Parabolic mic - the ultimate spy gadget?

We use a parabolic mic to record some geese as they squabble in pond. Watch a fight broken up by the goose police. This is Nature at its best, recorded with great equipment.
We used a Klover Mik 26 and the Centrance MixerFace for this recording - a great combination of gear that can hear up to 200 feet away!
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Audio Minute #42

[@MetaVizions]

This is very left field here, but are there like “hackers” “private investigators” “field personal security agents” “human intelligence agents” that can modify these into some sort of ‘kit’?
For example the clear dish may not be optimal in some environments. Is there way to change the color or even simply not have the dish? What about the dish material constitutes better reception?

[@centrance]

From what we understand, material is important as paint can affect the reflective properties of the surface. The shape is also very important as it acts to focus the audio waves at the microphone.

[@anzaeria]

Ive heard that generally, for recording audio of nature, you need a mic with a high signal to noise ratio because nature sounds tend to be a bit quiet much of the time. Though supposedly, a parabolic dish improves the signal to noise ratio of any mic. So in that case, could I get away with using a cheaper mic with a lower signal to noise ratio?

[@centrance]

Yes, you can have a cheaper mic inside of the parabolic dish, but a better mic always helps, especially if you have spent good coin on the parabolic dish itself.

[@anzaeria]

I would likely be going the DIY route with a parabolic dish - adapting something like a salad bowl or a curved rubbish bin lid. It may not be quite as good as a commercially made para dish that specifically designed for audio but hopefully, it might still give reasonable results.@@centrance

[@arrebarre]

@@anzaeria try finding and old satellite tv dish since they are also formed into a perfect parabola.

[@griz326]

Is it the dish or the mic? I say it is the dish that does the hearing. So what about using a 414 or a u87 in the dish?

[@centrance]

The dish focuses the sound into one point and the mic picks it up. It has to be an omni mic. Model is not too important, because the dish does most of the work. We used a simpler AT omni and it still works great.

[@Naturfotografen]

Where did You buy that bag. Please send a link(european)

[@centrance]

This case came with the microphone, from the manufacturer.