac to dc power converter! I picked mine up at Jameco Electronics. The ac to dc power "converter" works in my opinion more reliably than the typical wall warts that ship with most security cameras. They have a tendency to go bad and ruin equipment after several years of continuous use.
The rca male end of the mic was plugged into a miniature 2.4 Ghz short range wireless transmitter that also sends video feed to the "command center" located in my living room. That's where I have the receiver and a single channel Sanyo 300 DVR setup that feeds from the dvr into my 29" flatscreen television.
After making the appropriate changes to the dvr's setup to start recording and passing through sound I sat down to wait and to also observe. Being that it's 10 PM at night, the first sounds picked up were the tires echoing off of the interstate located 1/4 mile away from my house.
During the daytime the interstate sound, noticeable, but not too noisy is never enough to cause any problems inside of my house as far as sound intrusion goes. At night when the city quiets down some, the sound is more noticeable, but a person has to be on the side of the house with their ear close to the wall to pick up any noise from the interstate sometimes. If a person has a fan, tv, or some other device running they would never be able to hear anything.
So, what did I hear with the microphone "on." I could clearly make out the interstate noises of passing semi trucks and vehicles passing down my street without any problems at all. I'm not sure about the 8db gain for the mic's amp, but there is enough of a gain that some noises that aren't readily discernable in the background are definitely intelligible.
When a car cruises in front of my house, you can hear the car clearly. Dogs barking in the neighborhood, clear as a bell, as if I was outside and hearing it myself. Does the PA3 microphone work. You betcha it does - no problems at all. Would I recommend it - sure thing - if you need clear sound with a little amplification, then this is the way to go. If you need a microphone that doesn't come amped, then I would suggest finding another microphone to use.
Can this microphone pickup whispered conversations from a block away? No, but it could hear conversations like you were in the same room as the people talking, but just a little louder. Could you pickup some sounds that you might miss, like certain night sounds, I know I have.
Can you use this to spy on your neighbors, yeah, but I do not condone or recommend doing so - so do it at your own risk. If you're planning on catching the "whole scene", video and sound on your property - I recommend calling your local city attorney or police department and ask to talk to someone about what is legal in your town for home video surveillance and audio recording in order to keep from getting on the wrong side of the law.
For $7.95 and about the same for shipping and handling from SC, you're getting a good microphone. It's not weather proof, but a little plastic wrap or shrink wrap will do the trick if you're planning on putting it in direct weather elements. If you're using it in a protected area, a little plastic wrap or cling film as some folks call it should do the trick in keeping moisture out of the little circuitry and microphone.
It's a good micrphone and a fair priced item - definitely a 2 thumbs up item if you're looking at adding sound to any kind of security/astronomy video viewing/recording. I suppose for those folks seeking the outdoors astronomical sensory stimulus with video and with audio, you could be hearing and seeing your favorite astronomical events from inside your own home without having to brave the weather. The next best thing to being there - only without the mosquitoes and pesky bug critters that sometimes drive a person indoors and calling it an early summer night of astronomical enjoyment.
Likes:
Small Size
Easy To Install
Microphone and Circuit Board are shrink tubed
Dislikes:
Very spartan documentation
Not weatherized (i.e. not water proof)
No comments:
Post a Comment