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  • Lunar Eclipse 14 Mar 2025
  • Scientific American
  • Bay of Fundy Life
  • Illustrated Biography
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  • More
    • Home
    • Introduction
    • Smart Scope Reviews
    • Cold Weather Performance
    • Halo Artifacts
    • Asterisms
    • Messier Marathon Part 1
    • Messier Marathon Part 2
    • Variable 1 Persei
    • 7 & 8 Persei, NGC 869
    • S CrB Mira Variable
    • Blaze Star T CrB
    • Open Cluster NGC 6611
    • Rosette Nebula
    • Galaxies - Canes Venatici
    • NGC 2523 Barred Galaxy
    • Galaxy Index: And-Cet
    • Galaxy Index: Com-Ori
    • Galaxy Index: Peg-Vir
    • Galaxy References
    • Comet (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
    • Tracking Planets
    • Lunar Eclipse 14 Mar 2025
    • Scientific American
    • Bay of Fundy Life
    • Illustrated Biography
    • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • Smart Scope Reviews
  • Cold Weather Performance
  • Halo Artifacts
  • Asterisms
  • Messier Marathon Part 1
  • Messier Marathon Part 2
  • Variable 1 Persei
  • 7 & 8 Persei, NGC 869
  • S CrB Mira Variable
  • Blaze Star T CrB
  • Open Cluster NGC 6611
  • Rosette Nebula
  • Galaxies - Canes Venatici
  • NGC 2523 Barred Galaxy
  • Galaxy Index: And-Cet
  • Galaxy Index: Com-Ori
  • Galaxy Index: Peg-Vir
  • Galaxy References
  • Comet (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
  • Tracking Planets
  • Lunar Eclipse 14 Mar 2025
  • Scientific American
  • Bay of Fundy Life
  • Illustrated Biography
  • Contact Us

A Scientist In the Making

My Early Life

My parents were both from Montreal, Québec. They met on a blind date at a jazz club shortly after my father returned from the Korean War. Since my Dad was Black, and a descendant of slaves taken from the Igbo tribe in Nigeria ( my daughters discovered this using my uncle's genealogy research and DNA analysis), they could only go to night clubs where Blacks were allowed. They were married in 1953 and I was born in 1954. My father was posted to a military base in Germany where I started school - Kindergarten and the first half of Grade 1. In early 1960 we moved to Camp Petawawa (as it was known then) in Ontario. I continued my education on base schools, graduating from Grade 13 in 1973.


It was apparent to my parents that I was keenly interested in science, so they provided many materials for me to learn at home including a chemistry set, rock and mineral collection, weather station, Meccano construction sets, and my Dad's binoculars to study the stars. When I was 11 years old I signed out the book shown here from the Camp Petawawa Community Library. The due date card entries at the back of the book, from the first borrow on November 12, 1965, were mostly my loans. When the library closed in the early 1970s, they let me keep the book since I was the most frequent borrower!


Reference

"Introducing Astronomy", J.B. Sidgwick, Faber and Faber Limited, London, UK, 1958.

High School Life

General Panet High School, CFB Petawawa, Ontario

My five high school years were 1969-1973. A yearbook was produced for all but 1970. Every five years students from these years kept the spirit alive by organizing a reunion. I attended two of them including the last one. Right from the get-go I got involved with many school activities from sports and music to a number of committees and clubs.


In 1969 I joined the Student Council and Chess Club. I became quite good at chess and a few years later became a member of the American Chess Federation and participated in international postal tournaments. In team sports and track-and-field I played intermural football, and enjoyed pole vaulting and javelin. Outside of school I played A-level hockey and was a baseball pitcher in the summers. When my family moved to Petawawa from Germany, I started playing hockey at the age of 6. Both of my parents were hardened Montreal sports fans, whether it was the Expos (baseball), Alouettes (football), or Canadiens (hockey). As a teenager, if I had an argument with my Mom during the week, I would tell her that I would cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday's Hockey Night In Canada. Being French Canadian, that would always get her going!


