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Doug,
I have the Radio Your Way (RYW) and find it fulfills its intended purpose, i.e. recording primarily talk radio type programs on a scheduled basis. It has both headphone (stereo) and speaker (mono) output for use as a normal AM/FM radio or as a recorded audio player.
The RYW comes with either 32MB or 128MB of internal flash RAM - not a mechanical drive. There are two recording modes - ADPCM 32Kbps and 16Kbps - which provides 135/270 minutes of recording time on the 32MB model or 480/960 minutes on the 128MB model. The RYW also allows up to 256MB on an external MMC/SD style flash memory card, which would add another 960/1920 minutes per card.
Recording - whether from external source or internal FM stereo radio - is only in mono, hence my comment about recording primarily for talk radio. You can use the headphones to monitor what is being recorded. During playback there is available 10 times fast forward and reverse with sound - choppy snippets not speeded up full audio - and 100 times fast forward and reverse without sound in stopped mode.
The RYW can be loaded through the USB (1.1) connection with MP3 audio which will play in stereo as does the built-in FM radio through stereo headphones. Non-audio data can also be stored on the internal and external flash memory via the USB connection, for transfer or back-up purposes.
There is a built-in microphone for voice recording and a mike-in jack which operates at line-in levels (a pre-amplified microphone is required for the external connection). This serves well for recording - in mono - from various audio devices with line-out connections, such as other radios. (I have used it, for example, to record from XM Satellite Radio as well as my NRD-535D. A recording from the 535 was transferred to my PC, digitally cleaned up and slowed down which let me recognize a difficult station ID.)
Recordings can be scheduled from designated AM and FM stations, or external mic/line-in on a specific day of the week, five days a week, every day of the week basis, at prescribed start and stop times to either the internal or external flash memory. There are 10 of these, what are called reserved recordings, allowed.
Recorded files are time/date stamped, but with a predefined naming convention. The file names can be changed to something more descriptive on the PC but not directly on the RYW. The renamed files could be reloaded on the RYW, but since the file name is not shown on the display - only a sequence number of when the recording was made relative to other recordings - this would only be of use when the player is next accessed through the USB port by the PC software.
The unit operates from either 2-AAA batteries or external power adapter (sold separately).
Some other things to be aware of. The recording format (RVF) is proprietary, so using the created recording files anywhere other than on the RYW and its included PC software requires conversion. The provided PC software includes a convert to WAV function. There is also available from an independent source, a free utility to convert the RVF to MP3. These two formats are apparently quite similar since the conversion is almost instantaneous - suggesting only header information is modified in the conversion process. Since RVF files are mono and MP3 files are stereo, this need for conversion makes sense.
Some USB devices function as plug-and-play style external disk drives, accessible on the PC by any application through added drive letters. The RYW, however, requires the use of its own RYW-Explorer program to access the files created and stored on the RYW. This program allows the movement of files to and from PC and RYW (and performs the aforementioned RVF-to-WAV conversion). This use of a specific PC application is not optimal, but has proven to not be a problem. This program also plays the RVF files on the PC without any conversion.
There are no audio editing functions on the RYW or in the RYW-Explorer PC software. That would require a separate piece of software such as the popular and free, Audacity audio editing program.
I hope this helps. Any questions, I'll try to answer them.
Curt
-------Original Message-------
From: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
Date: 10/26/04 04:21:51
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
Subject: Re: [IRCA] More Recording DX
Doug,
I just looked at the C.Crane link that you posted. Agreed that the radio would be a throw-away part of this item, and that leaves a recorder that costs $160. The page says there is a 32MB "drive" in it. If it is a drive and not RAM, I would be concerned with drive functionality unless the recorded is treated gently at all times. You might consider two other options...
1. Radio Shack has Olympus voice recorders starting at $40 that can record 45 minutes at the highest quality and 2 hours at the lowest quality. Higher-priced Olympus models can record for up to 3 hours (high Q) or 8 hours (low Q). You can plug radio headphone outpit into the MIC input of the recorder for a direct link (unless there is an impedance issue...not sure there).
2. Everyone always forgets the most obvious solution...take radio output into the audio line in jacks of a VCR. You can get up to 8 hours of audio in the slowest mode.
Mike Hawkins
Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers
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