Batboard

Hello,


I am looking for an inexspensive way to record my Ambulanc corps Repeater. Does any one have any ideas.

If you have an output. Use a VCR, set on SLP so you get 6 or 8 hours out of it. Plug in the audio to the left audio side.... and make sure your timer and clock is right and set to record on screen. You can play back the audio thru speakers or out to another device. By using and setting the time on the screen and the clock.. you can locate traffic if you have a rough idea of when it occurred. You wanted cheap and simple. ....

You might look at the PC based solution mentioned in this thread:

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=18992

Otherwise, watch on ebay. Used logging recorders from Dictaphone, Teac, Stancil and others show up there from time to time and they seem to sell pretty cheap.

Here's the real thing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=14960

Might try a windows program called "RecAll."

I use this when I want to monitor a channel over a long period of time. Works fine.

If your station that you want to record off of has DC or tone remote capability, that's a good place to get audio for recording. That's how I have done it in the past and it works very well. The level is constant, and the impedance matched pretty good to most recoding devices. It's easy if you are not using the remote, jsut connect to the recordr and set the line level. If you are using the remote, then you can put a transformer across the line and couple to the recorder that way.

Josh

Download RecAll PRO. It is a well spent $30.00. I have had it running at our firehouse office computer for 3 months now and it is GREAT. I have it setup so it creates a new file at midnight everyday. The filenames look like "June_16_2003_01" or something like that. Regardless, the filename is the date.

It records and will play back with a time stamp. You can set the delay before it stops recording silence after the end of a transmision. You can also select a portion of the track and copy/paste it into a new file. I do this for significant incidents.

I have it wired to the tone-remote on the desk next to the computer.

A minidisk recorder, a cheap one $ 325, in the mono mode will record 255 cuts for 2 hours of total time. I use them for aircheck machines in the broadcast side of the world. Each time the mic is turned on, it records till the mic is turned off.
The interface is set to the pause button.

good luck

mm

The other nice thing about RecAll / RecAll-PRO is that it records to WAV files. I use MP3 compression on the WAV files to keep the size down without a noticable loss of quality, especially given the source.

Play the file back using RecAll and you'll get the timestamps but you can also play it back on anything that will play a WAV (or, in my case, an MP3) without the timestamps. Great if you need to share the audio with someone else since almost everyone can play back a WAV file. No need to record on to other media, convert the file, etc.

http://www.sagebrush.com/



- Just a user

Hi,

Try Scanner Recorder. Go to http://www.davee.com/scanrec/ and download the program. Free. Have been using it for sometime and really works well.

saber user

And...if you're really crazy and want to record more than your local repeater, as well as hook up to a number of radios (or scanners...) take one of the used desktops that is lying around gathering dust, look inside, if it has at least 5 or so free PCI slots, buy some SB 16's, and obtain a legal copy of Sound Forge. You could potentially record on all the cards available on your system.
Cat

Alrighty then, You guys finally got my interest.

Can I run Multiple Sound cards with RecAll Pro ??

I have an old copy of soundforge, never installed it, was not aware
that it would work with multiple SB16's.

I would not be opposed to using 4 PeeCee's each with One SB16
in it, running Stereo with RecAll Pro Giving me two channels per
PeeCee with time stamps If I had too. A fifth and sixth unit would
be used for Scsi Raid to store the audio permanently, and Backup
raid bank. I can fit 6 Dell PeeCee units in One 8U high 19" rack mount case that used to house an old Cremco Computer.

It would be nice to use less computers with Multiple sound cards,
But Myself not really trusting PeeCee's too much, never thought it
was really possible (It might Still Not be- I'm very picky...)

Thanks for the info, I'll have to check this stuff out a little, and see
If I can make something equivalent to a commercial forever recorder. Or buy that one XMO posted a week ago. That was a
nice 24 thousand dollar recorder for 700 bucks thats for sure.
But PeeCee's are free, so I need to at least try this stunt.


Dave

ricciticcitembo wrote:Can I run Multiple Sound cards with RecAll Pro ??

