At a place where I rent an apartment, we had a jerk with a dog barking 24/7.
He was disturbing 4 buildings 4 floors high.
It took about two years to get rid of this nuisance.
I lost a tenant who could not stand it.
In France by law a landlord is forced to accept pets at places he rents.
He was disturbing 4 buildings 4 floors high.
It took about two years to get rid of this nuisance.
I lost a tenant who could not stand it.
In France by law a landlord is forced to accept pets at places he rents.
If you want punishment to fit the crime, that would call for a Sonic Disruptor. Now I’ve got the itch to build another one, even if other means will ultimately be used for the current problem. I still have a couple of these on hand. Put some ferrofluid in the gap, and drive just shy of the magic smoke at 3500 Hz.
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I have a nearby neighbor couple, perhaps 50 feet away from the rear of my house.
They have a pair of dogs that they "let out" in their fenced back yard, several times daily, from mornings up to evenings.
In this case, the dogs have "trained" the owners, meaning, they bark repeatedly when they want to go outside, and then bark when they want to come back in.
The barking sounds like a dying seal, loud and highly annoying.
This has been going on for as long as I know, I've lived here 16 years.
That makes the dogs at least that age or older.
I can't wait for them to die!.... the sooner the better!
A couple of years back, during a conversation with the husband, I made a polite suggestion about the dogs, saying that "why don't you install a "doggie door" on your back door?" so that they can come and go without having to bark.
The response was met with a shrug and dumb reply. (they say they don't need one)
I have tried high-pitched piezo tweeters aimed out my window at the yard when they bark, emitting bursts of dog-whistle noise, but they don't seem to react to it.
And so, If I want to take a nap, and my windows in the rear are open, I'm forced to listen to that dying dog barking, sometimes for up to a half hour, until the wife lets the dog(s) back in.
If their windows are open, I can hear them bark to be let out, too.
I conclude that these neighbors are simply ignorant people, inconsiderate of other neighbors wanting some peace and quiet.
I've got a pair of those same tweeters.
Decades ago, I mounted them directly behind the front tweeters, on the back panel of my floor-standing Advent Maestros, to throw some reflective "ambiance" off the walls behind the speakers.
Works really well too, makes the apparent soundstage wider and with a 3D effect.
I had good success at repelling or strongly irritating a nasty dog in my neighborhood in Florida with one of those Motorola plastic piezo tweeters that were popular in the 80's. I drove it with a square wave from a 555 chip with a pot on the frequency control. A complementary pair of BJT's with no bias running from a series pair of 9 volt batteries made enough squawk to cause the dog to go into an intense barking and howling session, then shortly retreat to behind the owners house where the piezo racket could not be heard. The frequency of optimum effect varied from day to day, as did the dog's reaction.
The dog would walk along the fence line any time I was in my yard growling with an "I want to hurt you" growl anytime I was outside. Most dogs, cats, deer and other animals tend to be friendly toward me, so this one was "different" or it was mistreated by the owner.
The dog would walk along the fence line any time I was in my yard growling with an "I want to hurt you" growl anytime I was outside. Most dogs, cats, deer and other animals tend to be friendly toward me, so this one was "different" or it was mistreated by the owner.
It doesn’t work for that. At point blank range it DOES. Up close enough where you can feel the wind from the barking, just point and shoot. Tried it on myself once, and it about knocked me on my ***. I wish I still had that thing, I would have taken it out with me months ago and it never would have gotten this far.
For 50 feet away, you need a two inch compression driver on a long throw horn, and driven to within an inch of magic smoke. Got some D3300’s that would do the trick. It would send a message to humans too. As would a subwoofer array that can be plugged directly into the wall. Come round here repeatedly with a boom car and I’ll show you one note bass.
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That's right out of Dr. Bose's bag of tricks.
In high school, I was so enamored of the Bose 901s that I built speakers based on them. I used clones of the the classic Pioneer 8" full range with whizzer cone. 2 speakers faced the back, one faced the front with a "helper" tweeter. Shape and dimension of boxes was similar to original 901s. They were driven by 2 stereo amplifiers (tube amps with multi tap output transformers, very handy).
The speakers had obvious warts, but they produced HUGE sound. They were in my parent's basement, reflecting off a painted concrete wall. The soundstage was 20 feet wide. They made any recording sound like it was live.
There was a child mauled to death in NYC a few weeks ago.
Here's what the US Postal Service recommends to their mail carriers:
Using Dog Repellent.
