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Recording DX & local stations on trips in stereo

C

cd637299

Guest
Hi

I like to record my DX on trips----and if the FM reception is good enough, I'd like to record in stereo.

I just bought a *second* digital voice recorder, but unfortunately it will not record in stereo. Are there any digital voice recorders around that do? I will have to return this one, as I have returned another one. I thought with today's technology, this wouldn't be too hard!

I don't feel like lugging around a large tape deck, which will eat up the wattage on a power inverter.

Can any of you recommend one----that's affordable?

cd
 
www.store.sony.com has a full featured digital recorder for $60 with free shipping. For $70 you can a desk style with larger, easier to use controls. both have provision for external memory card.
 
Most of the Olympus voice recorders do stereo (it's easy to tell, because they have a pair of mics at the top) - but they also, for the most part, have automatic level control that, in my experience, doesn't work well at all for airchecking. The next step up would be something like a Zoom H1 or one of the bottom-of-the-line Tascams. They can take a line-level input instead of a mic-level input and they allow you to set levels manually - and they still price out at only $100 or so, street.
 
I have a Sony ICD-PX820 I bought a few years ago that does stereo. It was around $40 to $50 and records in MP3 format allowing you to choose a few different bitrates. It runs from 2 AA batteries or can be powered by its mini USB port. I've been recording ES on it since 2011, and I don't think I could ever go back to tapes. The LCD on it will display the current time in the recording so during an ES opening I can note the time in the recording when I want to go back to it later. Also the MP3 files will have a date and time associated with them so I can figure out exactly when the audio was recorded.

This model appears to have been replaced with the ICD-PX312 on Amazon, from the listing it still does stereo and they have added a microSD slot, compared with mine which is limited to 2GB of built in memory.
 
gar fla said:
I find it easier to simply take a video with my little $50 'Flip' video camera from Cisco.

It records in stereo too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O38Ij1HDj10
Click to expand...

Does it have a line in to bypass the mics?

I'll have to scratch my idea of using a consumer grade mp3 player. I spent some time in the pits of hell known as Best Buy today and none of the mp3 players on display had any kind of line input or mics for recording anything. God, I hate unitaskers!

Now I know I must do everything in my power to keep this little iRiver running. Rockbox overlaid software makes it into an iPod killer of a device, but it does have a physical hard drive which has a finite life.
 
Does it have a line in to bypass the mics?
Click to expand...

No, it's a very simple camera but it produces high quality video and audio.

I figure that in this age of video, it's better to have a visual to go along with the sound of a DXing catch.
 
cd637299 said:
Thanks guys. I am leaning toward this model:

http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-VN-70...174858&sr=1-4&keywords=digital+voice+recorder

And I do want to add that I think gar fla has a point. You want to show where you are when these catches are made. In that case, stereo would not be a necessity.

cd
Click to expand...

The design and features on both look similar to the Sony recorder I have. It probably doesn't matter what model you buy. The display looks a bit nicer on the Olympus. The owners manual for the Olympus mentions stereo recording via the external jack and also mentions adjustable mic gain which my Sony recorder has. You'll want to make sure you turn the gain setting from high to low otherwise audio recorded from line level input will sound overmodulated.

I own the older model of this Sony recorder which I can confirm records in stereo, the newer model retails for around the same price and according to the owners manual it still has stereo and they have also added official support for audio in. I'm not sure if that means anything different than just a setting that switches the gain to low.
Here is the Amazon listing for it:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Digital-Flash-Recorder-ICD-PX312/dp/B004M8SSZK/ref=dp_ob_title_ce
 
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