Splitting 1 feed into Stereo help

[CKnobb]

Hello friends. I am currently feeding a 1 scanner Fire/EMS & law enforcement Broadcastify feed using Proscan. Currently it's a simple mono 3.5 mini cable out of the Rec jack, to a line isolator (like the one shown in "How to Maintain a Good Feed"), other end of line isolator (stereo plug) into the mic input of the USB audio adaptor of my mini PC. A nice, simple noise free feed. I am trying to split my feed into a stereo left side fire/EMS and a right side Law enforcement. I must be missing something simple. I would think a similar hookup to scanner 2, but both going into a splitter at the audio card would do it. I am reconfiguring Proscan Source Client to stereo 32 bit. When I try this I'm only getting a mono feed still from my scanner 1. Nothing out of scanner 2. Both scanners are BCD996P2. Can someone help me complete this puzzle to properly have a 2 scanner stereo feed for my current Broadcastify feed? I've read through the wiki document so many times, but I still can't get it. I'm a hard worker but I ain't that bright. I will be out mowing this afternoon so my apologies for not replying to questions in a timely manner. Thanks a lot for any help.

 

[prcguy]

First off you need to know if the mic input on your PC is mono or stereo. Most that I see are mono and you can't get there with that. Either find the instructions for your specific PC or pull up the control panel for recording and see if the mic has one or two channels. I'll bet its only one.

I would not recommend using the mic input on a PC and use the line input instead. The mic input has way too much gain that you have to kill off when feeding it line or earphone levels from a scanner plus many have a bias voltage for electret condenser mics that can cause problems. The line input should be a stereo 1/8" or dual RCA jacks depending on your sound card.

 

[CKnobb]

Thank you, sir. I will check these out when I get back to the shack.

 

[CKnobb]

I'm understanding better now. The problem I'm going to have is this is a mini PC, with limited ports. Just a mic port. Works well as a dedicated PC for my current feed. I'm going to have to get creative and hope a USB adaptor with a line-in port will allow me to do what I want.
Jim

 

[GTR8000]

A bit of a advice...apply for a second feed and keep them separate. Stereo feeds suck on mobile devices that have a mono speaker, and it winds up becoming a jumbled mess. It's easy enough and cheap enough to add a USB audio adapter for the second feed.

 

[CKnobb]

Good advice and understood. What I will probably end up doing is leaving well enough alone.

 

[GTR8000]

It would actually be easier to add a second feed for law using a cheap USB audio stick, and you can use ProScan's little brother RadioFeed for the second feed to keep it separate from Fire/EMS.

 

[Ubbe]

I'm understanding better now. The problem I'm going to have is this is a mini PC, with limited ports. Just a mic port.

When a PC only have a mic port, like most laptops, then they are usually multiports and you can set the gain to be at line level or you can set a coarse gain of +20-30-40dB or something like that when used with a mic.

/Ubbe

 

[CKnobb]

Thanks Ubbe. I have adjusted the gain, no AGC and have it sounding good and quiet with a single scanner feed.

 

[CKnobb]

Just to close this out, I am now providing a stereo feed, using a mono cable, to a line isolator, to a mono-to-stereo Y connector to a line in on an external USB audio adaptor. No issues and a quiet feed. So far very few right/left transmission collisions.