Gear / Technical Help > Ask The Tapers
Portable FM Recorder?
jdwtyl:
--- Quote from: Bullet1979 on September 22, 2020, 04:36:40 PM ---I'm going to be going to a drive-in concert where I am assuming they will be broadcasting the show via FM. I'm wondering if anyone here has any input on getting the least lossy capture of the FM broadcast?
--- End quote ---
I think Andrew has been using a PA system too, not 100% sure though. Anyways I hope you get a tape and share!
tapeheadtoo:
--- Quote from: hoserama on October 03, 2020, 08:43:28 AM ---
--- Quote from: tapeheadtoo on October 03, 2020, 08:14:55 AM ---
--- Quote from: hoserama on September 23, 2020, 04:08:33 PM ---I had looked at Tecsun PL-880 for exactly this purposes. It has a built-in telescopic antenna, so I'd look to put an SMA or BNC port on it. But that looked nice for drive-in FM pulls.
--- End quote ---
I used this model for a recent drive-in. Great reception with the stock antenna without modification. Unit has both headphone out and line out (obviously I used the latter). I wasn't thrilled with the captured sound though--mono and compressed. Don't know how much of that was due to the broadcast signal vs the radio itself.
--- End quote ---
How's it sound with regular FM audio? I could see the transmission being mono and compressed, but hard to say.
--- End quote ---
Listening now to the line out with regular FM. Sounds the same, mono and compressed. Seems what DSatz noted earlier was correct.
It's been gone for decades so I can't test but I remember my old stereo boombox sounding sparkling clear through headphones. Or maybe it was just the glow of youth.
Certainly this Tecsun is only built to output one channel. Still glad to have it around though. A decent portable radio is a good thing to have.
DSatz said:
<<Actually I disagree. Portable radios don't generally have very wide dynamic range or flat frequency response. They generally have just one signal path, with its response tailored to their built-in amplifier and speaker or speakers. Low-noise, low-distortion circuitry would raise the cost of manufacture significantly, when the market segment that cares about such things is so tiny, it's almost non-existent.>>
Scooter123:
The Tecsun PL-880 is a clone of the C. Crane radios distributed here in California and are similarly priced, quite high actually.
I have a mountain cabin, and the C. Crane radio is the only one I've found that can pick up any stations up there. Both the Tecsun and the C.Crane have mono signals but stereo headphone output, so the receiver portion of the radio must be stereo. Well, at least that's my assumption
morst:
Bump
--- Quote from: morst on September 24, 2020, 01:19:08 PM ---...Android phones have a built-in FM tuner which utilizes the headphone or line cable as an antenna..
--- End quote ---
hoserama:
My experience with using headphone ground antenna systems with ALD recordings has been challenging. Much much easier having an independent antenna.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version