April 26, 2001
I met Jeff from the CT DEP ready for our first airstrike. We intended to fly the projected route of Ibat #1 over Connecticut in order to locate her and her family. Much of the morning and into the afternoon was spent troubleshooting seemingly poor reception of our test transmitter from the air. We employed the usual antenna "rig to the wing strut" for our first trials, but this only gave 0.5 mile reception...totally unacceptable. When using much more powerful transmitters such as with bear collars, this rig apparently works fine; the powerful transmitter overcomes the metallic airframe.

On a last ditch attempt (and after experimenting with two additional bat transmitters) we re-rigged the receiving antennas to the landing gear. Immediately upon takeoff, a major difference was heard, and reception was now over 4.5 miles. Quite a big difference with such a slight change in antenna position, this is a good example of how sensitive the telemetry equipment is-- improper use with inexperienced people will just yield static.
Once airborne we headed to the point of last contact, Netherwood, NY. Then we flew southeast over Dover Plains, just south of Waterbury, north of New Haven, then stayed 5 miles inland east along the coast. Just before New London I heard about 8-12 signals, which could very well have been Ibat #1 lurking near Chesterfield and Oakdale. We circled the area but did not reacquire the signal. Jeff vowed to investigate the suspicious signal later from the ground.

After dipping briefly into Rhode Island, we returned west, cutting a swath to just south of Hartford. Low on fuel, we called it a day.

Left: Original antenna rigging to the usual wing strut. Didn't work for us, though other aircraft may have other radio interference properties.
Left: Rigging to the landing gear kicked our reception to nearly 5 miles. Using an antenna on each strut, we can cut nearly a 10 mile monitoring swath at 110 MPH.
Left: I heard a signal near New London...was it Ibat #1 or just those jokers at the New London Submarine Base locking up a surface to air missile on us? We may never really know...
Left: Typical Connecticut coastal landscape...low slope, warm, plenty of meandering streams, lakes...why wouldn't these bats end up here? Ha...they probably do, we just haven't picked one that will wait for us to catch up yet.

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