In 1970 and 71 science and mathematics became my academic foci with the encouragement of several excellent teachers. I used to ask for extra math problems to take home to work on. My favourite teacher was the head of the Science Department Mr. Crozier who taught Physics and Astronomy, and, he would let me borrow the school's telescope on weekends!


Music was also a passion of mine ever since my parents let me stay up to watch the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. They bought me a used acoustic guitar in 1967 and I have been playing ever since. In high school I played guitar and sang in our annual variety shows for the public, sometimes backing up female vocalists with guitar. I also won the competition to write a school song entitled "Together We Aspire, Together We Achieve".


Other activities included being Phoenix House Captain (one of four competitive Houses in sports and academics), and member of the school newspaper Veritas, Student Patrol (to help ensure safe school dances), and Student Government. In Grades 12 and 13 I received the All Round Student Award, and in my graduation year was voted by my fellow students to be Valedictorian.

Astronomy Studies

University of Western Ontario, London

With a full scholarship to the University of Western Ontario, I enrolled in the astronomy program in the fall of 1973. I still have my textbook, "Survey of the Universe", D.H. Menzel, F.L. Whipple, and G. deVancouleurs, Prentice-Hall, Englewood-Cliffs, New Jersey, 1970. One of my first year projects was to study Comet C/1973 E1 Kohoutek using the telescope on top of the Science Building. Although it wasn't as spectacular as predicted, I had a great bird's-eye view.


I spent lots of time playing piano in one of the Music Department studios and studying classical music in the library. For those of you who are computer science buffs, my first year computer course used Fortran IV. We submitted our programs on punch cards and, after a bit of a wait, the computer staff placed our results, printed on perforated continuous computer paper, on a rack.


London, Ontario was a wonderful university town and I enjoyed weekend bowling at Huron Bowl and taking in good bands at the clubs like the Ridout Tavern. Good times for sure!

Rock Band

Professional Musician

In the mid 1970s I decided to take a break from university studies to pursue other interests. I returned to the Village of Petawawa where my parents were now retired, and hooked up with some musicians from my high school years. We formed a professional rock band playing great covers of the day by the likes of the Eagles, Doobie Brothers, America, Elton John and others. Our venues included nightclubs, bars, and hotels in the Ottawa Valley and the dance floors were always full! Back in those days some venues hired us to play six nights a week plus a weekend matinee.


I was a member of the Ottawa-Hull District Local 180 of the American Federation of Musicians - that's me wearing the hat in our poster photo. I was the lead guitar and vocalist. Chris Dakin on the right played bass and shared lead vocals, Tim Ring crouched in front was our rhythm guitarist, and Ken Rundle above was the drummer. As I recall, Ken drove a Gremlin - remember those? I owned a Dodge Tradesman 100 van and Chris could pack a lot of gear in his Chevy van.


A few years ago, while attending our high school reunion, I visited this rock at the junction of the Petwawa and Ottawa Rivers, and was delighted to see the tree was still there, much taller after almost 50 years! The branch Ken was leaning on was well up in the sky. When the band broke up in 1976, I moved on to the next phase in my young life - I joined the military to serve my country just as my father and uncle did so many years before.

Military Life

Private Jones - Radio Technician

As a new recruit to the Canadian Forces, I was sent to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia for an 11-week boot camp. I had long hair that was shaved off by the camp's barbers on the first day. It was the winter of 1976 and I froze my butt (and head) off in the barracks next to the Bay of Fundy. Our shooting range was in Granville where we laid in the snow firing at targets with heavy FN rifles. It was cold there too! We also had to run through a gas chamber, and while inside, were instructed to remove our masks. That was fun - NOT!


By the time I graduated from Cornwallis, I was back in good physical shape again and looking forward to playing sports in the military. They shipped me off to Kingston, Ontario to become a Radio Technician (Rad Tech) in the Communications Branch of the Armed Forces. I enjoyed the electronics training on vacuum tube radio equipment in use by the Forces at that time, despite transistor radios available to consumers starting more than a decade earlier! In Kingston I took up badminton and learned how to sail in the 2-crew Albacore dinghy. I met a girl on the badminton courts who was from Nova Scotia and was studying to become a teacher at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. She was in the Reserves during the summer months and was on a Radio Operator course in Kingston. She gave me her mailing address before leaving for more training in Borden, Ontario. I would write to her once I arrived at my first posting.


