The net last evening was a really good and informative one. I even got to check in for a change, which is rare. Perfect time for the recording to fail and it did.
I am at my wits’ end. I spent a significant amount of time diagnosing and repairing all possible causes of failure and several weeks had passed and I was confident I had it figured out once and for all. After I let my guard down, another failure happened 16 seconds into the recording this past Sunday.
I’m not sure what to do except to have several of us do the recording every week, that way at least one of us captures it. Anyone interested in stepping up, let me know and I will show you how to do it.
I hate to do it, but I may just give up on it. I have alarms, reminders and timers set and still have a sketchy record that all seems like a waste of my time and effort. I enjoy the recordings as much as the rest of you, I am rarely here for the net and get to listen after the fact but the unreliability really has my enthusiasm at zero.
Chris – KC0TKS
Chris, I dont know what kind of setup you have but I may be able to set something up to be a backup to your attempts. If we get a couple of redundant setups that may be our best option. I would guess one would need a radio with an audio out and a computer with some kind of sound card. What program do you use?
Let me know and I can try to mock something up over the next week or so.
Daren
Daren,
I use a free program called Audacity. It is a serious audio recording and editing program. Since I am 100% Linux here, that’s what I use, but the program is available in Windows and I believe Mac variants also, choose your favorite flavor.
I have it set to record using VOX and also in my case, since I am seldom home for the net, on a timer also. So, I set it to begin listening for audio at 7:55PM on Sunday nights and do so for an hour. The result is an Audacity audio file that I later edit to only include the net, then equalize it to remove the 179.9 PL tone which I believe is only there because of the rig I use to supply the audio to the computer, then I export it as a 32 Kbps MP3 so that it is small enough to upload to the website. I can show you how to do all of this. It’s really not as hard as it sounds.
Another problem I had to conquer was the DC offset between the rig and the computer. I did so with a very simple, homebrew isolation cable. I can easily build another one for you. Now that Radio Shack is gone, I will have to scavenge for a transformer instead of buying one, but since my wife says that I have “never thrown away one piece of electronic scrap”, I should easily have dozens around here. I will try to make one up for you before Saturday’s club meeting.