Communications Recording

[♠SARKID♠]

I've been doing something dangerous lately - thinking.  What if we digitally recorded all mission radio audio?  I mean literally recording the sound from the radios.  This could have triple purpose.  First, we always strive for message accuracy, and having a digital copy to listen back to could save a lot of errors from happening.  That of course would be no excuse for good radio practice.  Second, in the undesired event of a legal action against a mission where all the forms and files are pulled for an investigation, we would have an EXACT copy of the radio traffic passed.  Third, imagine how great of a teaching aid it would be for trainees to listen to their mistakes.  A lot of people freak out when they key the mic and don't even know what they are saying.

I'm sure that systems already exist for this purpose - 911 and police dispatch already use it.  The cost factor is what I'd like to know about though; I have no idea as to how much those systems run.  It may actually be relatively cheap if you used a software that records and date/time stamps each transmission via a VOXed microphone input.

[DeputyDog]

I've been doing something dangerous lately - thinking.  What if we digitally recorded all mission radio audio?  I mean literally recording the sound from the radios.  This could have triple purpose.  First, we always strive for message accuracy, and having a digital copy to listen back to could save a lot of errors from happening.  That of course would be no excuse for good radio practice.  Second, in the undesired event of a legal action against a mission where all the forms and files are pulled for an investigation, we would have an EXACT copy of the radio traffic passed.  Third, imagine how great of a teaching aid it would be for trainees to listen to their mistakes.  A lot of people freak out when they key the mic and don't even know what they are saying.

I'm sure that systems already exist for this purpose - 911 and police dispatch already use it.  The cost factor is what I'd like to know about though; I have no idea as to how much those systems run.  It may actually be relatively cheap if you used a software that records and date/time stamps each transmission via a VOXed microphone input.

Yes, the systems do exist. Here is what my department uses:

http://www.jei-inc.net/products/dvrd.php

To be honest, it is a piece of junk (if I remember right, the cost was around $2,000 or so and is unreliable). Luckily, it couldn't be used for what you are talking about. You would need something portable that plugs into the radio and that can tap into its power source.

A few things to think about:

1. Which radios would you want recording? Base stations, mobiles? Handhelds would be out of the question.

2. There are cheaper ways of recording. Handheld cassette recorders would do the trick. Set it next to the radio and hit the record button every time there is radio traffic (or set it to voice activate if the communications area is "conversation sterile").

[♠SARKID♠]

I was thinking just base stations.

Yeah, the tape recorder is one way of doing it, but I was thinking more like taking the audio outputs from the radios external speakers and splitting them into a laptop.   That way you can have a digital date/time stamp on each clip.

Either this is a good idea, or I'm just spouting ideas like a noob again. 

[Flying Pig]

Keeping it for training, or in the case of a misunderstood message is one thing.  Keeping it for liability purposes is a whole different game.

[Short Field]

Keeping it for liability purposes is a whole different game.

Which could have a real chilling effect on members' willingness to participate...

[magnum]

I picked up an audio recording interface cable from aircraft spruce - http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/recordingCable.php

with the intention of hooking it to a (yet to be identified) digital audio recorder.  It should be capable of recording all the radio and intercom in the plane.  My idea was to have voice annotation to integrate with robo-geo's geotagging of pictures during photo missions, instead of (or maybe in addition to) trying to take written notes.  The recorder would need to have some type of VOX feature to start a new recording everytime the squelch was broken,  time stamp each recorded snippet and then be able to upload them as files to a laptop (via USB), then robogeo will (supposedly - I haven't tested it yet) link the audio with the picture.  I'm not sure how it would handle four shots taken during one descriptive audio track, but I'm sure that can be sorted out manually.

I assume it could be used on a base station for more generalized mission purposes if the base radio has a headset jack.  I expect a pocket digital recorder with the necessary features shouldn't be more than $50-$100.  At a base station it may be possible to find a software application to run on a laptop and just plug the adapter straight into the mic port, skipping the intermediate step, although for basic recording purposes you could just set it to 'record' and get one mondo audio file for the entire day, and worry about editing it only if it becomes necessary due to some issue.  I'll dig around a bit and see what I can find.  A quick google search turned up this:
http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=3985

ch

[desertengineer1]

From a hobby standpoint, this is very easy to do.  I use a standard M - M cable from the output of my PCR-1000 and scanner recorder shareware software.  It has a nifty setting to record only when a certain audio threshold is met.

Again, it's fun for hobby level, but doesn't have much utility beyond that.  If you want to use it for training, and have the time to spend, I'm jealous.

I've been doing something dangerous lately - thinking.  What if we digitally recorded all mission radio audio?  I mean literally recording the sound from the radios.  This could have triple purpose.  First, we always strive for message accuracy, and having a digital copy to listen back to could save a lot of errors from happening.  That of course would be no excuse for good radio practice.  Second, in the undesired event of a legal action against a mission where all the forms and files are pulled for an investigation, we would have an EXACT copy of the radio traffic passed.  Third, imagine how great of a teaching aid it would be for trainees to listen to their mistakes.  A lot of people freak out when they key the mic and don't even know what they are saying.

I'm sure that systems already exist for this purpose - 911 and police dispatch already use it.  The cost factor is what I'd like to know about though; I have no idea as to how much those systems run.  It may actually be relatively cheap if you used a software that records and date/time stamps each transmission via a VOXed microphone input.

[Pylon]

Keeping it for training, or in the case of a misunderstood message is one thing.  Keeping it for liability purposes is a whole different game.

One doesn't get to choose the purpose once you've retained a record like this.  In other words, if you record a SAREX to you can review it later for performance, but something goes horribly wrong, you can't tell the lawyers or the judge, "Well, you can't use this recording... we only recorded it for training..." 

[BlackKnight]

A couple of years ago my squadron had a communications officer who was completely blind.  He used voice recognition software (JAWS) on his laptop to convert words spoken on the radio into a written radio log that was automatically time-stamped and saved on our squadron file-server.  It was pretty slick once he got the software tuned properly.

[billford1]

I think it's not a bad idea so long as the transcripts are not used for punitive purposes. If there is justification to record communications activity it should include a mechanism to encode the radio transmission with the asset's GPS location in order to monitor the movement of ground and air assets if possible to allow more efficient deployment.