Finally, in August 1977 I was posted to CFB Cold Lake in northern Alberta. This was, and still is, an Air Force base and I loved living there. It took awhile to get used to the smell of jet fuel and the thunderous sounds of the F-104 Starfighters using the airstrips close to my barracks. There was an F-104 mounted on a pedestal outside the headquarters building (see image on my retirement plaque). The air shows were amazing too.


I worked at Base Telecom, primarily responsible for maintaining radio equipment in the control tower and on mobile ground units. The FM, VHF and UHF equipment were all vacuum tubes until the first solid state FM radios arrived. We installed FM radios in a lot of vehicles and had to learn how transistors, diodes and integrated circuits worked. Periodically, it would be my turn to drive out to the Air Weapons Range with the ground support staff to maintain radio equipment there. Got to see some cool target practice by the pilots. Every now and then an acoustic sensor on the chain-link strafing targets would be damaged by ricochets, so when the range was not in use, those had to be repaired on site - not nice to use a soldering iron in -30°C (or worse) temperatures!


I was a fast runner and always had one of the Base's lowest times on our mandatory yearly mile-and-a-half fitness runs. I played soccer and hockey on the Base teams that played in northern Alberta senior leagues. Had my jaw broken from a crosscheck from an Edmonton defender but fortunately we had a dental surgeon right on the Base. That was the second time my jaw was broken in hockey. The first time was in Deep River, Ontario when I was a teenager. I was pushed into the goalpost head first (we didn't wear masks back in the 70s). I also continued to play badminton and took up squash.


For almost two years I exchanged letters with that girl I mentioned earlier, and she convinced me to move to Halifax and continue my university science studies at Dalhousie University. In July 1979 I was honourably released by the Forces to return to school, a legitimate reason to leave before my 5 year commitment was completed.

Country Music

While serving in northern Alberta, I performed as a lead guitarist with a country band part-time. It was both a contemporary and classic country band, so it took me awhile to adjust my guitar-playing style from the rock that I was used to.

PHYSICS STUDIES

Dalhousie University, Halifax

I arrived in Halifax in late July 1979 and got together with the girl that convinced me to continue my university studies. We were married on September 1st and this year will be our 46th anniversary! My how time flies.


I decided to study physics at Dalhousie but after a five year hiatus, it was a challenge. I took a few advanced electronics courses from the Technical University of Nova Scotia (TUNS) through a joint Dal-TUNS Engineering-Physics program. My class schedule was packed with as many mathematics classes as I could manage. My first two summer jobs were well paying research projects, carrying out statistical analysis on Nova Scotia hospital data in the Department of Medicine.


By the third year, our honours physics class had dwindled to five students and my summer research projects were in the Physics Department with Drs. R. Dunlap and G. Stroink, who would eventually be my Masters supervisors. The branch of physics I was gaining experience in was called Solid State Physics. I have shown four of my textbooks here. The one by Neil W. Ashcroft and N. David Mermin, "Solid State Physics", Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Philadelphia, PA, 1976, I taught to my two supervisors as one of my post-graduate credits. Preparing those weekly lessons was tough!


One of the great things about working with these two professors was that they had a teamwork approach to most of their research projects. Postdocs, graduates, and even a few undergraduates like me were an integral part of their team, assisting with measurements in the lab and writing scholarly papers for publication in prestigious journals in our field of physics. Here are some of the refereed papers I co-authored with my Dal colleagues/supervisors in chronological order (also my MSc thesis):


