"Dana Raymond" wrote in message
. cable.rogers.com...

"Jay" wrote in message
om...
I am trying to find a way to record telephone conversations to my PC,
(legal, for training purposes only). I have an interface that plugs
into a cassette recorder and that works fine on the cassette. I have
tried this same interface plugged into my computer, either line-in or
the microphone jack, but when I record I get a loud hum noise and I
can faintly hear myself in the background, though I have to talk or
whistle loudly to do so. Apparantly I need a different interface. I
have found them for sale for around $50, but I would prefer to make my
on, usually these interfaces use fairly simply filter circuits. Any
suggestions?

Thanks

I suspect the problem is a grounding one. If you plug into the microphone
input of your cassette recorder and all works well and then move the plug
over to your computer mic input and all you get is hum, then check to see
if your 'interface' is powered. If it is, use an isolation transformer or
temporarily run it by battery. If it then works, you can sole the problem
permanently.



If your in a real hurry take apart an old modem, lots o filter coupling
parts, and hey they work with phones. Try running the phone line to a
modem(no power to it) and pick the signal off the matching/isolation
transformer output use the soundcard line in.

With a little post processing to even up levels and some VOX software to
conserve disk space I had 100's of hours of conversations.

No, I didn't learn much of the subtleties of phone interface circuits but it
took only minutes and cost me some old hardware from the junk box.
--
They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.