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Homebrew Equipment A place to show, design and discuss the weird and wonderful electronic creations from the hands of individual members. |
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3rd Jan 2014, 10:09 pm | #21 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
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Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?
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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4th Jan 2014, 1:36 am | #22 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,526
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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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4th Jan 2014, 3:31 am | #23 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Posts: 5,549
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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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4th Jan 2014, 4:57 am | #24 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,923
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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? |
4th Jan 2014, 12:31 pm | #25 |
Hexode
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Diss, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 386
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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. Trevor |
4th Jan 2014, 12:51 pm | #26 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,118
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Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?
Do you or anyone know when this ceased?
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Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) |
4th Jan 2014, 1:38 pm | #27 | ||
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
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Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?
Quote:
Quote:
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. N. |
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4th Jan 2014, 6:19 pm | #28 | |
Octode
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saltburn-East, Cleveland, UK.
Posts: 1,784
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Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?
Quote:
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. Regards Andrew |
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4th Jan 2014, 6:26 pm | #29 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
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Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?
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4th Jan 2014, 7:42 pm | #30 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 647
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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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4th Jan 2014, 7:51 pm | #31 |
Hexode
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 497
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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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4th Jan 2014, 7:59 pm | #32 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
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Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?
Quote:
You can't even pass the recording to a third-party and ask them to make a text transcript. |
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5th Jan 2014, 3:05 am | #33 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Madrid, Spain / Wirral, UK
Posts: 7,484
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Re: Telephone recording. Is it easy/legal?
Quote:
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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Regards, Ben. |
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