  1. "Mössbauer-effect study of Sn-impurity-site hyperfine fields in the Heusler alloys Co2MnZ (Z=Al,Ga,Si,Ge,Sn)", R.A. Dunlap and D.F. Jones, Physical Review B, 26(11), 6013-6018 (1982).
  2. "Crystallization and hyperfine fields in Fe-Hf based amorphous alloys", R.A. Dunlap, D.F. Jones, and G. Stroink, Journal of Applied Physics, 55(6), 1743-1744 (1984).
  3. "Electrical resistivity of amorphous ferromagnets", D.F. Jones, Dalhousie University Master of Science Thesis, July 1985, 73 pages.
  4. "Structural, electrical and magnetic properties of Icosahedral Al-Co alloys", R.A. Dunlap, G. Stroink, K. Dini, and D.F. Jones, Journal of Physics F: Metal Physics, 16(9), 1247-1254 (1986).
  5. "Electrical resistivity of Fe-Cr- and Ni-Cr-based amorphous alloys", D.F. Jones, G. Stroink, Z.M. Stadnik, and R.A. Dunlap, Materials Science and Engineering, 99, 207-210 (1988). Presented at the Sixth International Conference on Rapidly Quenched Metals, Montréal, August 3-7, 1987.


Special Note

Not only did I write my full thesis on my home Commodore 64 computer using the word-processing software PaperClip, I also used a laboratory Commodore 64 to collect my experimental data from a digital multimeter connected to my helium cryostat equipment. I fit all of the resistivity vs temperature curves using a Simplex algorithm that I wrote in Basic on the C64. My favourite video game to play on the C64 was Jumpman!

Defence Science

Operational Research Division, Maritime Command Headquarters, Halifax, NS

In 1985, as my MSc Physics was wrapping up, I was getting ready to start a PhD in physics when our laboratory was visited by scientists from the civilian research branch of the Department of National Defence. They had several job openings and were recruiting physicists, engineers, and mathematicians. The salary was excellent for that time period and the job descriptions sounded fascinating. With a new baby at home, it was a great career opportunity not to pass up. The PhD would have to wait.


I was hired by the Operational Research Division, with our offices in the Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare School at HMCS Stadacona in Halifax. In 1985, the Canadian Navy was celebrating its 75th Anniversary as well as the 35th Anniversary of the Warfare School and produced an unclassified special edition of the Maritime Warfare Bulletin. The image here is from the cover of my copy of the "Maritime Warfare Bulletin: Commemorative Edition 1985", Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare School, Department of National Defence (1985). The photo they used on the cover was from the Maritime Command Museum.


Operations research is primarily concerned with problems that require mathematical modelling and/or statistical analysis. I was hired for this particular job for my extensive mathematics background and not physics. However, whenever a physics solution to a given problem was possible, I jumped at the opportunity to work on it. One such problem was to develop a model to analyze the motions and effectiveness of stabilization parachutes. I teamed up with one of my colleagues and developed several complex aerodynamic models using both Newtonian and Lagrange mechanics. We were permitted to publish a paper in a prestigious refereed physics journal as follows:


  • "Stabilization parachutes: A rigid body treatment", D.F. Jones and P.E. Desmier, American Journal of Physics, 55(6), 538-544 (1987).


 

Sonar Transducer Research

Defence Research Establishment Atlantic, Dartmouth, NS

In 1986 I became aware of a job opportunity for a physicist at the Defence Research Establishment Atlantic (DREA) across the harbour in Dartmouth. As this was still a Defence Scientist position within the Department of National Defence, it was a simple process to transfer there. I joined the Transducer Group and began a career designing sonar sound systems, namely underwater projectors, hydrophones and their arrays. I retired in 2012 at the age of 58 (pretty close to Freedom 55 lol). There were many highlights and firsts over those 28 years and I will mention some of them in the sections below. Just a bit of background on DREA first.


The research centre was created during the Second World War at HMCS Stadacona and was named HMC Naval Research Establishment (NRE).  It was moved to the Dartmouth side of the harbour in 1952 and became the Defence Research Establishment Atlantic in 1967. When I arrived at DREA, my supervisor and head of the Transducer Group was the late Garfield "Gary" McMahon who mentored me in the field of underwater transducer design. In 2002 DREA became Defence R&D Canada - Atlantic with my work falling under the undersea warfare program. From the early 1990s I interacted with my American colleagues, developing strong working relationships as will be discussed in some of the sections that follow.

