Wildlife Electronic Caller, advise needed

[jringels]

I want to build an electronic caller to attract wildlife. Basic design is a portable system, 4 speakers spread 100 ft apart, plays pre-recoreded sounds from a portable CD player. Audiophile quality OK but probably not required. 12V battery operation pretty much required. I have one battery that is 18AH, or the standard 7AH. The more watts airborne the more better! Some comercial callers are available but I don't know what wattage is being used. I think around 100W should do it. I have played with the SI5066/TA2024 amp (30W) and some waterproof marine speakers {Pyramid MDC6}
Pyramid MDC6
http://www.pyramidcaraudio.com/itempage.asp?model=MDC6
5.25'' Full Range Dual Cone Speakers
Polypropelyne Cone w/Cloth
20 oz. Circuit Magnet
Frequency Response: 100-18kHz
4 Ohm Impedance
100 Watts Peak Power

but that does not seem to have enough Power and lacks the bass I want. I did parallel the 4 speakers, 2 into each output of the TA2024 (bad move with 2ohm effective?). I am looking at the Fenice100, but maybe I need a 4 channel amp for 4 speakers? I want to build an inexpensive (less that 200USD) system that can play for upto 10 hours! Should I try 2 TA2024's, each feeding a pair of speakers?

Some people use horns (loudspeakers) but I thought the quality would be pretty lousy.
Did I pick crummy speakers?

Any suggestions for amp and speaker/horn?

I can solder, but not SMDs. I'd rather buy a premade amp.

THANKS for the help.

 

[Josephjcole]

It will not be difficult to build a amp that can last 10 hours on a battery. I think the speakers you chose might not have been the best. A two channel amp should be alright as long as your speakers are 8ohm as most t-amps are fine with a 4ohm load. How loud do you need to go? How deep of bass is required? The speakers you had before did not go below 100Hz. My guess is that unless you are trying to attract elephants 60Hz will be low enough. If you need you go pretty loud and want to run off of batteries your best bet is not to look for a more powerful amp, which will just drain your battery quicker, but to look for a more effecient speaker. Horn speakers are very effecient, and can be made to be very high quality. However to get anything close to bass notes the horn has to be very large. P.A. speakers might be your best bet, as they are ussually quite effecient, and built to withstand some abuse. How high up in frequency do you need to go? Lots of questions. And just to satisfy my curiousty what exactly are you doing?
Joe

 

[theAnonymous1]

I hate to kill the DIY spirit here, but maybe your better off going with something like one of Blaupunkt's Tripath based Class-D car amps. They are relitively small and can be found for around $100.

Here is a link to one.

http://www.techronics.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=1110&aff=45847

 

[tomtt]

pa2150/pa4150

reliability issues?

http://www.carsound.com/cgi-bin/UBB_CGI/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=009055;p=0

 

[jringels]

Thanks for the comments. I was quite excited about the PA2150 but it does not seem available, and it is discontinued, seems for reliability reasons.

I am having a tough time finding horns, Radio Shack has pa horn ,

50-watts max, 25 watts RMS
500-10,000Hz frequency response
102dB SPL
5.4-ounce magnet
8 ohms

Not quite the low freq performance I wanted but as stated above, good bass requires a large horn. I may buy one and try it.

Any other Class T's out there?
Is there an English site for the Fenice100?
Any suggestions for good horns less than$30?

By the way Joe, it's for attracting wildlife for photographing, not elephants but geese, coyotes, bobcats, deer, lots of critters, but not turtles.

Thanks again.

 

[Josephjcole]

I'm afraid cheap horns are not my specialty, maybe I mislead you telling you to check out horns. They can be very good and very effecient, but not ussually cheap, and never small when covering lower frequencies. What about four of these:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=290-401
or these:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=264-330&DID=7

You will not get the bottom ocative and a half or the top ocative or two, but I would guess the frequency extremes are not necessary for attracting wildlife. Put these in medium sealed enclosures. I imagine you could cover these in a tarp to waterproof them. Anyways they are fairly effecient, cover a majority of the audible frequencies, and are a reasonable compromise between price/performance. Really if there were not enough high frequencies a cheap tweeter could be added for under $10.
Joe