(meteorobs) New Recorder

[David Oesper]

Hi Mark,

I recently purchased an RCA RP5022B digital voice recorder (DVR) at
the new Wal-Mart Supercenter here in Dodgeville, WI and am very happy
with it.  I don't usually buy things at Wal-Mart, but I live in a
small town now (for astronomy reasons) and it is the only source
locally for such things.

Anyway, make sure you use two LITHIUM AAA batteries, and purchase an
external hand-held microphone with a big on-off button you can feel
through gloves.  I drilled a hole in a small Tupperware container and
installed a phono-plug to mini-phone plug adapter in the hole.  The
external microphone plugs into the outside of the Tupperware container
and the mini-phono plug on the inside of the Tupperware container
plugs into the DVR.  After I hit the record button on the DVR and push
the + button to put it into "Hi Sensitivity" mode (very important so
none of your speech is clipped), I seal the Tupperware container with
the lid to keep dew/frost out and offer some thermal protection from
the elements.  When your external microphone is switched off, a dim
red LED blinks on and off slowly to let you know the recorder is in
"stand by" mode.  When you switch the external microphone on, the dim
red LED stays on all the time which means it is recording.  Switch on
and off as needed and you can record an entire night of observations
and use only a fraction of its memory capacity.

I used this for two hours on the Geminid peak night when the
temperature was around 8 degrees F, and it worked just fine.  It uses
very little power, and has no moving parts, so cold weather operation
is not a problem.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=6340144

Cost is around $30.

Best Regards,

David Oesper
Dodgeville, Wisconsin

--- In meteorobs at yahoogroups.com, meteors at ... wrote:
>
> I was in the process of listening to my notes from the other morning 
> when my tape recorder's "spindle" froze up. Instead of buying
> another tape recorder, I'm thinking I should move to the digital age 
> and get a digital voice recorder.
> 
> Anyone have any trouble with these when using them to record meteor
> data?
> 
> Any suggestions on particular recorders, or features?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> -- 
> Mark Davis, South Carolina, USA