Acoustical Society of America

114th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Miami, Florida

I joined the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) shortly after transferring to DREA. My first conference presentation on sonar transducers was in a poster session at the 114th Meeting of the ASA at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Miami, Florida. The reference to my paper is given below and the cover of the Program shown here. Two scientists from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in New London, Connecticut spent a significant amount of time discussing my poster with me - the late Jan F. Lindberg and James M. Powers. Jan wrote notes from my poster in his copy of the ASA Meeting Program that would become very important in a patent interference case several years later. We became good friends in the following years.


  • "The design and performance analysis of barrel-stave projectors", D.F. Jones and G.W. McMahon, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 82, Supplement 1, Fall 1987, p. S75.


Special Note

In 2000 I was nominated for Fellowship by former ASA President the late Stanley L. Ehrlich for my career contributions to the development of flextensional transducers. I officially became a Fellow at the 140th Meeting of the ASA in Newport Beach, California, 3-8 December 2000 where I presented the following:


  • "Broadband barrel-stave flextensional transducers", D.F. Jones, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 108(5), Pt. 2, November 2000, p. 2637.


United States Patent No. 4,922,470

Barrel Stave Flextensional Projector

Because of the interest in my poster at the Miami ASA conference, we decided it was time to apply for Canadian and US patents for the barrel stave projector (three versions shown in my drawing). Both patents were granted - US Patent Number 4,922,470 (May 1, 1990) and Canadian Patent Number 1,285,646 (July 2, 1991).


Three companies have held licences for this transducer over the years: Sparton of Canada Limited in London, Ontario, Sensor Technology Limited in Collingwood, Ontario, and Ultra Electronics Maritime Systems Inc. in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It has been over 30 years since our patents were granted and I still receive royalties each year.


Special Note

A patent interference was filed by an American corporation against our US Patent in the early 1990s. Legal proceedings continued for about 7 years before a decision was made in our favour. The most important evidence showing that we invented the barrel stave projector first were the notes that Jan Lindberg made in his ASA Program booklet in Miami in 1987 (see previous section). Because I presented the performance specs on US soil, Jan's notes were admissible. This was the first time that the Canadian Government (my employer) won an interference case against an American company.

Colleagues In France

Institut Supérieur d'Electronique du Nord, Lille, France

In the early 1990s I developed a strong and productive relationship with Professors Bernard F. Hamonic and Jean-Nöel Decarpigny from the Acoustics Laboratory at the Institut Supérieur d'Electronique du Nord (ISEN) in Lille, France. I presented papers at two of their workshops (see below) and collaborated on numerical modelling of acoustic transducers. In 1998 ISEN invited me to be the External Examiner for Jocelyne Coutte-Dubois's Docteur en Mécanique held at L'université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, France (see her These cover). All of the formal proceedings were held in French so I had lots of hard work to do to prepare. 


  • "Class III flextensional transducers", D.F. Jones, Power Transducers for Sonics and Ultrasonics: Proceedings of the International Workshop, B.F. Hamonic, O.B. Wilson, and J.-N. Descarpigny (Editors), Springer-Verlag, Paris, 1991, p. 263. The workshop was held in Toulon, France, June 12-13, 1990.
  • "Flextensional barrel-stave projectors", D.F. Jones, Transducers for Sonics and Ultrasonics: Proceedings of the Third International Workshop, M.D. McCollum, B.F. Hamonic, and O.B. Wilson (Editors), Technomic Publishing Co., Inc., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1993, pp. 150--159. The workshop was held in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, May 6-8, 1992.


Other Notable Highlights

Underwater Transducers and Systems

Invitation to the Institute of Acoustics, UK

In 1995 the organizers of the Sonar Transducer '95 conference from the University of Birmingham, UK invited me to present a paper on North American developments in the field of high-power sonar transducer design. I asked my American colleague Jan Lindberg from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in New London, CT to coauthor this work and he readily accepted. Our paper on the state-of-the-art in Canada and the United States was well-received. The proceedings cover is shown here.


  • "Recent transduction developments in Canada and the United States", D.F. Jones and J.F. Lindberg, Sonar Transducers '95, Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, 17(3), pp. 15-33 (1995).


Playback Experiments With Whales

By 2000, my broadband barrel-stave transducer was incorporated into a portable underwater transmitter system capable of producing sound in a relatively wide audio frequency band. This sea-going equipment, known as the Broadband Acoustic Transmission System (BATS), was developed in collaboration with my long-time contractor Sensor Technology Limited in Collingwood, Ontario.


