Recording Radio Traffic

henryg · Post by **henryg** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:07 pm

Hello. I hope I have the right forum. The latest idea from the bosses is to record our radio traffic on the videotape in the VCR mounted in the command vehicle. They want two channels recorded, main fire & fireground. Any thoughts or ideas on the radio or scanner (VHF) I need to install to provide the audio? Right now there are three radios in the buggy. I'm trying to keep it simple. Thanks for the help. Stay safe. Henry

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:19 pm

well to start with a scanner wont do as if both channels are active one will bew missed.
Why do they need it in the vehicle?
is it for instant replay?
Do you have MDT in the vehicle.
if you want instant replay record one radio on the left channel and the other on the right through the audio input on the pc. you can then save these to another medium later

HLA · Post by **HLA** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:06 am

there are probablly mobile radios already in the vehicle, just take the audio out of them and feed the recorder.

thebigphish · Post by **thebigphish** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:57 pm

i would avoid using some "mickey mouse" setup of scanners and audio channels and left/right balance things if you are going to do audio recordings for fireground safety things...i would go and spend the money on a live playback audio review logger, such as are found in dispatch centers for recalling live phonecalls for instant review...if it's in the chief's car / command vehicle, and he has gloves on because it's cold....and you are using "soundrec.exe" and you expect him to go use the balance slider to listen to this, then click rewind...and watch it go backwards, then change the wav.file balance to right to listen to that channel...you're gonna have one pissed chief.

I think the best solution would be to get a pair of dedicated live recall audio loggers, ones designed with scroll/traverse wheels and large buttons so that it can be a very fast and foolproof operation to find something, the chief may balk originally at the cost...but the first time it works the right way, right a way...he'll love you.

Rayjk110 · Post by **Rayjk110** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:31 am

I believe he's got a couple CDM1250's in the command vehicle. There should be a way to splice the audio from the 16 pin connector.

If an external speaker(s) are being used, you can also splice that from the cord (possibly) and run them line in into the recording device. Just a thought.

Jim202 · Post by **Jim202** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:15 am

Point to be aware of in the CDM radios, there is voltage on the
speaker wires. These must not go to ground. If you do tie
either of these wires to ground, you will let the smoke out
of the audio amp section of the radio.

Second point, you don't want to tie multiple CDM radio
audio speaker wires together. Again you chaqnce having
a smoke test of the audio stages.

Isolate the speaker wires with caps or an isolation transformer.

Jim