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how to begin

K

kd5pck2

Hello all. I've been fascinated with airchecks for a while now. Mostly listening. Now I would like to start recording some myself, if only for my own personal use.
I was curious as to what others are using. Obviously I would need a receiver and a recorder to record the audio. Got the receiver already. For ease of storage, I would like to record things digitally. What digital recorder is everyone using? Personally, I am not concerned about quality at this time. The content is the my goal. Thanks in advance.
 
Thanks for the link. I plan to check this one and other software packages out as well. Any suggestions for a piece of portable hardware that could be used when travelling and a computer isn't available?
 
kd5pck2 said:
Thanks for the link. I plan to check this one and other software packages out as well. Any suggestions for a piece of portable hardware that could be used when travelling and a computer isn't available?
Click to expand...

Frankly, I am looking for something nice myself, to record in stereo when wayyyyy out of town. I have a receiver, but need something small and inexpensive to duplicate stereo sound, with nice fidelity. I've had to lug around tape decks, and I hate it. :)

cd
 
I've started looking at the Zoom line of recorders. I've tried a cheap Olympus, but it creates a nasty hum when a line in is connected.
 
Welcome to airchecking! Newbies always welcome!
In fact if you let the group know what you are interested in you may get a jump start on your collection.
You never know what's floating around out there.

Generally I find storing airchecks on DVDRs really helps save space.

When traveling I like the C Crane Witness. Nice little unit and direct to MP3. Good for local stations but not for pulling in distant FMs.
http://www.ccrane.com/radios/am-fm-radios/cc-witness-plus.aspx
 
I've been very pleased with my Zoom digital recorder, but havent ever used it for any line-in recordings.
The automatic gain control with 3 selectable levels has done a VERY good job of handling wide ranges of volume while
presenting a natural-sounding result.

I used it to record the sound of roller coaster rides and expected it to have some drawbacks, but it
did an incredible job.
 
Zoom Handy Recorder H2.
 
kd5pck2 said:
I've started looking at the Zoom line of recorders. I've tried a cheap Olympus, but it creates a nasty hum when a line in is connected.
Click to expand...

I use a Zoom H1 to log my ham contacts when operating mobile. (writing while driving is not a good idea :) ) Works great, good sound quality. It does have a line input but haven't tried using it, for my purposes the built-in mikes are fine.

It will record both .wav files and .mp3s at a variety of data rates. (so you can pick your tradeoff, audio quality vs. storage space)

On the other hand... Total Recorder & a PC allow you to do your airchecking unattended, you can schedule a recording to happen at a future time.
 
Thanks for all your comments. Still cehcking out ideas. I would be further along in this pursuit if work would stop getting in the way. Maybe Santa will have something under the tree for me.
 
I have been fascinated with radio for many years and now am in the broadcasting field. I'm looking for something to use to record stations online through streams (unfortunately, I can't travel much), particularly for legal ID's and format flips, but don't want to pay too much or for free, whichever works best. Any suggestions?

I also plan on getting CC Witness for some travelling, particularly for my trip to Canada next summer.
 
No. The CC Witness does not have an HD radio built in. At least not yet. But it does have both AM and FM. Not that easy to find AM anymore.

There are some nice features though. You have multiple MP3 bit rate settings to choose from as well as WAV.
It has a built in clock so you can do timed records and not just one at a time. You can schedule a bunch on different stations too...but not all at the SAME time of course. ;-)

If you're recording from AM you can turn off the internal backlit display so there is no interference.
 
I started a 4-page thread on this topic about 6 months ago and settled for an Olympus 801 with patch chord connected to whatever radio I have around. The only problem I have had with it has to do with one particular radio that produces a loud hiss when I record from it. The one issue I do have with it is I would like something that I can schedule recordings with as I rarely have the time to aircheck especially when on the road. A large number of the airchecks at tophour.com are recorded using a CC Witness and I really don't like the quality of them. I cannot imagine the fm radio actually sounding like that.
 
I usually just use Audacity with input set to stereo mix. The problem I have with this though that a lot of people might not have is my screen reader will end up in the recording if I do anything else, so I just have to let it record.
 
you could get a seprit sound card and have your screene reader run thru that. The second card wouldn't have to have Stereo Mix either. I'm not sure if all of them let you choose which sound card to run from, but I know JAWS does.

You could use a braille display if you have one.

A third option which i'm not entirely sure would work, is if you have a notetaker such as the PAC Mate or BrailleNote Apex, can't you configure those devices to not only act as a braille display, but use it for a synth , too?
Then you could record net streams if you so choose and use your puter to do surfing or whatever with JAWS, WE, NVDA, etc.
 
Yes I could John, I'm not sure if NVDA has a remote synth option though. Another thing I've tried somewhat unsuccessfully is to plug in headphones, which will allow the screen reader to come through the speakers and the music through the headphones. However, it seems that doing that only gets the screen reader. It's a Realtech sound card if that helps troubleshoot this issue.
 
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