Electronic Calls

d2admin

Administrator
Hello, everybody!

I stumbled onto this forum the other day, and now can't get enough of it. Have killed an occasional coyote over the years while hunting other game (deer and turkey, primarily), but have just recently decided to seriously "get into" predator hunting.

I would like to purchase an electronic caller, and have read many of your posts from recent days. So I guess I am asking for some assistance/direction; I don't want to spend a lot (wife figures I already spend too much on hunting stuff!), and am considering buying some used gear to start out with. However, the "do it yourself" option is intriguing.

So, now to my specific question, directed to SD Handgunner, Muss, Critr Gitr, or any other of you folks who have put together your own setups--can you give me an actual "grocery list" so to speak, of all the parts I would need from Radio Shack, to put a system together? I am an electronics neophyte, so please assume I know nothing about the components, and have none of the parts to start with (no tape/cd/MP3 player, speaker, cables, wire, etc.). I don't necessarily want to start out with the expense of a remote system, but would like it to be a setup that could be upgradable to a remote later.

I would greatly appreciate any and all input from you folks. Thanks for your help, and for all the fun reading I've been enjoying!
 
Crusader, the first item needed is a sound source, be it a Walkman Cassette Player, portable CD Player, or MP3 (your choice). I noticed a Walkman Cassette Player at Walmart the other day for $5.99. (I use an old General Electric portable cassette recorder/player that I have had for several years.)

From Radio shack I purchased the following"

#277-1008 Mini Speaker / Amp $11.99
#40-1440 25 Watt PA Speaker $19.99


In addition you'll need some 1/8" phone plugs and speaker wire to hook everything up. I purchased pre-made wires with molded on ends in hopes of them being more weather proof. I purchased one with a male 1/8" male phone plug on one end, and just bare wires on the other end. (This one is about 5 feet long, and goes onto the PA Speaker.) I also purchased one that is about 20 feet long (again a pre-made wire assemble) with a Male 1/8" Phone Plug on one end, and a Female 1/8" Phone Plug on the other end. I also purchased a pre-made wire assembly with Male 1/8" Phone Plugs on both ends to go between the Mini Speaker / Amp.

(You can do the same thing by buying some solder on 1/8" phone plugs, and bulk wire and making all of the wires yourself too.)

If you are going to use Cassettes, I strongly recomend those by Johnny Stewart. I have not used everything out there, but of the Johnny Stewart, Burnham Brothers, Dennis Kirk & Sceery that I have used, IMHO the Johnny Stewart has the best sound quality of these.

Good luck

Larry

PS, the one thing I forgot to mention is a CAMO backpack or shoulder bag to carry all of this in. I don't have a CAMO one, but instead mine is WHITE.
 
Hey there Crusader
Welcome! Glad to have you, you will learn lots here. If you are looking to go the "do-it-yourself" route, then you have a couple of different options. I just put together an outfit which cost me about $37.00 total...(without tapes).

Radio Shack Audio Amplifier/Speaker
(same part number as mentioned in earlier posts) - $11.99
Radio Shack 6" Power Horn
(a rectangular horn, white in color, 25W capacity)- $19.99
Radio Shack mono-adapter plug
(connects speaker to amp)-$3.99
The guys at Radio Shack will know exactly what you are talking about if you tell them the description of what you are doing. Also, you will need some type of tape or CD player, and an output wire to connect the tape/CD to the amplifier.

Option #2 (I just ran across this)
For this setup, all you will need is your audio source (tape/CD player). You purchase the product (highlight the address, copy, then paste into your internet address bar).
http://www.homeaudiosuperstore.com/detail.asp?product_id=ADVENT_AW810

This looks AWESOME! For $89.99 you can have a wireless calling system, and the sound will probably be some of the highest quality around. I do like the volume of my new little contraption.....but it still sounds like it is coming from a cave. Don't get me wrong, it will surely call in coyotes just fine. So, it is kind of up to you as to what you want to do. I think I am going to order this speaker and try it out.....the only thing I don't know about is volume. But everything else looks great; outdoor, wireless, etc. Just drape a camo net over it, and hit play on your tape or CD player!

Good luck-
Muss
 
Muss, You better re-read the information on your $90.00 wireless speaker. The speaker will operate on battries, but the transmitter works on 120 juice from your house.
 
