HP-1: HP-1 Recording Question

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dmg1969

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My question is how exactly the Record feature on the HP-1 works. While out at lunch, I was active scanning 5 favorites lists including a P25 system one in which I am trying to identify unknown TGs. On the way back to my office, a transmission came over that system on an unknown TG. I immediately hit to hold on the TG and then hit Record and OK. I let it go for about 30 seconds and, when nothing else came over the TG, I hit Record again to end the recording and saved it. When I went in to listen to it, it had recorded radio transmissions from the other favorites lists...transmissions that I had heard before it stopped on that unknown TG. I got confused and did not listen to the whole thing and deleted it, so I do not know if it recorded the radio transmission from that unknown TG. I have the replay time set to 120 seconds. Does that mean that once I hit record, it will save from that point back 2 minutes? I was thinking that it would only record the channel I was holding on and record from that point forward. Or am I missing something?
 

NWI_Scanner_Guy

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My question is how exactly the Record feature on the HP-1 works. While out at lunch, I was active scanning 5 favorites lists including a P25 system one in which I am trying to identify unknown TGs. On the way back to my office, a transmission came over that system on an unknown TG. I immediately hit to hold on the TG and then hit Record and OK. I let it go for about 30 seconds and, when nothing else came over the TG, I hit Record again to end the recording and saved it. When I went in to listen to it, it had recorded radio transmissions from the other favorites lists...transmissions that I had heard before it stopped on that unknown TG. I got confused and did not listen to the whole thing and deleted it, so I do not know if it recorded the radio transmission from that unknown TG. I have the replay time set to 120 seconds. Does that mean that once I hit record, it will save from that point back 2 minutes? I was thinking that it would only record the channel I was holding on and record from that point forward. Or am I missing something?

Yep, it's kind of like Mr. Peabody and the Wayback Machine. It will record "backwards" for whatever your replay time is set for, and add "real time" transmissions as you hear them. I have my replay time set for only 30 seconds. That way I don't record a lot of stuff I may not want to hear that came before I hit the record button.

:)
 

Jay911

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To me it makes a lot more sense to hit record as soon as you power on the radio, and let it go as long as possible. Filling up the SD card is probably not a concern unless you have a VERY busy area and a very small SD card installed. Then your radio is always recording and you can find the proper recording with something like iTunes or MediaMonkey if you want a specific file.
 

dmg1969

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OK...I have another question (a scenario actually). I am at work and have to get up from my desk for minutes at a time. I have my HP-1 scanning on favorites list that is a P-25 system with only 1 department and 2 known channels. I have the ID Search on to try to identify unknown Talk Groups. What happens if I have my replay set to 4 minutes and I hit record and walk away? If I get tied up and come back 30 minutes later, is it just going to have recorded up to 4 minutes of transmissions? It is NOT a busy system, but what if there were more than 4 minutes of transmissions? Does it just overwrite the previous 4 minutes?It only records when it breaks squelch, correct?
 

Jay911

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Replay and Record are two completely different functions. They operate independently of one another (with the only exception being that when you start a record session, anything in the "replay buffer" at that point is added to the start of the record session).

In your scenario, if you hit Record, walk away, and come back 30 minutes later, and play back the recordings, you will have whatever transmissions happened in those 30 minutes. Record only records when transmissions occur - not "dead air".

Replay stores the past 4 minutes (if you set it to 240 seconds) and continuously erases the oldest transmission when the 4 minutes is filled up (i.e. a new transmission will eliminate the oldest one).

Record stores all transmissions received from the time it was activated (plus whatever was recorded in the most recent Replay session) until either (a) you disable the Record session or (b) all the space on the SD card is used up. (The definition of "used up" in this case is 512MB of space left - the radio considers the card "full" at that point.) I have used up to a 32GB card in my HP and have recorded 4 weeks of recordings with the radio turned on and receiving 24/7, and the card still wasn't full.
 

dmg1969

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OK, now I see. The Replay setting has nothing to do with how much audio is stored using the Record feature. That will come in handy trying to identify unknown TG's in this system. I can just leave it running all day on record and see what I get.
 

Jay911

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Absolutely! That's extremely useful. :)

What I do is grab the recordings once a week when I update the radio with the new database on Mondays. You can copy them from \HomePatrol\record\user_rec (I think that's the right path) onto your PC. I then point a program that's designed to catalog music mp3 files at the folder I stored the recordings in, and they show up in the program as individual recordings, complete with UIDs, TGs, found CTCSS/DCS/NAC tones, etc. The music cataloging program (MediaMonkey) also has an internal playback function, so I can play the recording at the same time and figure out what a particular TG or frequency is being used for.
 

ff-medic

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Replay and Record are two completely different functions. They operate independently of one another (with the only exception being that when you start a record session, anything in the "replay buffer" at that point is added to the start of the record session).

In your scenario, if you hit Record, walk away, and come back 30 minutes later, and play back the recordings, you will have whatever transmissions happened in those 30 minutes. Record only records when transmissions occur - not "dead air".

Replay stores the past 4 minutes (if you set it to 240 seconds) and continuously erases the oldest transmission when the 4 minutes is filled up (i.e. a new transmission will eliminate the oldest one).

Record stores all transmissions received from the time it was activated (plus whatever was recorded in the most recent Replay session) until either (a) you disable the Record session or (b) all the space on the SD card is used up. (The definition of "used up" in this case is 512MB of space left - the radio considers the card "full" at that point.) I have used up to a 32GB card in my HP and have recorded 4 weeks of recordings with the radio turned on and receiving 24/7, and the card still wasn't full.


Ohhhhhh Howdy. Smooth Move. :) ;)

FF - Medic !!!
 
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