Recording on shortwave
 

What is the best device to get in order to be able to record from the
Shortwave radio? I am looking for something that would record quite a bit
longer than the 30 minutes offered from cassettes.

Thanks for your input

Pierre

Peter wrote:

What is the best device to get in order to be able to record from the
Shortwave radio? I am looking for something that would record quite a bit
longer than the 30 minutes offered from cassettes.

Thanks for your input

Pierre

You are aware that cassettes are available in lengths greater than 30
minutes?

Minidiscs can be used in mono to get double the standard 74 minutes.(148)
I believe that the newer ones can record in MP3 format and get much longer
times than that. Although, a PC or laptop and appropriate software would
provide an almost limitless recording time.

Peter wrote:

What is the best device to get in order to be able to record from the
Shortwave radio? I am looking for something that would record quite a bit
longer than the 30 minutes offered from cassettes.

Thanks for your input

Pierre

a vcr

Depending on what you want (permanent recording? self-starting?)

Viking Systems 10-hr recorder (uses 120 casette tape) records 5 hours
before you have to turn it over for the other 5 hours. Get the VOX
and MON options, about $200. It has some flutter problems if the
internal rubber-band belt starts oscillating on some fraction of
the units. Fussing with it fixes it. Not very high tech but more
reliable than an IC recorder and has cheap removable and permanent
medium. I have about 5 years of Imus on these things. One recorder
does not track precisely what another unit records (the heads must
differ in their placement) but it's fine playing back its own stuff.
With the VOX option, it starts when the radio starts. With the MON
option, you can tell it's not distorting. There's an automatic level
control but it does have limits.

http://www.vikingint.com/frequent.htm

Pogo RipFlash, load it with 2 NiHM AAA's and it records a full 128mb
at 64kbs in 4hours 38 minutes and then shuts off. It's temperamental
if not handled carefully, but gives a very high quality recording
on internal media. You have to be there to start it.

It will record 19h at 16kbs which would be fine for shortwave, but
the batteries won't go that long. If the batteries die, nothing at
all is saved and future recordings won't work either because some
memory pointer is hosed. (It can be fixed by clearing memory and
then recording a throw-away full memory at 192kbs (1.5 hr), and then
deleting that.) These are great if you just want to save what you're
listening to in case you want to replay it again right away.

It can up and download mp3's but I haven't used it with a computer.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...l/-/B000066HOH
is the model I have. They have other newer models, but I don't know
if they work without a computer to support them or not.

The jacks are flakey on some units. Fast forwarding through 4 hours
can take quite a while, but then it does with tape too.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

I should add that I've had great success with a real audio encoder
running in batch mode, for making permanent recordings to the hard
drive. The virtue over MP3 is size. At 8kbs the Real Audio encoding
is fine for voice and takes 4mb/hr, which is very tiny as these things
go. I have ``real encoder 5.0.1'' free from the real audio site,
probably well hidden and replaced by a subsequent product.

My HD is full of audio clips.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

I agree.


"MrTimNebo" wrote in message
...

a vcr

Jim wrote:

Ron;

Can you explain how to use the BATCH mode? I use Real Encoder but
was not familiar with Batch mode.

Look for rvbatch in the real folder

A line like
rvbatch rvencode.exe /a sipr 1 /o day.Dec.04.19.rm /l /d 0:59:50 /y 0 /r 1

encodes a file named day.Dec.05.19.rm of duration 0:59:50 with codec sipr 1
(8kbs)

The documentation is also on the real folder somewhere.

I launch these from a clock scheduler so I don't even have to be around.

You may have to add or remove the .exe on rvencode or rvbatch in the
command line, depending on what your system assumes about names.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:
A line like
rvbatch rvencode.exe /a sipr 1 /o day.Dec.04.19.rm /l /d 0:59:50 /y 0 /r 1

encodes a file named day.Dec.05.19.rm of duration 0:59:50 with codec sipr 1
(8kbs)

dnet 9
is a good minimum-sized music codec (11 kbs)
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Jim wrote:

Thanks Ron. Does the RVBATCH run only under DOS or does
it run under Windows? I'll try to locate the help file. I found that
6.5 Kbps sampling is OK for voice programs, yielding about
3 Megs/hour. It shure would be nice to have the timer function
though.

Well, you need to be able to put a command line somewhere. I run under MKS Korn shell,
which is a replacement for DOS mode on win95. But a scheduler that lets you put a
command line in to be run at a certain time certainly allows it.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.