Trying to record FM DX in stereo away from home.....

[cd637299]

Hi

Those who know me know that I have recently gone away from home to do mini DXpeditions. With IBOC & such, I pretty much have given up doing much DXing here. Oh I have my 2 outdoor antennas, but.....

Anyway, I would like to record FM DX in stereo when I am on these trips. The only power I can use is either regular batteries or car battery (which is reserved for my TV/VCR combo). I have a power inverter, but that might be too cumbersome & dangerous.

I have looked in the big shops for a "boom box" with an EXT ANT jack or terminals, but seems that nobody makes 'em? Could I attach the F connector to the rod antenna to make it more sensitive, or would that overload the thing?

My lil Kaito 1102 is quite sensitive for the size, and when I am away, the F connection rarely overloads. Maybe there is a STEREO tape recorder I could attach to it?

Last year, I stayed at a motel in the Keys, lugging my huge FM receiver & tape deck. Got some good stuff, but I don't wanna do that again.

I'm just looking for casual answers. Recording in steroe is not earth-shattering.... :D

cd

[KW4RZ]

I don't know of any "boom boxes" that would work for DX. They just don't have the sensitivity and selectivity you need. I've used my Realistic PRO2004 scanning receiver on "DXpeditions". As long as I'm 15+ miles away from any FM station it works pretty good for FM Dxing. Especially having the scan feature which is better than what the usual FM tuner has. A signal only has to be strong enough to break the squelch to stop scan. Within 15 miles or so of locals it starts getting overload. It has a 12 volt DC plug in the back so can be used on the car power. BNC connector for an outside antenna, and also covers all the TV video and audio frequencies plus everything in the 25-520MHz and 760-1300MHz range in AM mode, narrow FM and wide FM. It has a phono plug audio output on the back for recording but it's in mono. Stereo is useless for DXing purposes as it only uses up more memory in recording. The PRO2005 and 2006 models that came out later in the 90's are even better. I think they made another model after that as well. You can find these units on eBay typically for $80-$150. The PRO2004 is only about 2 lbs. and is 10 1/2" x 9" x 3"
For recording from the car I have a Zen Nano which will record in .wav format using the built in mic or .mp3 format using the line in and cord. The unit is the size of a matchbox, uses 1 AAA battery and has 1Gb of memory. It will record for hours. I've not tested exactly how long.
It cost $70 last year.

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

Just tossing out ideas:

I run an old car stereo that I put 110 khz I.F. filters in, works great as a DX machine. For recording, a laptop would be the way to go for recording in stereo. Kinda bulky, but good for logging and other stuff too.

[Eric-AZ]

I am also looking for a way to record FM stereo DX on a portable device. I found a product called the Tascam DR-1 digital audio recorder. It will record in stereo onto a SD memory card, and has a USB connector to transfer files to and from your computer. It is small enough to fit in your pocket, and has 1/8” stereo jacks for line input and line output. The only problem is the price, $200. I just ordered a Sony XDR-F1HD tuner for $100, and because it is the size of a car radio, I can easily pack it into my luggage. Hopefully someday someone will figure out how to modify that tuner so that it can run on 12V! I also have a Radio Shack amplified dipole to use with it on DXpeditions. The only thing missing is an amplifier to drive a pair of headphones, and ideally a way to record what I am receiving in stereo. I am going to wait for a more affordable recorder, but in the meantime, if anyone knows of a stereo amplifier that is smaller than a boombox and has a line input and a headphone jack, I would appreciate hearing about it.

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

A cheap laptop would record nicely, although might be a pain to haul and power up. Otherwise there's the old standard - cassette. :o

[KC5KBV]

A laptop running Audacity would work for the purpose. I'd recommend what Randy said and forget about stereo. Recording in mono requires half the HDD space and go 22k sampling rate instead of 44.1. Thats what I do with my dedicated old PC (now full time for recording mainly FM audio from my HDT-1). Then I convert to .mp3 ASAP.

[Russ-PA]

Motebook PC's are affordable and smaller than laptops.

Also there are simpler and less-expensive recording softwares, such as Total Recorder, which can do what's needed. Another option would be Power Audio Editor, which is a step or two up in functionality and price from TR but still very affordable.

Finally, what about some of the mp3 recorders which are mostly used to record and play music...

Just some additional thoughts....

[pluche]

Don't forget that laptop hard drives may generate unwanted noise which might greatly desensitize your portable FM radio when using the internal telescopic wip to lock on very weak signals.

[K3PHL]

If you go with a laptop for recording, I use "Audio Mid Recorder" for unattended trigger recording based on signal strength. It has seperate db threshold levels to trigger the start and stop of an MP3 recording. It also date and time stamps each file in the file name and allows you to put predefined text in front of it (such as 94-9 or 92-9) so you can tell what frequency you are auto-logging.

I have been using this for a few weeks now to log open channels or channels where I null my nearest local. Then I review the MP3 logs later for tropo and Es.

Steve
K3PHL

[Russ-PA]

Hi, Steve -

The software sounds interesting. I've been using Total Recorder ( reasonable at < $15 ) for over 5 years now for all of my unattended recording for AM & FM DX. It does not have the audio level trigger which I've not heard of before. You most likely know that 'empty' channels don't exist in metro Philadelphia, but that there are some cases where that would be most valuable, and probably the stronger the E skip, the more so. I could see setting it on a channel adjacent to an HD local where that adjacent is normally nothing but hiss until an strong skip event occurs. ( even strong tropo ).

Can you provide some more details on how it works, cost, etc. ?

[Eric-AZ]

I just bought an Olympus WS-210S digital stereo audio recorder at Radio Shack for $80. It is about the size of an MP3 player. It has an external 1/8" stereo input. There is no adjustment for recording level, and the line output from a tuner over drives the recorder and there is distortion. So I bought an in line stereo RCA variable attenuator, model ATTN from hifisoundconnection.com for $16, and I can set the recording level the way I want it. The Olympus recorder saves files in the WMA format, but you can convert those to MP3 on your PC. I have 17 hours of recording time in high quality mode. I have not found a way to pause recording and still have output to the headphones, so I have to record the entire time I am listening to the tuner. Overall this is a fairly affordable solution, considering that I could not find any other stereo recorders under $200.

One other note. If I want to use a home tuner in the car, I use an inverter to power it, and a small FM transmitter to transmit the sound to my car stereo. I have a pair of amplified rabbit ears for an antenna. Someday I will find a way to modify the Sony tuner so I can power it with batteries, so I can do some hiking with it to mountaintops.

[dgillet]

Im using a Sony PCM-D50 recorder for ALL my recording, up to 6 hours at 44.1khz 16 bit. Even recording over the air with the built in mic give amazing result. Also come with Sound Forge 9.0 Software for editing.

Daniel