El cheapo

caller

I used an old car amp and speakers in an old tool box. Stole the battery from my kids and used a personal cd player with power adapter. Works o/k. Need to build a new one some time. This one is really -------- heavy.

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If u guys are looking for parts for el cheapo u can get all of them from radio world, canadian store, but be warned it in no way replaces a foxpro, in the long run each and every single one of you will buy a foxpro
 
I'm sure that even the FoxPro started its life as a collection of bits powered by a car battery. Back yard engineering will never replace a purpose built device (Lets hear it for R&D and an investment strategy).
 
kastles said:
Daveg - It is so wierd cause my bro who I've been looking to get one of these things set up with suggested using the one out of his kit for this, much the same how you said to do it. Some questions: Do you get good run time with it? Loud enough?
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I use my Blackberry to run the MP3 files I got from Varmit Al's. I had to "boost" the volume of the MP3 files with some freeware I downloaded (sorry, don't recall the name). I put 2 minutes of silence in the front of the sequence so I can setup and have time to get back to some cover.

I opened the radio and soldering in the speaker horn connection directly.

Batteries run pretty good. I took it out at -15C and played 4 sets of 30 min call sequences and still have a nearly full battery. One of the reasons I went this route is that I already have 6 batteries for cordless tools so it is no big deal to keep a couple spares charged up in the truck.

I'm going to add an amplifier once I find one cheap enough.

It's ugly as sin, but it plays the tunes... I'm not sure if I want to part with $400+ dollars for a foxpro. I probably will at some point, but too many other things to spend the $$ on - like ammo!! :D

Now I'm working on a wounded animal type thing made from a RC car with remote, an old crossbow arrow and a coyote tail... Working out a few kinks but I think it will work.

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The foxpro might be a better call but with my elcheapo my battery life is amazing...I use one 9V battery for the mini amp and 1 AAA battery for the MP3 player.... I start new fresh duracell batteries in each at the beginning of the season and just replace the AAA battery every 10-15 hrs of play or so...The 9V lasts all season and then some....I must play my caller (best guess) between 50 -70 hrs in a season...Can't do that with a foxpro....and mine is pretty loud....If I need louder I use my hand caller....Using the elcheapo is a great option....I wish I had a remote but for $50 total investment....what can I say it works and can't beat the operating cost.....

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I think PetSmart would be mortified to know who many times that particular cat toy has been the harbinger of death LOL
 
We built two el cheapos ($120) mostly to use for crow hunting off season on Saturdays and sometimes 2 or 3 weekdays. We do a 40-50 km run every outing hunting different spots and the crows know the game and the calls. When we started we would get up to 5 call backs and now maybe one call in at a stop. If I am guaranteed that a $600 Foxpro will call in our crows better than our Cheapo I will buy a Foxpro.
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A buddy or family member near the US border is the secret ingredient. I made one a couple years ago. Have a buddy that lives near the US border with a post office box in the US. I phone ordered the parts from Radio Shack. He picked the amp and speaker up for me when I got them mailed to his p.o. box. My biggest problem was finding an mp3 player I could read easily. Tiny little lines of lcd script that disappear in sunlight. At least to my older fuzzy eyes it did. Finally just bought a used microsoft zune player (microsoft's version of an I-pod) with a actual screen on it. Much bigger font, doesn't seem to wash out in sunlight as bad as the cheap little players did. Haven't tried it out actually calling yet. One thing I would add to Varmint Al's version is an adaptor from stereo to mono. I belive he mentions that on his site. Before I put one on mine, I think one channel was shorting out. I seemed to have to have the amp turned up so high to get any kind of volume it started to distort a lot. The mono adaptor seems to have fixed that. I can get enough volume to make my ears bleed now if I want. I've got about 20 calls from Al's site on the player. Be able to mix things up instead of having to play the same howl or cottontail distress call over and over...
 
Or you can just spend $60 at WSS and buy this:Cass creek horn speaker with built-in amp

The nice thing is that it is water resistant, compact, and comes with 75 feet of wire to plug into your MP3 player. You can control the playback from 75 feet away without purchasing an expensive remote-controlled caller. The only downside is that it is not quite as light as a Foxpro, and it uses 4 C batteries (the battery thing isn't an issue for me, but it may be for some- just buy a set of rechargeable batteries and forget about it).
 
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