HALT! Dog Repellent Spray, 1.5-oz bottle - Chewy.com
Letter carriers carry tools and tech to prevent dog bites | KGAN
Bears: one nephew is a fire jumper in Montana, they fight fires all through the western US. Many carry "heat" and not little 22's.
Here's what the US Postal Service recommends to their mail carriers:
Using Dog Repellent.
HALT! Dog Repellent Spray, 1.5-oz bottle - Chewy.com
Letter carriers carry tools and tech to prevent dog bites | KGAN
Bears: one nephew is a fire jumper in Montana, they fight fires all through the western US. Many carry "heat" and not little 22's.
Mine used a step up transformer to give it everything a KSN1005 could take. Powered by a single 9 volt battery. Gated on and off to give a high peak to average ratio so it got a lot louder than a single steady tone would get before the piezo cried uncle.
I have a Rhodesian Ridgeback, and with training she is quite manageable. I make sure that she is always on a leash if a stranger is in my property. Animals are exactly that, animals, and owners need to take responsibility for them - put them on the other side of a fence if absolutely necessary, or on a leash with an appropriate collar if you can't.
Also, here in SA it is law that owners must have their dogs on a leash if outside of the yard. Also if you have a dog, your yard must have a suitable fence to keep them out of the public space. The public inherently has the right to walk with freedom, and not be worried about being attacked by a dog.
I knew one other Rhodesian Ridgeback in my life, and she was blatantly scary. One day she got loose and I thought I was done for, but she came up to me and made friends. We were friends for life after that; no more barking or aggressive posturing.
Dogs of any breed can have behavior problems. That's exacerbated with dogs from the shelter; there is a large unknown element with them. The Ridgeback that bit me was from the shelter. Nobody knows what happened to him before he ended up in the shelter. He might have ended up there because someone couldn't handle him.
Pit bulls get a bad rap but I love them. I've never gotten anything from a pit bull but love; even dogs that were known to be aggressive. My buddy's son adopted a pit bull from a very bad neighborhood where it was well known that people kept and bred illegal fighting dogs. She was untrained, and still swollen from giving birth. This dog has every reason to be a so-called "bad dog" but she was eager to be trained and she turned out to be a total sweetheart. She even got along with cats (not other dogs though). She always sat in my lap. They moved to Arizona and I miss her.
Dogs of any breed can have behavior problems. That's exacerbated with dogs from the shelter; there is a large unknown element with them. The Ridgeback that bit me was from the shelter. Nobody knows what happened to him before he ended up in the shelter. He might have ended up there because someone couldn't handle him.
Pit bulls get a bad rap but I love them. I've never gotten anything from a pit bull but love; even dogs that were known to be aggressive. My buddy's son adopted a pit bull from a very bad neighborhood where it was well known that people kept and bred illegal fighting dogs. She was untrained, and still swollen from giving birth. This dog has every reason to be a so-called "bad dog" but she was eager to be trained and she turned out to be a total sweetheart. She even got along with cats (not other dogs though). She always sat in my lap. They moved to Arizona and I miss her.
I agree that more power (or voltage) to the piezo would have worked better. My creation took me maybe 20 minutes to make, and it did annoy the dog to the point that it would go away, which was all that was necessary. There was a fence between us.
A year of so later the dog owner would become the real problem. He was often drunk, and like to play his stereo at the jiggowatt level while passing out in the pool.
If he was obviously out, I would simply walk around his house to the electric meter, pull the disconnect, wait a few seconds, then restore power. The stereo did not come back on.
If a silencing was needed when he was conscious I used a Nextel phone, a 30 watt 800 MHz RF power amp, and a Yagi antenna to make it sound like a helicopter was landing in his head. On one occasion he smashed one of his own speakers to bits. A Nextel phone emitted AM modulated RF in bursts at an 11 or 22 Hz rate. Wonderful things to annoy salesmen in music stores, Best Buy, and any place where large audio amps are played loud, especially solid state amps. Note, that I was a design engineer at Motorola working on Nextel phones......I knew the secret test modes to invoke maximum RF power and noise.
At some point the dog disappeared, but I can't remember exactly when or how.
At one point the low life became obnoxious enough to make verbal death threats on several of his neighbors including me. He attempted to run down one of the neighborhood skateboard kids with his Corvette, but was too drunk to drive, taking out a mailbox and a parked car in the process.
His threat to "come through the fence rip my head off and stuff it up my ***" at the top of his lungs led me and several neighbors to call the police at each subsequent encounter. My piezo device was exchanged for a Glock, while my neighbor preferred a Taurus Judge. She was a competitive target shooter too.