I had built a close relationship with marine mammal experts at the Hal Whitehead Laboratory in the Department of Biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax and they borrowed BATS for vocal mimicry experiments with pilot whales off the coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in the summer of 1999. We gave a paper at the 139th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Atlanta, Georgia in 2000, and published a paper in Sea Technology magazine:


  • "Playback experiments with long-finned pilot whales using a new broadband transmitter", D.F. Jones and L.E. Rendell, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107(5), Pt. 2, May 2000, p. 2774.
  • "Broadband acoustic transmitter for marine mammal applications", D.F. Jones and L.E. Rendell, Sea Technology, 41(8), August 2000, pp. 10-14.


Sluice the Trapped Humpback Whale

I was monitoring the news about a humpback whale that swam through the sluice gates of the Annapolis Tidal Generating Plant in Annapolis Royal in August 2004. The whale was putting on quite a show for the spectators, who gathered on the causeway over the Annapolis River to watch and take photos as it breached and played around each day. After about a week I contacted the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to offer my assistance to help lure the whale back through the sluice gates using my portable BATS transmitter and humpback whale calls.


This was not my idea, it was done successfully before with Humphrey the humpback whale who swam into San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River in 1985. I contacted the marine mammal researchers involved in that rescue and they sent me extensive notes concerning their efforts. They had obtained audio recordings of humpback whales on feeding grounds in Alaskan waters from the University of Alaska so I did the same. One of those recordings was very similar to my recordings from sea trials in the Bay of Fundy. This recording would be my Plan B.


I drove to Annapolis Royal with all my gear early one morning and set everything up near the bow of the small fisheries patrol boat manned by two crew. For anyone who has a picture of the guy sitting in the bow, that's me! I also had a hydrophone and headset so I could listen to everything underwater. I did an interview with one outlet before departing. We set off upriver from the causeway, which was packed with onlookers and media. When we found Sluice 'he' was headed back to the sluice gates so we did not have to broadcast anything underwater. We followed Sluice to the gates but by this time water was pouring through as the Bay of Fundy tide was coming in. There was no chance any marine mammal could swim through the oncoming torrent of water, and besides, Sluice was about to be served a fresh fish dinner!


At this point, Plan B kicked in and my idea was to make the relatively quiet underwater river environment sound like the Bay of Fundy. I did that for quite some time and at one point Sluice came right up to me to check out the sounds I was broadcasting (see the Nova Scotia Power press release below). That was the only time I heard his voice - briefly, just one call! My hope was that Sluice would be a bit homesick and would leave when the tide turned. We also broadcast these same whale vocalizations on the ocean side of the gates but these sounds would likely have not been heard on the river side over the sounds of the water rushing through the gates.


In the morning I returned to the patrol boat from my hotel and we set off to find Sluice. Only one reporter was there and we talked casually for a bit. We sailed almost 20 km, all the way to Bridgetown where the river became very narrow. There was no sign of the whale. I could not detect any whale vocalizations either. We assumed he had left the river overnight. Unfortunately, I cannot take any credit for success because we had a very loud thunderstorm that night and the marine mammal experts I talked to in the days to follow, had no idea how a whale in a quiet shallow river would react to loud thunder.


I left for Dartmouth but a few days later, as I recall, Sluice returned to the river only to leave again on his own. I made a second trip to the river to see for myself that he wasn't there any longer. This was the story from my perspective - a story never told in print until now.


"Nova Scotia Power press release: Sluice Update, Sep 02, 2004

Annapolis Royal, NS - The humpback whale that entered the Annapolis River via the sluice gates of the Annapolis Tidal Power Plant on Aug. 23 remains in the river and its activity level continues to suggest the whale is in good condition, is under no undue stress and has ample access to food such as herring and mackerel, which enter the river at high tide.


On Aug. 30-31, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) broadcast the sound of feeding humpback whale vocalizations in waters on both sides of the sluice gates in hopes this would coax the whale into returning to the Annapolis Basin and its natural habitat in the Bay of Fundy. Although the whale took interest in these sounds, even circling one of the transmitters, it did not exit the river. Nova Scotia Power has decided not to run the Tidal Plant this weekend."


