Recording and speech to text

Recording ↑

Choose Record. On the first use, the app asks where recordings are stored (on a Mac, Music/KaikuSDR unless you choose another folder), how much space they may take, and what happens when that space is full: delete the oldest recordings, or stop recording.

Every transmission becomes a sound file, listed in the activity log with its channel and time.

Recording radio communications may be restricted or prohibited where you are. You are responsible for deciding whether to record, and for complying with the laws that apply to you.

A held channel can also record the receiver's complete signal (IQ), which can later be played back as if it were a receiver.

Playing recordings ↑

The Recordings tab under the chart lists the recordings by day: the time each transmission began, the channel, the band, the duration, the receiver that heard it, and the transcription when speech to text was on.

A row where someone spoke carries the same speech mark as Heard recently. A row without it was an unmodulated carrier, a tone, noise or data, as far as the speech detector could tell. Only where somebody talked hides the other rows.

The play button on a row plays the recording through the app's own audio output while scanning continues. The row shows the progress, and the same button stops playback.

The button next to it, play from here on, plays that transmission and every later one in order, so that a conversation can be followed. The row shows how many remain, and Next skips to the next one.

The search box next to the day narrows the list by name, frequency or words. Open the folder shows the files themselves.

The bin on a row deletes that recording after confirmation. The file is removed permanently. The activity log keeps the transmission but no longer refers to a file.

Delete the … where nobody talked deletes, after confirmation, every recording of the day that speech detection marked as without speech. Recordings the app has no record of, for example files copied in or made by an older version, are kept.

Each file carries its own information: the title, the start time and the channel's name are visible in any player that shows file details, and the app reads the rest from the file. A recording copied elsewhere and back is therefore still recognised.

Speech to text ↑

Transcribe what is said, in Settings › Speech to text, converts speech to text on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere. It needs a model, which is downloaded once when you select it:

• Balanced: good accuracy, for English.
• Best: slower, and the one to use for other languages, Finnish among them.

Speech to text switches on as soon as the selected model has been downloaded and verified. Transcriptions appear in Conversation and in the activity log.

On a slow computer, the text may appear some time after the transmission. When too many transmissions are waiting, the oldest are skipped. The Speech to text page shows how many, and the row in Conversation reads "not written down". A smaller model is faster.