For reasons nobody understood, he was never prosecuted for any of his actions including beating a female "escort" bloody. I had a police officer friend run the tags on his Vette and they came back "restricted." Running his name and address brought no record.
He vanished in the middle of the night one night, and within a few weeks a more peaceful group of tenants moved in. A few months later my cop friend informed me that he was in the witness protection program, testified against some nasty people in New York, and was relocated again with yet a different identity.
A year of so later the dog owner would become the real problem. He was often drunk, and like to play his stereo at the jiggowatt level while passing out in the pool.
If he was obviously out, I would simply walk around his house to the electric meter, pull the disconnect, wait a few seconds, then restore power. The stereo did not come back on.
If a silencing was needed when he was conscious I used a Nextel phone, a 30 watt 800 MHz RF power amp, and a Yagi antenna to make it sound like a helicopter was landing in his head. On one occasion he smashed one of his own speakers to bits. A Nextel phone emitted AM modulated RF in bursts at an 11 or 22 Hz rate. Wonderful things to annoy salesmen in music stores, Best Buy, and any place where large audio amps are played loud, especially solid state amps. Note, that I was a design engineer at Motorola working on Nextel phones......I knew the secret test modes to invoke maximum RF power and noise.
At some point the dog disappeared, but I can't remember exactly when or how.
At one point the low life became obnoxious enough to make verbal death threats on several of his neighbors including me. He attempted to run down one of the neighborhood skateboard kids with his Corvette, but was too drunk to drive, taking out a mailbox and a parked car in the process.
His threat to "come through the fence rip my head off and stuff it up my ***" at the top of his lungs led me and several neighbors to call the police at each subsequent encounter. My piezo device was exchanged for a Glock, while my neighbor preferred a Taurus Judge. She was a competitive target shooter too.
For reasons nobody understood, he was never prosecuted for any of his actions including beating a female "escort" bloody. I had a police officer friend run the tags on his Vette and they came back "restricted." Running his name and address brought no record.
He vanished in the middle of the night one night, and within a few weeks a more peaceful group of tenants moved in. A few months later my cop friend informed me that he was in the witness protection program, testified against some nasty people in New York, and was relocated again with yet a different identity.
As for pit bulls, many are good friendly dogs, again it's mostly up to the owner. A did learn a valuable lesson though. A teenager two houses down brought home two puppies that had been abandoned in a warehouse area where he worked. They were obviously too young to be "discarded" and we were not too sure what breed they were, but the head and paw sizes stated BIG.
I played with these dogs as they grew, often a bit rough. A couple years later I learned that even a friendly dog running to you and jumping at you will knock you over when it weighs 120 pounds.
Whenever they would get out I would just make some noise and then run from them....right into the fence slamming the gate behind me and jumping over the other side.....I was obviously a bit younger then, since I can't do that stuff any more.
Another neighborhood low life raised pit bull puppies. He kept them and their mother all locked in a 10 X 10 foot room for most of the day. One of the pups was a beautiful all white pit, a rare dog. He kept trying to sell it to me for $1000, at which point I kept explaining how I did not want to take on the responsibility of having such a dog and keeping it in a responsible manner. He didn't get it. One day his wife went to feed the dogs, and the white one had enough, and shredded her arm. At this point all the dogs were confiscated, and the white one was put down. He still didn't get it.
Later on he beat up his wife, then threatened to kill a cop, so the entire neighborhood was locked down and surrounded with cops armed with assault rifles.
What ever happened to "never draw your weapon and point it unless you intend to shoot something or someone." The cop intending to shoot his squad car was screaming profanities at me for taking pictures.
Somehow, Mr. Lowlife escaped jail time. Remember, many people from New York, Chicago, and other places dream of retiring in Florida. I grew up in Florida and retired up north....for obvious reasons.
I played with these dogs as they grew, often a bit rough. A couple years later I learned that even a friendly dog running to you and jumping at you will knock you over when it weighs 120 pounds.
Whenever they would get out I would just make some noise and then run from them....right into the fence slamming the gate behind me and jumping over the other side.....I was obviously a bit younger then, since I can't do that stuff any more.
Another neighborhood low life raised pit bull puppies. He kept them and their mother all locked in a 10 X 10 foot room for most of the day. One of the pups was a beautiful all white pit, a rare dog. He kept trying to sell it to me for $1000, at which point I kept explaining how I did not want to take on the responsibility of having such a dog and keeping it in a responsible manner. He didn't get it. One day his wife went to feed the dogs, and the white one had enough, and shredded her arm. At this point all the dogs were confiscated, and the white one was put down. He still didn't get it.
