Need Advice: Do You Have Any Experience Recording Scanner Radio Calls?

[aeromarine]

I'd like to record calls off my scanner on an ongoing basis and capture them on a digital recorder. Any advice on the best way to do that and what equipment to use? I have a Bearcat 996XT. I was thinking I could just run a wire from the speaker port to a VOX activated recorder. Ideally, it would be one that has long battery life and a fair amount of digital memory. Please chime in if you have any experience doing that. I'd like to know if you encountered any problems and how you overcame them. Also, I'd be curious to know if you have any recommendations on what brand/model recorder to use. Thanks!

 

[cockpitbob]

I have a 12 year old Olympus VN-5200PC voice recorder that I've used for that kind of thing (airport tower chatter). It has VOX, low power draw, lots of memory. It's buttons are a little complicated to figure out (deleting a file is stupid-complicated) but it works. They don't make it anymore but there's plenty on dBay for $30. The other bad thing about this one is it only records in .wav files so you have to convert them to .mp3.

I bet there's a better solution today, but I'm not up on the latest. Good luck.

 

[aeromarine]

Thanks, Cockpitbob, for the advice.

In the meantime I also realized there is a REC (record) port on the 996XT that bypasses the speaker cut-out function that result when using the SPKR outlet. Additionally, you can flag the frequencies you want to record so you only record them and not everything one being scanned which is kind of neat. Now I just need to find a digital recorder with a VOX function. It appears Sony makes a few good ones. Additionally, it seems there are some PC software programs out there that might also be useful though I need to do some additional research on them. Agree MP3 files are preferred.

 

[fog]

I haven't done this, but am interested how you make out with it. I worry about there being lag between the transmission starting and VOX registering. (Unless you're monitoring something with MDC or the like.)

I learned only recently that the Broadcastify web streams are all recorded, but accessible only to $$ members. It's also a clunky interface where you download MP3s in 30-minute increments, full of silence in between transmissions. I didn't find it worth renewing, but it's out there.

 

[Kevin_NH]

If you're looking to also handle APCO/P25, the Uniden Home Patrol has built-in digital recording functionality, and stores metadata with each recording. It takes an internal MicroSD card and has a USB port.

 

[n1bsbri]

I haven't done this, but am interested how you make out with it. I worry about there being lag between the transmission starting and VOX registering. (Unless you're monitoring something with MDC or the like.)

I learned only recently that the Broadcastify web streams are all recorded, but accessible only to $$ members. It's also a clunky interface where you download MP3s in 30-minute increments, full of silence in between transmissions. I didn't find it worth renewing, but it's out there.

Broadcastify now eliminates the silence in the recordings, so you only get the actual transmissions. Other than that, same 30-minute windows to download...

ETA: I'm not sure if it's helpful for the OP (depending on the situation), but you can run the free program Audacity, and it has an option for sound-activated recording. Probably not a good solution if you want to record for a long time period, since it ties up a computer, but for short term use, it has the advantage of being essentially free. You will probably need an audio cord to connect the scanner record output to the line in on your computer.

www.audacityteam.org/

 

[jasons]

Freescan has a recording feature: http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FreeScan_Audio_Recording