recording from the radio?

[theradiokid]

Hi there. I’m new to this board, and don’t even know if I’m in the right place.

I need some help and ideas, and this board seemed to be the best place to pose my question. If I’m in the wrong place, sorry… Still, I hope someone here might be able to help me. Here’s my story and question.

When I travel, I like to record the different radio stations on my travels. I used to do this using an analog walkman tape recording unit from awa. Unfortunatly, the one I had broke.

Now, I’m going to Myrtle Beach next week with my grandparents. This will most likely be my last trip there. As such, I’d like to record some radio from my travels, and from the grand strand itself. Unfortunatly, I had some people do some searching for me, and we cannot find the walkman recorders I’m so used to using. I have come to accept the fact that they do not exist.

I thought about just using a standard tape recorder or a digital recorder and a ceparate radio with a speaker. But that would do nothing more than anoy the grandparents, and, possibly, passers by on the beach.

I have come to the realization that, because most things are moving to digital instead of analog tape, there probably isn’t another easy analog portable machine I can get to use for this, since there’s not much available for tape, anyway. So, I’m wondering if there is some digital device that I can buy that can help me here. But, here’s what I need.

This device must M.U.S.T. be able to fit on my lap in a car without any trouble, and it must be able to record directly off a built in radio.

Also, to complicate matters, I am totally blind. Because most digital technology has visual menus on a screen, this will not help me. The device should have no or little menus or visual display, as I can’t see them, and the grandparents don’t understand them.

If anyone has any ideas for me on what I can get to help me, please email me directly at:
[email protected].

Thanks for your help.

--The Radio Kid
(Oswego, NY.)
My email: [email protected].

 

[Chad-Stevens]

Many better MP3 players can also record from either the built-in FM tuner, a built-in mic, or a line-in. I have a Cowon iAudio7 which can do this. (Caveat: it only records in WMA format)

Back in the pre-digital days, if I wasn't driving, I would take an old digital car radio - which can be had a junkyard or thrift shop for a few dollars - and run it from the vehicle's 12v outlet. I'd take the front speaker wires and put an stereo earphone jack on them and the rear speaker wires through a 8 ohm-to-500 ohm transformer - available at many auto parts stores - and into the recorder. The antenna was a simple clip on car antenna from Radio Shack. They work best if you can hook them direct to the vehicle's body. A luggage rack usually works great. On one occasion, on a rental car, I attached a small strip of metal which I attached to an existing bolt under the hood. I bent the metal strip into a bracket that extended under the hood, up through the gap between the hood and fender and then outward from the vehicle. The antenna clipped on to it and the cable ran in through the door.

Best of luck to you.

 

[fybush]

What you really want is the C. Crane "Witness." It's a portable AM/FM radio with a built-in MP3 recorder, or perhaps it's an MP3 recorder with a built in AM/FM radio. It's about the size of a first-generation iPod, and while it does have a digital display screen for the AM/FM radio, most of the controls are on physical buttons, so it's probably as blind-friendly as anything you're likely to find. There's even timer functionality, so you can set it up to record when you're not there. It has 2 GB of built-in memory, which is good for several hours of recording, and you can insert an SD memory card up to 16 GB for more recording time. Quality's pretty decent, too. It's not cheap - $179 - but it does everything you're looking to do.

 

[Basnya]

Any Goodwill thrift store should have several radio / cassette recorders sitting on the shelf and they probably won't cost more than about $5.00 or so. Send your friends there.

 

[WPPCProductions]

Fleamarkets are a awesome source for old walkmans,boomboxes,car radios .For me ,when I go on my trips in the summer in my car,I have a converted AC/Delco AM/FM car radio from my old 1985 Chevy Caprice stationwagon, Now I use in my Suburu Forester with cigerette lighter plug for power...In my Olds Cutlass Ciera ,I used the same GM AM/FM radio that is in the dash.on both of these GM radios I pop the lid and tapped the audio before the volume pot right after the detector,with a coupling circuit that I build,then I connect the leads to a Edirol R-09HR digital recorders line input.it sounds awesome.before the Edirol ,I used a Sony minidisc the record of this setup.These old GM car radio are the best for DXing.
I dont know how these little mp3 players are with the buildin FM tuners are,I have to get one and test it out.I dont like the wma format, so I probably past on them for now.