[amsat-bb] Re: Digital Voice Recorder

[Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)]

Clint,

> Most of the SmartPhones out there have the capability of recording audio -
> I'd hate to see you go out and purchase a new unit when a $5-or-less
> application would do it for you!

Although my Nokia N900 has an audio-recording app I installed (a
freebie), I rarely use that.  Some phones make it difficult to plug in
a patch cable to record audio that way, and prefer you to use the
phone's mic element to do the recording.  My phone has a 4-
conductor 3.5mm (1/8") jack that is used for audio going in or
out of the phone plus composite video output.  I can plug standard
earbuds or headphones with a 3-conductor 3.5mm plug into the
jack, but would have to make an adapter if I wanted to use it to
record audio off that jack.  If I am not using a splitter to record audio
(i.e., working ISS passes or anything not full-duplex), I will run the
recording app and my audio recorder near the radio's speaker to
have multiple copies of the audio.  Plus the N900 phone app uses
WAV as the native format, so I have to run those files through
Audacity or some other program on a computer to convert them to
MP3s.

The recorder I use for my satellite work (Sony ICD-PX820) has a
USB cable, uses MP3 as its native recording format (4 different
encoding rates, depending on the audio quality), and looks like
a thumbdrive or external hard drive when plugged into a computer.
I don't need to use any special software to transfer audio from the
recorder to the computer, but the software that comes with it will
convert audio between different formats including MP3 and WAV
(the software is used to transfer recordings from other Sony
recorders that do not present themselves to a computer as a USB
drive).  It has standard 3.5mm jacks for audio in and out, so my
audio patch cables work fine with it.  Much more convenient to work
with than my phone with its app.  Many other recorders have USB
interfaces, use MP3 natively, and are not terribly expensive.  More
than $5, but you don't have to go too expensive to have something
that has most or all of this functionality.

73!






Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/