Multiple sound cards using RecAll Pro -- definately. I'm doing that now, 24x7, without a problem with two cards and the next card is in my hands waiting for a convenient time to do the install.

While an old computer should work pretty well, I made the decision to stick with a not-too-ancient box running Windows 2000 just because I like 2000's stability over 98/ME and just am not a big fan of XP. Besides, that's what was handy! The system is dedicated to this task though it really doesn't need to be since the system is powerful enough to do some other tasks while running RecAll -- I originally ran RecAll (the basic version) on my own workstation (which was also my personal fax machine, graphics processing system, etc. -- I'm in the computer biz) for over a year with no downtimes (except power failures) before expanding to my multiple channel setup.

My current system has a basic OS install, with all applicable service packs/hotfixes, RecAll-PRO for the recording and Automachron so the timestamps are accurate. Plugged it all into a UPS and KVM switch and its been running continuously since December -- only had to go down then because I moved it from one UPS to another. A new file for each channel is started every twelve hours and prefixed with the channel name so it can be easily found later on; each file is MP3 compressed by RecAll to save space and periodically burnt to a CD for offline backup.

http://www.sagebrush.com/recpro.htm
http://oneguycoding.com/automachron/

The only thing I haven't tried with RecAll Pro (yet) is multiple sound cards that all use the same driver. Right now, my main issue is getting lots of radios in a small space without interfering with each other.

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=18992

Thanks George. I'll make sure I use different sound cards to be safe.


And good of you to refresh my memory on that previous thread.
That was a good one. How are you making out with your receivers?
I think using different brands/models might be a very good idea, to
keep adjacent IF interference down, and I understand that's what
your doing currently. I'm using sabers, Spectras, and Expos
currently, but I'd like to try a pager or two. Some of them got
pretty good receivers in them, but I don't know which is the best
one.


Like Jack said, your best bet is Crystal rigs. (like a pager) or that
Rat Shack scanner he mentioned that was also rock bound.


Dave.

ricciticcitembo wrote:How are you making out with your receivers?

No change yet -- but I'm working on getting the multicoupler, etc. and looking for options re: other (relatively) inexpensive receivers. Can only spend so much of my money on this, especially over short periods of time!

It would be nice if the IF frequencies were easier to find though. They aren't documented in every manual and, especially for older equipment, not everything is available from the FCC assuming the FCC ID # is even available before I buy something.

CuriousGeorge wrote:The only thing I haven't tried with RecAll Pro (yet) is multiple sound cards that all use the same driver.

ricciticcitembo wrote:Thanks George. I'll make sure I use different sound cards to be safe.

A quick followup -- had my first downtime on my recording station in six months yesterday. Of course, that was because I shut it down for about ten minutes to add another sound card.

It's a slightly different SoundBlaster PCI card (actually, the Ensoniq Audio PCI card which Creative bought and renamed the SoundBlaster PCI) than already in the machine. Windows Device Manager lists a slightly different device driver for this card than the newer one already in the system but it apparently uses the same wave driver as the SoundBlaster PCI and it is working just fine.

So, these are the confirmed working combination of sound cards in my recording station:

Sound card (Wave Driver - used by RecAll)
Creative SoundBlaster PCI (SoundBlaster PCI Wave Driver)
Creative SoundBlaster Live (SoundBlaster Live Wave Driver)
Ensoniq Audio PCI (SoundBlaster PCI Wave Driver)
Philips PSC604 (Philips Wave Driver)

Now to find one more PCI card to fill the last slot - there has to be one hiding here somewhere!

Hope that helps someone.

Hell yeah it does. Thanks a million George. That ought so save me
some R & D time for sure. Plus I have 3 of those different sound
cards already. Funny how that works, I see a fair amount of
equipment that other Batlabbers have that I also have and use.
Even really esoteric stuff like that Wild Pro audio crap in that one
thread that even brought out Elroy Jetson discussing the relative merits of using a Professional HDTV projectors and sucking of the infamous Bose speakers to which I agree with on all points.