Thanks for the input, guys.

A couple more questions--does the mini speaker/amp require a power source (batteries), or is the whole setup powered only by the batteries in my Walkman?

Also, if I want to try calling coyotes and want to keep my initial tape purchases to a minimum, what sounds/tape would you recommend to start out with? Also, are the tapes recorded with appropriately-timed pauses in them, or do you have to start/stop the player at the intervals you decide upon?

Thanks,
Jim
 
The Radio Shack Mini Amp/Speaker (#277-1008) runs off of a 9 Volt Battery (seperate from the Walkman). I have no idea as to how long the battery will last, but so far I have not had to turn the volume on the Mini Amp/Speaker very high, so hopefully the battery will last a long time.


The Tapes are a continous recording, with only minor pauses for a second or so at most.

As to which tapes to purchase, that's a good question. Probably the best thing to do is go to the Johnny Stewart web-site, and you can listen to the sounds off of the web-site, and that should help you decide.

The tapes I have are:

J.S. Coyote Locator (Group Howling)
J.S. Lone Coyote Challenge
J.S. Coyote Pup Distress
J.S. Deer Fawn Bleating
J.S. Grown Jackrabbit
J.S. Cottontail Rabbit Distress
J.S. Kitten Distress
Sceery Lone Coyote Howls

I am going to add a couple more, just haven't decided which ones yet.

Larry
 
Well, squat. I meant to fire some tips to Muss about the system he's planning, but ended up starting a new topic instead. See "Tips for you, Muss." Sorry 'bout that.

Admin: If you want to kill the new topic and append it here, please do. I wasn't sure whether a topic starter could actually delete the whole thing or not.
 
Hey guys...

I have built a couple different configurations of callers and I'm still not happy. One is a car cassette stereo with CD inputs(30w per channel/60w total)all in a small plastic toolbox and another from a portable CD player and 1 watt mini amplifier (9volt). The tackle box unit is 12v and has a plugin for a spotlight. It is stereo and very loud! Only problem is size and weight, about 14"x8"x9" and 4.5lbs (two Panasonic 6volt gel batteries in series for power).

The small unit is similar to the RadioShack amplified speaker type others are building here. I found a toy microphone/speaker/amp at a yard sale for $1.00 and disassembled it, then mounted it in a very small parts box from RadioShack. It's loud but has too much hiss at full volume for my liking.

My next project is a similar unit from a portable dual cassette deck(Magnavox). The amp is 11 watts stereo, has preamp input for a CD or cassette player and a microphone input to boost my hand calls. This will run on 6 "D"cells and should be much smaller and lighter than my high power toolbox unit. The distortion is quite low so I'm hoping this is the one! It even has treble and bass controls! I'll try to get pictures up soon.

As for loudspeakers...I'm using 5" and 8" horns I got from a place called CSI/SPECO. They shipped next day and the price is very good. A 5"/15watt(SPC6P) is about $9 and the 8"/25watt is $25, not including shipping. I bought eight of them and sold the extras to my buddies(they work great on JS and other callers). Their web address is: http://www.starkelectronic.com/ Good Luck Hunting! Nikonut
 
I've been searching for information on building my own e-caller for the last several nights and am sure glad to have found this site and post! I too have little knowledge of electronic gadgets and would love to know how to go about making this system remote controlled.Please be specific on what I need and how it all hooks up,thanks in advance!
 
Hey Crowshooter,

Sorry for not replying sooner, been out of town. The quality of the "Speco" speakers is excellent. The larger ones are all metal, professional type and the smaller ones are plastic like "JS"and "Lohman" speakers. The 8" metal speakers are extremely loud and disortion free...and I'm running 30watts of stereo through them! Nikonut
 
I went shopping yesterday with the front page from "cheap e-caller" by Critr Gitr. I used 24 gauge wire and had my caller up and running in 15 min.. (Thanks Gitr!) Total cost with Sony walkman ($20), 50ft. of wire, three changes of batteries, and two JS tapes was $100. I do get static over 3/4 volume but 3/4 is higher than I would want to go anyway. It's plenty loud. So if I saved either $70 or more it's that much more I can put towards a new rifle.
P.S. If it wasn't for the part #'s I'd still be there looking for the amp. Well, I'm getting a little emotional so I'll go now.
I love you guys!
 
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