RS caller upgrade

M

Mo Hunter

New member
Been lurking for about a month here, New to varmint hunting, after seeing so dang many yotes during turk and deer season , I decided it just might be the ticket to pass the mid-winter blues. I went out and got me a 22-250 and some hand calls, that way I wasn't in it to deep if it wasn't my thing, decided I would wait on a electronic caller, for a while anyway...then I came apon the thread about the home made e-caller, and figured there might just be something to it. I knew that I really didn't want to pack around alot of weight, so the RS caller sounded very appealing, so I set out and got the amp for about $12.00, a stereo 1/8 x 6' cable to go between the caller and the amp about $4.00 and a 1/8 x 12" cable to keep things close together for seting it up about $3.00, a two male plugs and two female plugs, to make an extension cord for the speaker about $5.00, 50 feet of speaker wire I had laying around, and an old external speaker I also had laying around, and a portable CD player I also had. I figured since I had saved a few bucks by not having to by a speaker and a player, I would look into making my caller digital..A trip to Wally World and I found a RCA digital voice recorder, model RP-5007 for around $60.00 . It is just the ticket!!!! With a 4 meg memory card it holds around an hour and a half of audio, which can be devided into up to ten folders with as many as 99 subfolders, I recorded my sounds into one minute loops, and with a simple press of a button I can replay the sound or change files or folders in a flash and can also pause quietly on and off with out any pop or crack noises, I put coyote sounds in one folder , rabbit in another, woodpeckers and other birds in another, other animals in another, and finally crows in another. It is very easy to switch back and forth quickly and with a cheat sheet I know right where every sound file is ...and the best part....THIS SUCKER WILL CRANK ...with crystal clear digital audio !!! Unlike an MP3 player, I can record any sounds from anything very easy , and drop sounds into any folder at anytime along the way , record any wave file on it quickly, even add real sounds from out in the field at the touch of a button. Im tellin you guys this thing IS the way to go, no doubt about it !!!! Right now I have roughly 45 different sounds on it at about 1 minute each, with the ability to repeat or change sounds quickly, and still have about 50 minutes of room left for expansion , and if that doesn't sell you it even has a self contained speaker so I can unplug it from the amp and speaker and use it stand alone to bring in the varmits a little closer. Sorry if I sound long winded on my first post here but every body I know that uses an electronic caller , just looks at my nifty itty bitty set up puzzled till I give them a quick run thru, then they are grinnin from ear to ear!!! Very light, very compact, very clear, and very LOUD. Now all I have to do is take it out for a field trial, Hopefully I will get the chance to get out this weekend and see if it works as good as it sounds. Now on to try to figure out the remote control end !!!
 
Some of you guys are ingenious as hell, sounds like you have a winning hand there MH. Seems kinda silly to go out and spend upwards to 1,000 samolians when you can do as you have for a fraction of that. Now, for us technology illiterate bafoons, sure would be nice to have a blow by blow, description laden post on EXACTLY what we need, hand that over to the dude behind the counter and be off. Your post was pretty much just that.

Welcome to the board and thats a heck of a first post, good job. Be sure to let us know what happens in the field.

Bob
 
Thats a great idea! What kind of speaker did you use? Have you considered any kind of a remote for it yet? Let us know how you make out and thanks for your info....I was wondering about the same thing but wondered if it would be loud and clear.
 
I haven't messed with MP3 players, but from what I understand, correct me if im wrong, you have to download the sound to your computer then from there you download it again to the player, and that gets into a headache if your tryin to get the sound off of a casette or simular device, the RCA RP 5007A has an external mic jack that you can just plug in a patch cord between it and the headphone jack of what ever you want to record from be it a cassete player, CD player, another caller...woops did I say that ? or your computer headphone jack...that way any sound that you can hear no mater what type of wav MP or what ever can be recorded over to the player as quick as you can hear it, with out any headaches of converting to anything else other than raw audio. you can also use the internal mic or an external one to record in the field directly to the digital recorder , even record your own calling and that way you have basically no movement changing between calls. the unit comes with a 4 meg removable card, and can be upgraded to an 8 meg card but like I said an hour and a half is alot of room to play and still be able to repeat a sound or change quickly at the touch of a button. this thing is packed with loads of other features also like auto off if your not using it, so the AAA batteries should be able to last quite some time, a key lock to prevent accidental turning on the unit, low battery indicator ,pause, a digital clock so knowing time is right there handy, removable write protect on the card to prevent accidental erasing of it. bye the way it is very easy to record and erase while you are setting it up, and also to drop the sound into a coresponding folder. and now for the clincher guys...it is about the same size as a pack of cigarettes,but only about half as thick...fits very nicely into your shirt pocket or where ever.
 
