• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Recording From the Radio - Your Help Needed

S

ScottBurns

Like all of you, I am an avid DX'er. Being passionate about FM DX'ing, I have always loved to record my catches. Over the years, I have never let technology stand in the way; to this day, I still use cassette tapes. I have thousands of tapes of my DX'ing catches.

In particular, I have used portable, Walkman-type recording devices. They are efficient, and I can use them discreetly in airports, where I love to DX. My problem is as follows. My last portable stereo cassette recorder finally broke today. It was a Panasonic RQ-A200. It lasted about two and a half years.

I have spent the entire afternoon searching for a replacement, but given how outdated the technology is, I have found no luck.

Do any of you still use cassettes? Are any of you willing to potentially sell me a Walkman-style portable cassette recorder? Or do any of you have other suggestions for recording from the radio? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. This is a huge passion of mine, and I next travel on January 16th, which will provide me an opportunity to record more out-of-town stations as well as DX.

You can reach me at my e-mail address: [email protected]. Thanks again.

Scott
 
Thanks for the E-Bay tip. E-Bay doesn't have any Sony models that record. I have a broken Sony WM-SR10. I have never found anyone able to fix it. I just found a Panasonic model on there, however. I'd be willing to spend anything short of $100.
 
I use a Sony digital voice recorder, which I find works very well as opposed to cassette which I had used before hand
 
The computer techie who comes by here every so often to disinfect the system is originally from Russia. He generally arrives with a huge Cossack hat and a Muscovite trench coat, the inside linings of which are CDs containing remedies and programs to expediate the periodical overhaul. It's as though an Iron Curtain Robocop has arrived.

During one session of de-bugging the rig, which had picked up some virus and threatened to X everything on it, he unsolicitedly mentioned that the best sound reproduction he'd ever heard in his life was from 1/4-inch reel-to-reel tape. I've kept that in mind ever since.

I don't have an operating reel-to-reel, so, since casettes and casette decks are plentiful here, the DX goes right into them. Okay ... so it's 1/8th inch tape. Same difference. I have a prodigal C-90 in the deck at all times to record 'whatever' from the radio. The 'good' stuff from it gets transferred to mp3.

Even before our computer techie was born (he's maybe mid-Thirties), I'd had a lot of sonic fun listening to reel-to-reel music and DX. His offhand claim that tape does it best is just fine with me.
 
As my remaining cassette portables die on me - and as blank media becomes harder and harder to find - I'm looking at a few digital options. A friend of mine bought two Marantz PMD620 solid-state recorders and uses those, with a patch cord, to record from a portable radio. Great quality, kinda pricey.

I have my eye on the C. Crane "Witness" portable, which seems to do everything the old recording Walkmen did, but using an SD card (up to 16 GB) instead of tape. (I also tried the Grundig G4 World Recorder, which promised the same thing, but the quality was terrible and I returned it.)
 
The Creative Zen M MP3 records up to 10 hours of radio at a time. I recorded about 4 hours of the best of 2008 countdown from our local rock station WRNR. You can then connect the Zen M to your audio reciever by a Y cord and listen to it just like a tape or CD recording. You may want to check to make sure the ZEN M still has the FM receiver and recording ability. I purchased mine in late 2006.
 
Thank you for your responses. Nick, searching Google, I have not found one that records directly from the radio. I have found online electronics sites that are supposedly selling the Panasonic RQ-A220, but then when I try to click to buy, the sites say that they are all out of the specific inventory.

Scott, is there any way you can enlighten me on what an SD card does? Technologically, I do not know much!

Thanks again.
 
ScottBurns said:
Scott, is there any way you can enlighten me on what an SD card does? Technologically, I do not know much!

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

It's a flash memory card. If you have a digital camera, you have one (or something like it - there are other formats, such as CF) inside. All it does is hold digital data, up to 16 GB for the latest models. That's several THOUSAND hours of MP3 audio at a moderate bitrate. No more fumbling with blank tapes, worrying about recording over something, or having the tape run out just as the station's about to ID.

Plug the recorder into your computer, and you can transfer the audio right to your hard drive. Easy as pie.
 
Scott, thanks for the info. I am definitely going to look into this option. I have two e-Bay bids on cassette recorders, but this could bring my DX'ing, as well as storage, into the 1990s!

One more question: Where can I find the C. Crane "Witness" portable?

Thanks in advance.
 
A nifty VCR trick! (was Re: Recording From the Radio - Your Help Needed)

Here's something nifty you might want to do for recording DX or long duration radio shows. More than likely, most of you out there have some old Stereo VHS Hi-FI decks laying around. More than likely, you have not used them in quite sometime (DVD's are the thing now). Why not dust off these forgotten electronic entertainment devices and put them to some use. Simply, grab a few T-120's (VCR tapes, folks). Set your speed on the VCR to the SLP mode. Connect your audio (radios) to the AV inputs, the red and white inputs (do not plug anything, especially video in the video "yellow" input) and there you have it. 6 hours of continuous audio in full almost digital quality Stereo. To edit, simply playback your DX from your VCR one time (in real time) to the soundcard on your computer and use Audicity software to digitize it. It's great if your out on the town for a few hours and there's a DX opening happening, or maybe some Meteor Scatter happens while you sleep overnight. Let the VCR do the work (so you don't have tooooooooooo........)!

A great way to should an "old dog" some new tricks!

Try it out!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom