PVR-like Software for Audio Streams? 46
JonToycrafter asks: "I'm a dispatcher for a volunteer ambulance corps. We often get our calls by listening to the police scanner. Unfortunately, it's sometimes difficult to understand the street address that the police dispatcher is saying, or sometimes s/he mentions the address before giving an indication that EMS is needed. Does anyone know of a (preferably Free) Windows (or Linux) program that would allow me to connect my scanner to the mic jack on my PC and be able to pause/rewind the stream, a la Tivo?"
Only pause/rewind? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:OT,but someone needs to make the [NO CARRIER] j (Score:1)
Another approach here, simpler (Score:2)
Re:Another approach here, simpler (Score:2, Interesting)
I volunteer as an ambulance driver, and apparently the hardest skill known to 911 dispatchers is that they don't need to eat the microphone when sending a call out. Some are worse than others, but many times we do need to call in for address verification.
Re:Another approach here, simpler (Score:1)
Other solutions (Score:5, Informative)
I suspect a clever bit of scripting along with the "record" and "play" programs on linux would do what you want as well.
run the audio into a pvr... (Score:5, Insightful)
You'll probably still need a video display for control purposes, but since you won't need a lot of processing power the whole setup shouldn't cost much.
If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:4, Interesting)
police radio calls to get your taskings...
It's standard procedure - in most places - for
emergency services to ring (a.k.a. "respond")
EMS or ambulance(s) as required.
They wouldn't, as a rule, expect the EMS or ambo's
to spend all their time monitoring other services'
radio frequencies.
For one thing, it can increase your levels of
fatigue (although - admit - it can feel exciting
to follow incident progress along by radio...
a bit like armchair quarterbacking, eh?
If your service is well & truly needed & respected
you should be able to get call-outs, just like
police & firefighters.
If not, well... raise your game.
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:1)
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:2)
- This is driven by profit motive
- It's not fair
So therefore, we must make it illegal.</leftie>
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:2)
He appears to be about as antiprofit as you can get.
Still support him?
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:2)
No you wouldn't, because the guys that should have been in your neighborhood just beat someone else to something in their neighborhood, and are now taking care of that emergency. Not only do you have the crew that should respond to your problem busy elsewhere, but the crew that now comes in doesn't know your local streets as well.
Emergency crews need to be sure to stay in their assigned areas unless they are really needed elsewhere. (though it wouldn't be a bad idea to be in position if you are in the n
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:1)
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:5, Informative)
There are many people in (here in NYC) this service that carry their own portable radios that have select frequencies programmed in.
They listen to both --the EMS dispatcher because they have to-- and NYPD citywide for all the "hot jobs".
They take it upon themselves to rush to these hot jobs without being dispatched (usually there is another ambulance dispacthed, the closest one as per the EMS dispatch computer), and then tell the dispatcher they were "flagged down" by a bystander. Then they have to cancel the other ambulance, because technically you made patitent contact at that point.
It's happens daily here in NYC, and you can get into alot of trouble. If your flying lights and sirens to that "hot job" lights and sirens, without being officialy on that assignment --and say-- you hit a bystander, or god forbid a child crossing the street, you can pretty much count on never ever touching another patient in any healthcare field ever again. That doesn't include criminal charges as well.
You realy should be dispatched by M.A.R.S, mutal aid radio system. The municipal agency overseeing EMS in your county will give your volunteer squad a radio, or maybe just give your dispatcher a ring on the landline phone when they need you. This way everything is documented and copasetic.
Can your crew still listen to the police frequencies? Sure, if you know how to go about it without anybody getting screwed:
If you hear some call that you might think is "hot", you can always drive over in non emergency mode and get flagged for the job.
If you think you have a better ETA than the unit that was assingned, then tell the dispatcher that you are closer. They usually have to give you the call for the benefit of the patient.
In the end though, you need to change they way your unit(s) get dispatched. Get the chief of the vollie squad to negotiate a M.A.R.S. arrangement. Some vollied even sign out a police radio for the precinct. You'll have to speak to the captain about that arrangement.
Good Luck, and for God's sake, be careful.
NYC EMS Paramedic since 1996
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:2)
Volunteer EMS and VFDs save people's lives. Pure and simple. It's no time to get into a dick measuring contest. If you can't help answer the question, leave them alone.
LK
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:2)
Re:If they want you there, they'll call you... (Score:5, Funny)
There may be a reason... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why compllicate the system when a simple "Could you repeat that address" would probably suffice.
Re:There may be a reason... (Score:2)
My take was the EMS is simply passively monitoring the police frequencies and responding when needed. I was under the impression that they could not respond. It does sound like a fairly strange setup to me, but I admittedly know jack about EMS / POLICE protocols.
LoopRecorder (Score:3, Informative)
I haven't used it in a while, but it should allow what you're looking for.
Mythtv.... (Score:2)
Google for 'mythradio'. Here's a starter-link:
http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv
Total Recorder (Score:2, Informative)
Super. (Score:3, Interesting)
Whoever replies with the best software Personal Audio Recorder gets a grand slam breakfast at Denny's on me.
Re:Super. (Score:1)
I split the problem into several pieces.
Explaining the need (Score:5, Informative)
http://mlcastle.net/tech/1.html
Which state "... active street medic, meaning that during major protests I travel in a squad of medics providing support in the "hot zone", where EMS will not go"
So - no the cops will probably not help these guys out and they are most definetly not authorized to talk on the police bands.
Re:Explaining the need (Score:2)
I say this because those incharge of the protests HURT their cause by allowing idiots to run riot.
Wait... (Score:1)
Denon PVR server (Score:3, Informative)
Denon PVR server [techtv.com]
ATI's Multimedia Center does... (Score:1, Informative)
tape... (Score:1)
A Half-assed but effective solution (Score:1)
Step 2: Plug a set of speakers into the sound card's speaker port
Step 3: Open Volume Control, and set the Microphone volume (under Playback) to FULL.
Step 4: Open Sound Recorder, and press record.
Re:A Half-assed but effective solution (Score:1, Interesting)
"void main()
{
printf "Jorkapp is a Programmer";
main();
}
"
1. Main should return something, not be void. (still functions in most compilers however)
2. Main should take the amount of arguements, and the arguements themselves. ie: int main ( int argc, char *argv[]). Still functions in a lot of compilers, but incorrect technically.
3. You got the brackets correct!
4. Your printf line doesn't compile. It should be printf("jorkapp is obviously *NOT* a programmer";
5. Recalling main to
Get the right equipment: Minitor IV (Score:4, Informative)
You need to get a pager, a Montorola Minitor IV to be exact. These have a dynamic solid state 2 minute memory to replay calls. I would venture to say that nearly every ambulance service and fire department service that is dispatched (or toned, as we say) via radio uses these type of tone pagers.
Information on the motorola site at http://www.motorola.com/cgiss/minitor_iv.shtml#ke
'tried WiNRADIO's Squelch Controlled Recorder ??? (Score:2)
WiNRADiO Advanced Digital Suite's
Squelch Controlled Recorder:
http://www.winradio.com/home/ads-recorder.htm
"The recording is conditional on the signal level
and the receiver squelch setting. The playback
function also includes the following additional
enhancements:
Pitch shifting, which provides audio spectrum
shifting by the specified frequency shift size.
Variable playback speed, capable of changing the
speech rate while preserving the pitch.
Speech inversion, useful fo
Digital Radio (Score:1)
replaying snippets
recording shows to schedule
keeping the last four hours for when I miss a show.
V. cool. Now will someone please sell me a DAB PCI card that runs under Linux? All I can find is the following from Modular Technology [hhosting.co.uk]:
joined dispatching? (Score:1)
clueless in slashdottle (Score:2)
RecAll [sagebrush.com] from Sagebrush can do nearly everything you need. It is a small, free, and easy to use VOX line-in recorder for Windows, and is popular for scanner monitoring.
It includes a feature where it can start a brand new wave file after a set number of seconds of silence. So basically it would create a separate audio file for each individual radio transmission (more or less).
You could then play that wav file in any audio player (like soundrec or winamp), while RecAll keeps happily