Add chatter- easy?

[Guest sbinder]

Hi, folks-I'm wanting to record some live ATC chatter to use to fill out the selection of chatter that came with v3.1. In particular, I'd really like to improve ground since I spend about 45 minutes before each flight as I prepare listening to the same clips.Two questions-Is it as simple as recording new ground chatter, cutting it into component conversations, naming the .wav files sequentially (gnd85.wav, gnd86.wav...) and dropping them into rcv30winwoodusagnd?Does anyone who has done this before have any particluar tips before I get started?Thanks,Simon

[jd 57]

how to do it is documented in the manual. and also the .txt file in the wav directories.if you have specific ground chatter, you can even create your own airport directory, with it's own ground chatter directory. then you won't hear your chatter at a different airport on the other side of the countryjd

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Simon,Yes, it's that straight-forward. Just make sure the individual wav files are limited to around 5-10 seconds. More smaller files are better than fewer larger ones.Which airport will you be recording? If possible can you include clearance, tower, approach and departure? I recorded a whole set of files for Manchester (EGCC) and it makes it very realistic when flying in or out.As JD has suggested creating a named airport folder using the ICAO code with relevant sub-folders for ground etc. will make the sounds unique to that airport.Cheers,

[Guest sbinder]

>how to do it is documented in the manual. and also the .txt>file in the wav directories.*smacks self on head for not RTFM*Thanks- and you even included instructions for the file renaming utility you created. You make it so easy!-Simon

[Guest sbinder]

>Which airport will you be recording? If possible can you>include clearance, tower, approach and departure?I fly out of many different airports, so I'm avoiding airport specific chatter. I wound up with almost thirty exchanges from Phoenix and Chicago grounds and clearance delivery last night after throwing out any clips where either side identified the airport. I started with ground and cd since I figured that would be the hardest to find- I'll move on to tower and center after I get a few more ground and cd.I'll be happy to .zip up and upload my files- they're US specific, I'm afraid, but some pilots might find them useful. Any idea of the legality of recording and distributing snippets of live ATC?-Simon

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Simon,Any additions to the generic wav files will be appreciated by lots of us. No problem them being US specific - the more the merrier!Not sure about the legal stuff. No-one has come back to me about the EGCC files so I don't see it being a problem. JD might be able to chip in here.Cheers,

[Guest Scott Campbell]

Simon,As long as you record them, there's no copyright problems. US ATC chatter is public-use airwaves.Proviso for other countries:Some countries do have laws against recording ATC, or even having a scanner, however, so non-US people need to know that. But as far as I know, there's no laws about using someone else's recordings (like with RC).

[Guest mmcevilley]

>I'll be happy to .zip up and upload my files- Some new chatter would be great and I for one would appreciate anything you upload! I'm beginning to believe that I know the *Colonel*! ;-)-michael

[Guest sbinder]

>As long as you record them, there's no copyright problems. US>ATC chatter is public-use airwaves.Good to know. I recorded 63 new bits of chatter from KPHX and KORD. I was careful to only save chatter that didn't contain station IDs so they can be used for any airport (although Clearance Delivery delivers KORD and KPHX specific SIDs and Ground issues KORD and KPHX specific taxi instructions- but they don't say the name of the airport). It breaks down to:Clearance: 12Ground: 27Tower: 18Departure: 2Approach: 4Departure, Center and Approach turned out to be tricky because they ID themselves much more than CD, Ground or Tower. I'm getting the hang of cutting out the station ID, though, so I'll get more of them in the future.The trick is distributing them- even though they're mostly short snippets (most <5 seconds), they zip up under maximum compression to ~55.5 MB. I doubt anyone will want to host a file that large (although if you do, I'll be happy to provide you with the file).If anyone wants them, *email* me details of an FTP account to which I can upload the .zip file for you. My address is simonnospam*nospambinder.org (remove the nospams and replace * with @). If you don't have access to an external FTP server, there are lots of tutorials on how to set one up using IIS on your local machine.I'll post again when I have another batch- probably in the January time frame.-Simon

[jd 57]

we usually save the wavs in 8khz, 4bit mono. nothing fancy, this is radio :-) what format are yours in? that might explain the sizejd

[Guest sbinder]

>we usually save the wavs in 8khz, 4bit mono.Yes- that would explain the difference. I'll downsample the .wavs (probably this weekend) and post with the new archive size.-Simon

[Guest sbinder]

Hi, JD->we usually save the wavs in 8khz, 4bit mono. nothing fancy,That made all the difference. I batch converted the files to 8 khz, 8 bit mono (my conversion program wouldn't allow 4 bit) and the zipped up size of the 63 or so calls is just over 3 MB.If someone would like to host the file, I'll be happy to provide it. Alternately, I'll be happy to email it to anyone who wants it. Please send an email with the words "request chatter" in the subject.I'll probably do another batch before too long.Enjoy!-Simon

[Guest Scott Campbell]

Simon,Send me an e-mail.Also, does your converter have MS ADPCM as a save format?

[Guest BobL]

Dumb question here...This is more than intriquing...Is this chatter available off the net somewhere? How do you record it? And are there any already done?BobL