Mo Hunter,
I picked up one of those RCA digital voice recorders today. This thing appears to be just what I have been wishing for. Only sound I have recorded on it so far is one version of my own lip squeak. The recording sure came out chrystal clear. My next step is to pick up the Radio shack amplified speaker and get it hooked up to a good PA speaker. My plan is to use only my own sounds with this rig. The sounds will be all "Cronk". The only difference being that the sound will be coming from a speaker sitting fifty yards or so cross-wind of my location. I will let you know how well it all works out. Thanks for your info regarding the DVR!
 
I picked one up today and I think it will work great. The one Wally sells here is the 5008, it comes with an 8 meg card. I haven't recorded anything yet, but will tonight.

Mo Hunter, are you recording in standard or HQ sound mode? I can record up to 200 minutes in standard mode, does it sound allright? I only have 32 minutes in HQ. Guess I'll try both ways and see if there is much of a difference.

Also, I didn't see a way to repeat a segment continuously, do you just hit the play button over and over?

Thanks,

John

[This message has been edited by johnnyvol (edited 01-18-2002).]
 
Johnnyvol,
My voice recorder is same model as yours and I am recording in standard mode. The sound is great. I found out last night that I can plug the little bugger into earphone jack on my computer and record any wav file I find stored there. This morning I hooked on one of those radio shack mini amplified speakers, and on to a 25 watt horn type speaker. Holy Mackeral! This little bugger will call critters from clean over in the next zip code. Talk about volume! woohoo!
 
One question, Mo: six months or so ago I bought a Radio Shack (Optimus) digital voice recorder with this very idea in mind. Bought the patch cord so I could dump audio from my JS tapes into the digital recorder. Everything works fine except that somewhere in this process I pick up considerable tape hiss, enough that I think it would bother the yotes. I've tried using different cassette recorders as the source, I've tried downloading off my computer, I've tried all I can think of, and it still has the hiss. And before you ask, no the hiss isn't evident on the original tape. The only thing I haven't tried is using the built-in speaker and just recording the sounds that way. It seems to me I should get the cleanest recording by using the patch cord, but it just isn't working out that way.

Any ideas what could be causing my hiss? I guess it could involve the quality of the digital recorder, but this appears to be a well made unit and cost me around $30-$40 if I remember correctly. I've since also bought an MP3 player and there's no hiss whatsoever when I convert cassette tape sounds to MP3.

Help!

[This message has been edited by Kentucky Fisherman (edited 01-18-2002).]
 
ok now i have the goodies i have a question. how are you guys going about setting the speaker away from you,is the speaker mounted to something or do you carry the components in a bag of sorts maybe a camcorder bag?if the speaker is not mounted do you just set it the ground or what?
 
I just use the speaker to wind the cord around (I have 100 feet of #22 on the RS speaker), unwind what I need at a stand, and lay the speaker on its side on the ground.

(Sometimes, to get more sound out, I lay it in a bush a ways off the ground.)

