Octave Band Analyzers

02 Dec Octave Band Analyzers

Among Barron Strachan’s early equipment are General Radio manual octave band analyzers.

As the company grows, it acquires a plethora of Brüel & Kjær meters, microphones and accessories. But if the necessary equipment doesn’t exist, the firm develops it in-house.

“We made our own community noise analyzers,” explains Ken Barron, “by placing a sound meter in a metal box and strapping it to a telephone pole, so the kids couldn’t reach it. We’d check back every couple of days to change batteries and tape.” These early community noise monitors are connected to a standard tape recorder and controlled with a timer developed in-house, programmed to sample every 30 secs.