Project “Tseep”: Power Mac 9600 as a Nocturnal Migration Listening Station
Happy #Marchintosh2026!
I wanted to take a moment and share my #Marchintosh2026 project that bridges 90s Mac workstation muscle with modern avian research: transforming my Power Mac 9600/500 G3 into a dedicated Nocmig (nocturnal migration) recording and analysis station.
The Mission:
I am an avid “birder” (birdwatcher) and live in southern coastal New York, directly on the Atlantic Flyway. Every spring, millions of birds migrate overhead under the cover of darkness, emitting "flight calls" to stay in contact. These faint, high-frequency “tseeps" “seeps” and "zeeps" (6-9kHz) are often the only way to track species movement at night. To catch them, I’m installing a custom-built "Bucket Mic" on a ledge outside my attic window, positioned with a clear view facing South/Southwest to intercept the migrants as they push north.
The Rig:
Computer: Power Mac 9600/350 (500MHz G3 card 320MB RAM) and BlueSCSI v2 with high-endurance SD card for 8-hour continuous 16-bit/44.1kHz writes.
The "Ear": A DIY "Bucket Mic" setup—a 5-gallon plastic pail lined with acoustic foam to reject ground noise, sealed with a "drum-tight" plastic wrap and pantyhose acoustic window.
The Pill: I’m building a high-gain pre-amp around a PUI Audio AOM-5024L-HD-R capsule and a TI TLV271 op-amp (SOT-23 on a PA0084 DIP adapter). It’s powered by a dedicated 9V rail to keep the noise floor low enough to catch birds at 2,000 feet.
The Workflow:
I’m using AppleScript to automate the recording schedule (dusk-to-dawn). The 9600 should be able to successfully record and analyze high-resolution FFT spectrogram in software like SoundEdit 16 and Audacity 1.2.6.
I’ve been in touch with Harold Mills (who wrote the original Tseep/Zeep detectors at Cornell in the 90s) and the Macaulay Library to hunt down the original Mac-ported detection algorithms. If those are lost to time (anybody know someone who did acoustics research at Cornell in the early 90’s???), the 9600 will still serve as my manual "Spectrogram Hunter" to ID species by their visual signatures.
However, for the most difficult IDs—like distinguishing between the confusing warblers — I’ll likely export clips to a modern machine for analysis. Tools like BirdNET or Cornell’s Raven Pro will serve to verify species when the classic spectrogram shapes are too similar to call by eye.
Waiting on my Mouser order to finalize the "pill" pre-amp. Will update once the first "seeps" are captured!
I am open to any and all input from the community!
-fal3core
#Marchintosh #Marchintosh2026 #VintageMac #CitizenScience #PowerMac9600 #Nocmig #TinkerDifferent
Happy #Marchintosh2026!
I wanted to take a moment and share my #Marchintosh2026 project that bridges 90s Mac workstation muscle with modern avian research: transforming my Power Mac 9600/500 G3 into a dedicated Nocmig (nocturnal migration) recording and analysis station.
The Mission:
I am an avid “birder” (birdwatcher) and live in southern coastal New York, directly on the Atlantic Flyway. Every spring, millions of birds migrate overhead under the cover of darkness, emitting "flight calls" to stay in contact. These faint, high-frequency “tseeps" “seeps” and "zeeps" (6-9kHz) are often the only way to track species movement at night. To catch them, I’m installing a custom-built "Bucket Mic" on a ledge outside my attic window, positioned with a clear view facing South/Southwest to intercept the migrants as they push north.
The Rig:
Computer: Power Mac 9600/350 (500MHz G3 card 320MB RAM) and BlueSCSI v2 with high-endurance SD card for 8-hour continuous 16-bit/44.1kHz writes.
The "Ear": A DIY "Bucket Mic" setup—a 5-gallon plastic pail lined with acoustic foam to reject ground noise, sealed with a "drum-tight" plastic wrap and pantyhose acoustic window.
The Pill: I’m building a high-gain pre-amp around a PUI Audio AOM-5024L-HD-R capsule and a TI TLV271 op-amp (SOT-23 on a PA0084 DIP adapter). It’s powered by a dedicated 9V rail to keep the noise floor low enough to catch birds at 2,000 feet.
The Workflow:
I’m using AppleScript to automate the recording schedule (dusk-to-dawn). The 9600 should be able to successfully record and analyze high-resolution FFT spectrogram in software like SoundEdit 16 and Audacity 1.2.6.
I’ve been in touch with Harold Mills (who wrote the original Tseep/Zeep detectors at Cornell in the 90s) and the Macaulay Library to hunt down the original Mac-ported detection algorithms. If those are lost to time (anybody know someone who did acoustics research at Cornell in the early 90’s???), the 9600 will still serve as my manual "Spectrogram Hunter" to ID species by their visual signatures.
However, for the most difficult IDs—like distinguishing between the confusing warblers — I’ll likely export clips to a modern machine for analysis. Tools like BirdNET or Cornell’s Raven Pro will serve to verify species when the classic spectrogram shapes are too similar to call by eye.
Waiting on my Mouser order to finalize the "pill" pre-amp. Will update once the first "seeps" are captured!
I am open to any and all input from the community!
-fal3core
#Marchintosh #Marchintosh2026 #VintageMac #CitizenScience #PowerMac9600 #Nocmig #TinkerDifferent