------------------
Critr

fea6c171.jpg.orig.jpg

www.SaguaroSafaris.com
 
I have been recording mine in the standard play mode also, the quality of sound Im geting thru the headphone jack from the computer is crystal clear that way, I did have a noticable hiss recording from the tape player that didn't appear listening to the tape deck, but after tryin all the cassete decks in the house I did come across one that had very little hiss at all, beleive it or not it sounded best recorded from my " old beat up job site radio " Who would have thought, and just goes to show..don't give up , keep tinkering and sooner or later you will come across something acceptable. hehehehehe As far a recording using a microphone, Nope haven't got that far just yet, but im about to get to that point as far as the way I am seting mine up , that it is next on the agenda. In setting mine up I take a short segment of sound , and with a program I got with my cdrw I am able to repeat the sound over and over, alot of your programs for playing audio on your computer have this feature, Then I procede to copy that sound over to my voice recorder and record it for as long as I chose to ( which by the way I set mine up mostly in one minute segments) , that way, If I have a critter coming in Im not changing sounds "slam" midstream and can easy punch the next subfolder to step up or step back the intencity of the calling, or can change folder and get to a squeaker or a quieter animal, which hopefully might get the vermin to slam on the brakes and give it a "what the heck look" which by the time it figures it out it would be about 1/2 second to late ! I did however set up a couple sounds on a five minute record to give the old barrel a chance to cool down and possibly get in a few winks of shut eye between shots LOL.
Kentucky, give this a try, if you were able to record from tape to MP3 with no hiss, now record from the MP3 player thru the headphone jack to the voice recorder, I got a feeling your hiss will disapear.
RAT'S just checked on e-bay...Some guitar jammin ( or in the case of you southern fellers ) Banjo pickin, music lovin, tree hugger just woke up and pulled the $12.00 wireless system out from of my sweaty little paws and ran the bid up past $40.00 . Oh well back to the drawing board on the remote control. Like I said never give up, keep at it and you will find something that will work and fit the pocket book just fine. Also I am in the process of reserching the possibility of having a few spare 4 or 8mb cards, the company the digital recorder came from wants over $40.00 for one, and if im not mistaken I should be able to scoop some up off the internet for around $5.00 Heck with that much savings I just might be able to afford to rig me up a portable shooting recliner. Does anybody know if Lazyboy makes one in Realtree ? YEA thats the ticket...with a cup holder !
wink.gif
 
I picked up the digital recorder tonight on my way home from a fairly successful try at calling but I'm running into some trouble. I hooked up my Walkman to my digital recorder using the cord with two, 1/8" plugs (the same one I previously used on my RS home made project) I popped the tape in the tape player, turned the volume up and hit "play".....I then pushed "record" on the digital recorder and after 30 or so seconds of recording, I played it back. I can BARELY hear anything at all on the digital recording......what could I be doing wrong guys? Wrong cord? Well, I better get....I've got a couple of fox to skin and take a shower before my wife will let me back into that part of the house! Any help is appreciated! If I don't have some success soon, I'm gonna start making offers to you guys to send me some .wav files that some of you "pros" are making. LOL!

Take care,

Rusty Holt
 
In case you're wondering...I also checked the volume on the digital recorder and still no luck. The recording sounds like the rabbit is in the next county (if I hold it close enough to my ear)!

Thanks!
 
Rusty, run down thru you set up on the digital recorder and make sure you are recording in the dictation mode, don't know for sure, but in one of the other modes you can adjust mic sensitivity and that might be the problem, other then that plug your earphones into the MP3 and adjust it to a comfortable but loud listening seting then make your jump between the MP and the recorder. I know Im going aganst logic here but are you using a mono or stereo jumper cord ? I am using a stereo one with out any adapters and it works great. also might try a direct voice recording, that would tell you if the problem is in the recorder or not. and if all elso fails reformat the card.
 
Ebay has some of these RCA RP 5007 listed. Do a search for "digital recorder" and view the pages. I bought one for $31.00 including shipping. Steve

P.S. Can't wait to try it out!!!!
 
Well dang, just when I thought I was cuting a fat hog, Thank you Steve, There ya go fellers thats at least $25.00 off what I gave at Wally World, E-Bay has a bunch of them with a "buy it now" for $28.00 and change,Heck that isn't much more than you would give for a decent tape deck. Looks like this digital caller is getting better and cheaper all the time. Just keep tinkering guys we will have us one heck of a caller before this is over.
 
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