Later on he beat up his wife, then threatened to kill a cop, so the entire neighborhood was locked down and surrounded with cops armed with assault rifles.
What ever happened to "never draw your weapon and point it unless you intend to shoot something or someone." The cop intending to shoot his squad car was screaming profanities at me for taking pictures.
Somehow, Mr. Lowlife escaped jail time. Remember, many people from New York, Chicago, and other places dream of retiring in Florida. I grew up in Florida and retired up north....for obvious reasons.
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I would have liked to see Florida before it became the retirement destination of the whole country.
I've been to Florida a few times. Miami is beautiful if you have $$$. It's full of crime and riff raff though. Panhandle is nice but it's redneck southern Alabama.
Even being from Chicago, Miami was odd to me. There is extreme juxtaposition of big wealth and crime ridden poverty. My hotel in a western suburb was very upscale and posh. It also had a security guard that drove a perimeter around the property 24/7. I drove east from the hotel one day, hoping to see some wildlife by the ocean (fat chance), and within 2-3 miles the landscape went from upscale residential and shopping to 24/7 open air drug markets and streetwalkers. I ran a couple red lights because I was scared to stop, and I grew up on the South Side of Chicago. I'm talking broad daylight 10AM and they're selling dope at the stoplight. It's only in the last few years that my own community has gotten this bad (actually the border with Chicago, not right by my house), and I still can't stomach it.
I've been to Florida a few times. Miami is beautiful if you have $$$. It's full of crime and riff raff though. Panhandle is nice but it's redneck southern Alabama.
Even being from Chicago, Miami was odd to me. There is extreme juxtaposition of big wealth and crime ridden poverty. My hotel in a western suburb was very upscale and posh. It also had a security guard that drove a perimeter around the property 24/7. I drove east from the hotel one day, hoping to see some wildlife by the ocean (fat chance), and within 2-3 miles the landscape went from upscale residential and shopping to 24/7 open air drug markets and streetwalkers. I ran a couple red lights because I was scared to stop, and I grew up on the South Side of Chicago. I'm talking broad daylight 10AM and they're selling dope at the stoplight. It's only in the last few years that my own community has gotten this bad (actually the border with Chicago, not right by my house), and I still can't stomach it.
I’m not sure I’d consider Florida anymore. Tampa was enough to sour me on it. The panhandle is nice, but for how much longer? A good friend was thinking about retiring to the Ocala/Gainesville area, out in the sticks - but at the rate things are growing I wouldn’t trust it to last 10 years before it’s stoplight after stoplight, jam packed with houses on 5000 square foot lots, and 5 or 10 percent property tax a year.
I hear ya on that!
Although my Advent Maestros are satisfyingly great speakers for me, I wanted some "reverberation" highs bouncing off the rear walls for some "depth".
Thus, the rear-mounted horn style tweeters.
They're not piezos, I hate those things, these are dynamic types, once sold by Radio Shack, and I think made by Foster.
A simple second order crossover works nicely.
I also added a 3 postion switch near on the rear terminal board.
1- normal Advent sound.
2- slightly muted midrange
3- normal Advent /w rear tweeter
99.9% of the time I use #3 anyway. 😀
With a proper 2nd order crossover, the original piezo super horn wasn’t all that bad. It took a few more parts to properly implement than just one L and one C. But those Fosters are some 7 to 10 dB louder at a given drive voltage. And they are limited to 10 watts of average power. Still enough to rip you a new eardrum.
IMO, pitbulls, you can have them....
Friends of mine, a nice modern couple with kids, owned a pitbull from puppy.
Always trained it and gave it the best to keep it happy.
But one afternoon, the mom went out to get the baby's bottle out of the kitchen, and the beast tore the baby from it's crib in the living room.
No warning.
Baby survived the mauling.
Pitbull was put down.
Friends of mine, a nice modern couple with kids, owned a pitbull from puppy.
Always trained it and gave it the best to keep it happy.
But one afternoon, the mom went out to get the baby's bottle out of the kitchen, and the beast tore the baby from it's crib in the living room.
No warning.
Baby survived the mauling.
Pitbull was put down.
Advents were somewhat revolutionary when I started to get into audio.
I remember the Advents I heard sounded pleasant but kind of muffled. Balanced sound but lacking dynamics. They wouldn't play loud either. They were in stark contrast to the speakers I was building, which were big (zero WAF factor) with really big sound.
These speakers are better than that I'm thinking. Are they better than the popular early Advents?
Bach then it was go loud or go home in my book. Still is. 😀