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Old 3rd Jan 2014, 10:09 pm   #21
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

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Didn't this chap record phone calls (without informing the caller, I think) and had them admitted in evidence?
There's a significant difference between the level of disclosure of evidence when bringing a simple Civil action for damages against someone in a Magistrates/Small-Claims court, and the level needed if you are seeking to secure a Criminal conviction [which may result in many years of imprisonment if found guilty].
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Old 4th Jan 2014, 1:36 am   #22
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

A thought re isolation etc......

How about modifying a cordless phone to provide the audio feed? It's battery operated and you can't get much more electrically isolated isolated from the telephone wiring than a wireless connection .

OK, so the phone is now no longer cordless and you can't wander around with it, but that's not too onerous for the odd call you may want to record.
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Old 4th Jan 2014, 3:31 am   #23
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

I would just cut an extension cable and add the secondary in series with the line and fit a preset to the primary to set the signal amplitude.
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Old 4th Jan 2014, 4:57 am   #24
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

There are some very cheap (!) items available from online auction sites which put a small "black box" in the phone line (with Rj5 connectors and a lead) which provides a feed to a PC sound card, and is supplied with software which should automatically detect the AF feed and record conversations as MP3 files. This all sounds very good, but my antivirus went on red alert when I tried to run the software CD.

The black box consists of a small isolating transformer and that does work. I guess that you could operate it manually with something like Audacity?
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Old 4th Jan 2014, 12:31 pm   #25
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

I have a fairly new BT Response 2000 phone, this has the facility to record conversations, so it must be legal to do it. It inserts a short tone on conversation about every 10 seconds, I seem to remember that there used to be a requirement to do this.
I use this when arranging anything special like insurance so that they can never say "you did not tell us", if any one asks what the tone is I tell them it's recording.

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Old 4th Jan 2014, 12:51 pm   #26
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

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Thankfully the days of a need for BABT approval [with red-triangle and green-circle stickers] are long since past.
Do you or anyone know when this ceased?
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Old 4th Jan 2014, 1:38 pm   #27
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

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I have a fairly new BT Response 2000 phone, this has the facility to record conversations, so it must be legal to do it.
I'm sure there are people (lawyers?!) who would dispute this. What about all those covert "spy cameras" Maplin (etc.) sells which could be put to all kinds of dubious uses?

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t inserts a short tone on conversation about every 10 seconds.
This does seem commonplace. A tape-based answerphone I used to have did exactly this, as does my 5 year-old Nokia mobile when you ask it to record a conversation.

Which has made me think... I suppose the OP could use a mobile phone with a recording facility, then transfer the recording from its MicroSD card (or whatever) to a PC.


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Old 4th Jan 2014, 6:19 pm   #28
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

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I would just cut an extension cable and add the secondary in series with the line and fit a preset to the primary to set the signal amplitude.
The above may or may not work due to the phone line essentially being a balanced pair.
Introducing a transformer in one leg of the line would unbalance the line and may cause issues, also the transformer would have to be capable of withstanding the idle line voltage and also the ringing current if left permanently in place.

Years ago I have seen answering machines with a "record conversation" facility, I think some of them were the Panasonic range that were marketed by BT at the time using names of birds (Kingfisher, Falcon etc.)

I'm not sure which models provided this facility but do recall that when set to record a conversation the machine provided intermittent "bleeps" on the line, every so many seconds, to alert the distant party to the fact that the conversation was being recorded - this was possibly a legal requirement at the time.

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Old 4th Jan 2014, 6:26 pm   #29
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

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Do you or anyone know when this ceased?
1st April 2000. It was obsoleted by the EU Radio & Telecom Terminal Equipment Directive (99/5/EC)
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Old 4th Jan 2014, 7:42 pm   #30
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

According to the advice on Oftel's web site here, "home recording" of telephone conversations is lawful, even if you don't tell the other party to the conversation, as long as you don't pass the recording (or part of it) to someone else.
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Old 4th Jan 2014, 7:51 pm   #31
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

Bleeps are required when recording telephone conversations in the USA, not the UK. As if often the case US practice has crept into UK products when it is not required.
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Old 4th Jan 2014, 7:59 pm   #32
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

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According to the advice on Oftel's web site here, "home recording" of telephone conversations is lawful, even if you don't tell the other party to the conversation, as long as you don't pass the recording (or part of it) to someone else.
The default "not passing the recording to someone else" is the big problem when it comes to using recordings as anything like PACE-standard evidence.

You can't even pass the recording to a third-party and ask them to make a text transcript.
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Old 5th Jan 2014, 3:05 am   #33
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Default Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?

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I'm not sure which models provided this facility but do recall that when set to record a conversation the machine provided intermittent "bleeps" on the line, every so many seconds, to alert the distant party to the fact that the conversation was being recorded
My Panasonic KXT-1455 does this, the button/feature is called '2 way rec'. It has that annoying bleep every 60 seconds or so. One day I will look for a schematic and try to disable it!

I too in time have used various other means mentioned above, from the stick-on coil to the white box with RJ11 sockets and a jack output. Neither of which come close to the sound quality of the Panny.
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