[pct-l] Journal by digital voice recorder

[steve_peterson at sbcglobal.net (Steve Peterson)]

Glad to know the info was useful...I didn't document each and every photo, 
though I could have. I did number my rolls of film and each time I finished a 
roll, I noted what the last photo was. I could certainly have documented each 
one, but it would have been a bit of a hassle: take out camera (from shoulder 
strap pouch), snap picture, replace camera, pull out recorder, flip hold switch, 
record data, flip hold switch, replace recorder. Usually I had my umbrella in 
the other hand so all this would have been done one-handed. Doable, but fiddly. 
On a longer trip (when my memory would fade more) or with a transcriber, I'd 
definitely document the photos more. As it is, if I have the photos in order, 
and know roughly where each was taken, I can remember enough details to say 
"that's lake X".

I'm bad with names, though, so this time after I met people I'd quickly record 
people's names if I had them.

dude wrote:
> steve - thanks so much for this info.  I have been contemplating using 
> a digital voice recorder for my next long hike, so this is great stuff.
> 
> One thing that I thought the voice recorder would help with is 
> documenting photos.  I always seem to come back from the trip and sit 
> there and look at several of my photos and say "hmmm.  now was this X 
> lake or Y lake?"  did the recorder help with that at all?
> 
> also, let me know if you end up using the voice to text software, as 
> thats' what I'd like to try so that my write-ups can just be alot of 
> cutting and pasting :-).
> 
> thanks,
> dude
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>On my recent JMT hike I used a digital voice recorder to keep my
>>journal. This turned out to be a very light weight and handy way to do
>>it. Here are some summary specs:
>>
>>- MyVoice digital voice recorder (and mp3 player) made by
>>www.decktron.com, model DMR-1318MP
>>
>>- 39x108x17 mm, 2.2 oz (w/one AAA battery--some online sources
>>indicate that it uses 2 AAA batteries, but that isn't true)
>>
>>- records onto built-in flash memory or onto MMC card; 1100 min
>>recording time w/built-in memory, max of 400 messages. I used just the
>>internal memory since my hike was relatively short (16 days). I did
>>start to get concerned that I'd bump into the 400 msg limit, but by
>>summarizing every couple of hours, I reduced the number of messages I
>>was recording by quite a bit and never hit the limit. Messages are
>>automatically time/date stamped.
>>
>>- battery life is supposedly 5 hours, but I got somewhat less than
>>that; one battery lasted me about 8-9 days. Playing mp3 stuff reduces
>>batter life very quickly and I didn't use that feature. A lithium
>>battery would, of course, last longer.
>>
>>- over 16 days I recorded about 230 messages, most about 30 seconds
>>long, but quite a few were very short--just a few seconds.
>>
>>- USB port and supplied software allows upload to PC where you can
>>play msgs back, or (presumably) run them through voice-to-text
>>translation software. If you decide to do the latter, use the
>>higher-quality recording (SP vs. LP) because (I understand) the
>>voice-to-text software requires that to do a decent translation.
>>
>>It is so small and light (less than a candy bar) that I could carry it
>>in my shorts pocket and not be annoyed by it. That made it easy to
>>whip out and record something whenever I felt like it. I was thus
>>freed from having to try to remember everything until I could write it
>>down and the journal stayed current. When I met people that I wanted
>>to correspond with, I just had them speak their email address into the
>>recorder--no fumbling with paper/pen or anything.
>>
>>It took a little getting used to, but after a day or so I was
>>recording everything I thought of. The one disadvantage is that it is
>>harder to record an "essay" with it than with pen/paper because you
>>can't (easily) look back at what you've recorded and then continue
>>on--each recording is a separate message. At first I thought I might
>>be self-conscious about talking in front of others, but when I wanted
>>privacy I just hung back on the trail a little, or wandered off a
>>short distance. At night I could just pull the quilt over my head and
>>that muffled the sound.
>>
>>The trick to doing compact audio recordings is to think of what you
>>want to say, then say it. Don't stand there saying "Uh....gee.....I
>>guess I don't really know what I want to say....maybe something will
>>come to me in a minute". That's why most of my messages were 30 secs
>>or less--you can say a lot in 30 seconds if you know what you're
>>wanting to say.
>>
>>If you choose to get a voice recorder, be sure it has a "hold"
>>function--this prevents it from accidentally turning on. Before I
>>started using that, it started speaking to me at random times which
>>was startling, then became annoying. The hold button fixed that.
>>
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> 
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