Acoustic Bar Codes

An experiment using a signal I called acoustic bar codes (ABCs) was tested near the Berry Islands in the Bahamas and near the Western Bank on the Scotian Shelf using my BATS transmitter. The ABC signal was made-up of the ambient noise of the ocean plus information in the form of "silent bars". These experiments were presented at the 150th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2005. It was such a novel idea that the conference committee selected it for a Lay Language Paper for the press and general public (see website link below).


  • "Preliminary investigation of acoustic bar codes for short-range underwater communications", D.F. Jones, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118(3), Pt. 2, September 2005, pp. 2038-2039.
  • "Communicating underwater using natural ocean noise", ASA 150th Meeting Lay Language Papers, 2005. Website Link: https://acoustics.org/pressroom/httpdocs/150th/Jones.html


Hurricane Juan Paper

When Hurricane Juan made landfall in Nova Scotia on September 28, 2003, we were living in Dartmouth. The strongest winds in the eastern eyewall of the storm passed directly over Halifax. At 9:30 p.m. I was setting up audio recording equipment upstairs to capture the sounds of Juan as it passed over our house. At the same time, meteorologist Chris Fogarty from the Canadian Hurricane Centre was boarding a reconnaissance flight at the Halifax International Airport (now the Halifax Stanfield International Airport) to drop air-launched dropsondes into the storm.


From my audio recordings I was able to determine wind gust frequencies at different times throughout the night, and even captured the sounds of nearby trees breaking. As it happened, Chris and I became aware of each others measurements and wrote a unique paper combining his wind data with my acoustic data, and even explained how these trees broke. The paper appeared in Acoustic Research Letters Online, a web-based publication of the Acoustical Society of America.


  • "The acoustic heartbeat of Hurricane Juan", D.F. Jones and C. Fogarty, Acoustic Research Letters Online, 6(2), April 2005, pp. 85-91.


Hermit Thrush Paper

Beginning in 2003 I became interested in the vocalizations of bird species. I recorded many of them in my travels around the province. By far the most intriguing vocalizations were those of the Hermit Thrush that migrated to Nova Scotia in the spring each year. What I noticed as I studied their song structures using audio editing software (spectrographic analysis), was that each Hermit Thrush had its own repertoire of songs, and no two birds sang even one identical song. This made me wonder if I could identify a single individual from one migration year to the next. And so, an experiment was undertaken.


I recorded more than 4000 songs from 17 Hermit Thrushes at 11 sites in and around the Halifax/Dartmouth metropolitan area from April 2003 until July 2006. My experiment went longer than the two consecutive years I had planned (2003-2004) because Hurricane Juan (September 2003) essentially destroyed the habitats where the birds made their homes in 2003. I had to start again in 2005 then see if the birds returned to the same locations in 2006.


Two of the birds in 2005 did return to their exact locations in 2006 and I recognized every single one of their songs from the year before using my audio analysis software. Both birds sang their own repertoires - not one new song nor one forgotten! I published a paper on this first-of-its-kind Hermit Thrush voice-print in the Journal of the Canadian Acoustical Association:


  • "Voice-printing the Hermit Thrush (Catharus Guttatus), D.F. Jones, Canadian Acoustics, 34(3), September 2006, pp. 14-15.



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  • Home
  • Introduction
  • Smart Scope Reviews
  • Cold Weather Performance
  • Halo Artifacts
  • Asterisms
  • Messier Marathon Part 1
  • Messier Marathon Part 2
  • Variable 1 Persei
  • 7 & 8 Persei, NGC 869
  • S CrB Mira Variable
  • Blaze Star T CrB
  • Open Cluster NGC 6611
  • Rosette Nebula
  • Galaxies - Canes Venatici
  • NGC 2523 Barred Galaxy
  • Galaxy Index: And-Cet
  • Galaxy Index: Com-Ori
  • Galaxy Index: Peg-Vir
  • Galaxy References
  • Comet (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
  • Tracking Planets
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