Recording setups for ID's ? ...... Wished you had a camera/tape deck

[Steve_Green]

I'm hardly near being the DXing (ahem) sophisicate I was back as a schoolkid, when it seemed that no station ID in the den went untaped. No wild-reception event went undocumented.

Days are different now; some priorities have adjusted 180 and even 720 degrees at times. It's been quite a while since the phrase 'not getting any' acquired new meaning from 'going all night without IDing a new station'. And yet for some reason the DX hobby has become intriguing again. No doubt my new locale in NE PA has a lot to do with the revival. But with all the mobile activity that often can go into making a living nowadays, time in 'the den' often gets compromised by other distractions. In today's on-the-go whirlpool, DX can strike anywhere.

My question is .... with all the new methods of listening .... with stations now loud and clear with the click of a mouse .... with XM/Sirius and convenient, compact portables .... and with dozens of other attention-grabbers afoot :

What's the most widely used method of recording IDs and maybe a song snippet or a flash of E-skip on the spur of the moment?

Is there an affordable and faithful device that up-to-date DXers have holstered for such emergencies, which also gives good fidelity and which can be transferred efficiently onto a computer ID master file?

 

[spunker88]

You could set up a computer to record when you are gone. I know people who do this with older computer systems. Put your radio on an open frequency and run a patch cable from the system to the microphone input on the computer which is a 3.5mm jack. You can then use a program like Audacity or Total Recorder to capture the audio.

The advantage of using a computer to record is that your audio is already on the computer so no transferring has to be done.
You also can see the sound levels throughout the clip which makes it easy to find the segments where there is usable audio without having to listen to silence/static.
You can amplify audio and cut out clips when you find something usable.

If you want something quicker and more portable, you can find MP3 players that record from a line input. The nice thing about these is they are often quicker to set up and more handy than needing to dedicate a whole computer to recording. And since its an MP3 player, you can transfer the recorded file into a computer and do all of the same things I mentioned above.

Of course you can still use the older ways of recording Dx if you prefer, but Ive found the length of a cassette tape to be too short when there is ES openings, and I never have a blank tape around when I need one.

 

[dxer720]

SteveGreenPA has a good point. Setting up a computer to record while you're gone is a great idea.

If you're looking for something more portable:

There are many MP3 players that can record off their FM radios. The majority of these are iPod-like devices (I think one of Apple's iPods will do this) that use the earbud (earphones) cord as the FM antenna. The radio reception is usually not very good for DXing. These devices also don't offer AM radio. They are also limited to the size of the player's memory.

There are a number of portable radios with built-in MP3 recorders. C. Crane has their CC Witness AM/FM pocket radio that has an MP3 recorder. I have the Pogo Products RadioYourWay LX (of which the CC Witness is a newer version) that records onto an SD card, & the date, time, band & frequency are encoded in the file name of each recording.

I use the large Sangean PR-D8, that has AM & FM. It also records on an SD card. You can copy the files to your computer from the card. I use a 16GB card, but the manual says you can use up to 32GB. It's radio is pretty good, too. It also has a line-in jack if you want to record from some other audio source. The files that this radio makes are only sequentially numbered.

I also have a Degen DE-1125 handheld AM/FM/SW radio that records. The radio's very good, but the recordings are very low quality & records onto the radio's internal memory which is only 2GB. You connect this radio to your computer & it shows up as another drive.

All the radio's I've mentioned have timers to record while your away.

There are even others I haven't mentioned. I think Grundig offers one.

 

[phil]

Why not try a portable digital (voice) recorder? They all have several recording speeds/bit rates. They have built-in mics plus a jack for external mic/line-in. Most have fast playback with pitch correction. Many have built-in timers Almost all have excellent voice activated modes, using a buffer to capture all audio, so you never miss the beginning. Models are available with USB connections, some will even have a USB plug that swivels out, eleimating the need for a cable. I have models made by both Sony and Olympus, and both are well made with easy to operate controls. They have a one button record, and start almost instantly. Be careful, lower priced models do not have USB connections for transferring files to a computer. Also, on some you can divide a file in the recorder, then delete the portion you do not want. You can save into different folders, and move from one folder to another. You should be able to find one that will meet your needs for about $40.

 

[spunker88]

If you are looking for a good MP3 player with line in recording CNET has a review on some:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6490_7-6543950.html

They also have reviews for MP3 players with decent FM tuners.

http://reviews.cnet.com/2795-6490_7-402.html
I have the Sandisk Sansa Clip + which makes the list and this model will also record from FM. Im pretty sure it has DSP or something similar, its only limitation is the headphone wire being the antenna.

I am going to try and build a way to add an antenna input without it going up the earphones. I haven't done any work on it yet, but Im guessing it uses the inner ground contact on the 3.5mm jack as an antenna. If i connect a splitter to the headphone jack, add a diode to the ground connector before running to the headphones, that in theory would stop the antenna from using the headphones. Then on the other side of the splitter I would splice in a coax connector using the ground from the headphone wire as the inner wire of the coax cable. This setup in theory would allow me to listen to audio by allowing the audio to go through the diode but any signal the headphone wire pulls in wouldn't be able to get back to the player because of the diode. Instead the antenna would be hooked to the other side of the splitter where the ground line is not restricted but the audio lines (L+,R+) are cut off.