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V1.9

Page updated 05/09/2009

Release 1.9 is the current version.

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Scanner Recorder Pro

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Scanner Recorder (Scanrec) is a free audio recorder that is primarily designed to record speech. It has a VOX control that allows the user to save disk space when no sound is present in the signal.

Since FM communications has such an effective squelch, the recorder works best with FM. HF ham bands and World Band radio have such a poor signal to noise ratio that the VOX gate on Scanrec might not be very easy to set.

Some of the uses of Scanner Recorder are:

• Recording radio communications.
• Recording channels that hardly ever have activity. Catch rarely heard conversations.
• Air traffic control recording.
• Dictation.
• Record (compressed) broadcast radio or TV and listen to it when it's more convenient.

Here's an explanation on what Scanner Recorder does:

• Scanner Recorder provides a switched recorder that listens to the sound coming into the audio card and if the sound is above the minimum threshold, the recorder operates. If the sound level falls below the threshold, the recorder pauses.
• Since the recorder starts and stops based on what it hears, Scanner Recorder incorporates an anti-clipping feature that keeps the very beginning of the audio that breaks the squelch threshold from being clipped off. The result is that when sound is played back, there is no noticeable "click". Also the beginning of the audio event is not clipped off (like mechanical vox recorders do).
• The output file format only supports WAV files. Currently you will need a separate WAV player capable of playing very large files. The Media Player that comes with Windows 95 (and NT) works fine to play back the files. It is capable of playing back very large files.
  

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Computer:

486 PC or faster.

Memory:

4 MB RAM

Disk Space:

770K bytes.

Operating System:

All 32 bit versions of Windows, (Win95 - XP)

Hardware:

Windows compatible sound card that has either a microphone or line input.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Scanner Recorder is free. It is provided for you to download at my expense and from donations. Donations are a great way to show your appreciation for the time and money that went into providing this software to download.

 

UPDATES

V1.2

• Sound card sample-rate control.
• Auto stop on disk nearly full.
• Disk free space % display.
• Graphical squelch threshold indicator.
• Index file (.IDX) created with same name as .WAV file. Different index files can be viewed.

V1.3

• Log file now (.log) now contains ANSI text.
• Fixed 2 squelch bugs.
• Duration of each event is recorded in the log file now.
• More compact display.
• Standard installer/deinstaller now available.

V1.3.2

• Modified the log file display format. The time format in the rightmost column (event start) displays hh:mm:ss format which is also used with the Windows 95 and Windows NT's Media Player applet.
• Fixed a bug related to the log file duration column. If the numbers got above a certain amount, the time would be incorrect.
• Fixed a possible problem in the audio section.

V1.4 (Beta)

• Added audio compression to the output file.

V1.4.1

• Fixed bug related to device in use after canceling Save dialog.
• Added option to disable data compression.

V1.5

• Added 16 bit stereo support
• Added squelch release delay parameter (in the options menu).
• Automatic DC offset calibration.
• New brushed aluminum look

V1.6

• The visible image problem has been fixed. There was a problem that caused users with large fonts selected to see a mal-formed semi-transparent view of the control panel. This problem has been fixed by removing the aluminum finish skin and replacing it with a standard windows generic look. I also changed the size of the program main window because it looked too big. Removing the aluminum was a temporary measure to fix a problem and will be restored after more code to fix the size problem is added.
• Fixed problems related to the DC offset correction system. (See FAQ below for info on how to use the new buttons).
• The remaining time display (in the upper left of the program main window) will now show the time remaining on the destination hard disk during recording. This is handy for knowing how much time the recorder can be run without any human intervention. The remaining time is based on recording with the squelch open. If the squelch is set properly, the actual remaining time will be larger than the value being displayed. Note: The remaining time will appear as a percentage of the free space if you are not using Windows 98 or later. Older versions of Windows (in other words, Windows 95) will not support the time left feature and will be replaced with a percentage indicator. Also this display shows a percentage until you select the output file path then the display changes to a time display.

V1.5 and V1.6 Release Notes:

1. This version of Scanrec was thrown together in an afternoon by taking pieces from the unfinished new version (2.0) and fusing them with the old version (1.4). No future updates are planned for this version except when necessary to fix bugs.
2. There is a known problem with some compression formats where it says something about "acmFormatChoose".
3. The .INI file (located in your Windows folder) is no longer called ADAR.INI, but is now called SCANREC.INI.

V1.7

• Stereo squelch problem fixed. This was the problem that caused the left and right channels to get mixed up.
• Added Pip tone to the options menu. This inserts a short high-pitched sine wave into the recorded content. Currently the tone is fixed at 2500 HZ -6DB but there will eventually be a way to set the pip parameters yourself.
• Added Anti-Clipping switch to the options menu to prevent the anti-clipping squelch behavior. Anti clipping has always been part of this recorder but now there's a way to turn it off if it's not needed.

V1.8

• Bug fixed to allow the recorder to work on very old versions of Win95.

V1.8.1

• Bug fixed to properly close and save the .wav and .log files when the system is shut down or the user logs off.

V1.8.1.1

• Log file shows which stereo channel triggered the squelch if recording in stereo.

V1.9

• Added EULA (end user license agreement) page.
• Repackaged using the Microsoft Installer

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Copyright (©) 2008 D. Jacobs