Cold, Wet and Windy Forest [D100 w/SASS] by Jared Blake

Full post + photos: https://acousticnature.com/journal/recording-nature-sounds-in-the-national-radio-quiet-zone

I chose to spend the first night of my field recording road trip within the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) in West Virginia.

I left at 12pm and should have arrived at 6pm, giving me 2 hours before sunset to hike in and setup my recording equipment. Unfortunately, a large accident shut down all lanes on I-81S. This delay caused me to arrive at the trailhead at 7:45pm.

In the dying sunlight, I only had time to walk around and take some photos. It would rain throughout the night and I didn't spot any sheltered locations for my microphones.

Throughout the night, I was periodically awoken by large rain drops hitting my car. I made a couple recordings of this sound but they're nothing to write home about.

In the morning, I awoke to a spooky landscape covered in fog. I took advantage of this opportunity and went for a walk with my camera and recording gear.

Despite the 45°F temperature, my fingers were frozen by 18mph winds and high humidity.

Eventually, I found a ridge where the wind sounded particularily interesting and setup a recording. I used my new SASS binaural microphone paired with a Sony D100. I recorded for 1 hour and ended up with a 9 minute segment of usable sound. This is a ≈ 4 min excerpt from that recording.

I was still quite close to a main route and the recording suffered from a lot of vehicle noise (and airplanes of course).

Although I didn't capture any great recordings here, this area still holds my interest. On my return journey, I will stop in this area again but will go closer to Green Bank. I believe the arrival of spring paired with the the population of only 150 residents could yield long, noise-free recordings.

Thanks for reading! For more field recording articles, visit my website at www.acousticnature.com