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1       Recording

Recording

Any application that records from standard wave input devices can be used 
to record the audio streams from the FM Radcap PCIe. 

Make sure the recording software you are using allows you to select the 
audio input devices. The Radcap virtual devices have names such as “FM 
Radcap Ch. 1” and “FM Radcap Ch. 2” (or “FM Radcap Ch. 1/2” if stations 
are paired).

A recording level control, mute control and peak meter are provided for 
each station (or pair of stations) through the devices’ mixer ports (peak 
meters are not supported under Windows 2000, and are only accessible 
through the mixer API on Windows Vista if the application is set to XP-
compatible mode – new applications written for Windows Vista should use 
the Core Audio APIs to access the peak meters).

If recording a large number of channels using any form of audio 
compression, be sure to allow sufficient processing power to both capture 
the audio and compress it. The Performance Monitor in Windows’ Task 
Manager can provide a useful guide to CPU loading.

RDS Decoding

RDS decoding can be enabled in the driver configuration, and the 
received information is available through the Radcap API. Refer to the API 
description in Appendix A for details.

Be aware that enabling RDS decoding significantly increases the Radcap’s 
CPU loading.

Support

For all support matters, go to www.sonifex.co.uk and click on Technical 
Support, then Software Downloads. Software and driver updates will be 
made available from time to time and will be placed on this website. 
 

Summary of Contents for PC-FM6-32

Page 1: ...Manufacturers of audio video products for radio TV broadcasters PC FM6 32 FM PCle Radio Capture Card 6 to 32 Channels HANDBOOK ...

Page 2: ... retrieval systems for any purpose other than the purchaser s personal use without the express written permission of Sonifex Ltd Unless otherwise noted all names of companies products and persons contained herein are part of a completely fictitious adaptation and are designed solely to document the use of Sonifex product Contents Product Warranty 2 Year Extended ii Sonifex Warranty Liability Terms...

Page 3: ...o uk y Internet www sonifex co uk As standard Sonifex products are supplied with a 1 year back to base warranty If you register the product online you can increase your product warranty to 2 years and we can also keep you informed of any product design improvements or modifications To register your product please go online to www sonifex co uk register Register Online for an Extended 2 Year Warran...

Page 4: ...pt when the product has been registered at the Sonifex website when the Warranty Term is 24 months from the date of despatch the Contract means the quotation these Conditions of Sale and any other document incorporated in a contract between the Company and the Purchaser This is the entire Contract between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof and may not be changed or terminated except...

Page 5: ...e for any loss of profits or other economic losses The Company accordingly excludes all liability for the same e At the request and expense of the Purchaser the Company will test the Goods to ascertain performance levels and provide a report of the results of that test The report will be accurate at the time of the test to the best of the belief and knowledge of the Company and the Company accepts...

Page 6: ...lso for if the product needs to be returned The product is shipped with the following equipment so please check to ensure that you have all of the items below If anything is missing please contact the supplier of your equipment immediately Item Quantity Product Unit 1 Handbook 1 Driver CD 1 Repairs Returns Please contact Sonifex or your supplier if you have any problems with your Sonifex product E...

Page 7: ...mited hereby certify that the following product with serial number shown has been designed and manufactured in accordance with the following specifications EMC EN 55103 1 1997 Electromagnetic Compatibility Limits of disturbance for audio apparatus for professional use For use in environments 1 to 4 EN 55103 2 1997 Electromagnetic Compatibility Limits of disturbance for audio apparatus for professi...

Page 8: ...l and electronic equipment RoHS The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive WEEE aims to minimise the impacts of electrical and electronic equipment on the environment during their life times and when they become waste All products manufactured by Sonifex Ltd have the WEEE directive label placed on the case Sonifex Ltd will be happy to give you information about local organisations tha...

Page 9: ...ncies and monitoring the received audio A programming API and DLL for software control and monitoring are also supplied The card can be configured to operate in stereo mono or paired mono two mono stations combined on a 2 channel audio stream modes Multiple cards can be used in a single PC subject to available CPU bandwidth The audio de emphasis may also be set to either 50us or 75us In Australia ...

Page 10: ...dows to boot up Windows XP Server 2003 Vista Server 2008 Windows will report that new hardware has been found and the New Hardware wizard will start Insert the driver CD supplied with the card and proceed through the wizard Allow Windows to search for the driver do NOT specify a driver location or file name Windows 8 7 Server 2012 Server 2008 R2 Windows no longer searches removable media for drive...

Page 11: ...int FFT and may be useful in selecting the best location for the antenna or resolving interference problems The scales are 10dB per division vertically and 2MHz per division horizontally Configuration To change the configuration open Device Manager expand the Sound video and game controllers section right click on FM Radcap 3 and select Properties The available options are under the Configuration ...

Page 12: ...present the card There is no device limit in Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows 8 Server 2008 Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012 Mono Recording Bug Windows Vista 7 8 Server 2008 2008 R2 2012 When making a mono recording from any stereo input the audio engine on these versions of Windows will provide only the left channel rather than the expected left plus right mix To circumvent this set any stations to m...

Page 13: ... for details This DLL Radcap dll is compatible with the AM Radcap and older style two channel six channel and twenty four channel FM Radcap cards as well and should be used in place of the earlier versions supplied with those cards Radcap Connect Radcap Connect is an application that allows the stations on AM and or FM Radcap cards to be routed to multiple audio output devices The number of statio...

Page 14: ...tible mode new applications written for Windows Vista should use the Core Audio APIs to access the peak meters If recording a large number of channels using any form of audio compression be sure to allow sufficient processing power to both capture the audio and compress it The Performance Monitor in Windows Task Manager can provide a useful guide to CPU loading RDS Decoding RDS decoding can be ena...

Page 15: ...utomatically supported via Windows sampling rate converter Number of Stations 6 12 18 24 or 32 factory configured but needs licensing on your PC hardware End user expandable RDS Decoding Optionally enabled in driver configuration Equipment Type PC FM6 Radcap FM 6 6 channel FM PCIe Radio Capture Card PC FM12 Radcap FM 12 12 channel FM PCIe Radio Capture Card PC FM18 Radcap FM 18 18 channel FM PCIe ...

Page 16: ...ariable to receive the returned device type pTunerID Pointer to int variable to receive the returned Tuner ID number pPaired Pointer to BOOL variable to receive the returned tuner configuration Return value If the function succeeds the return value is TRUE If the function fails the return value is FALSE To get extended error information call GetLastError Comments This function takes the Device ID ...

Page 17: ... RadcapGetRSSI enum RadcapTunerType Mode int TunerID Parameters Mode Specifies AM or FM tuner TunerID Index of the station to be read beginning at zero for the first station Return values If the function succeeds the return value is the received signal strength indicator If the function fails the return value is zero To get extended error information call GetLastError Comments The received signal ...

Page 18: ...s function is called UINT __stdcall RadcapGetPilotLevel enum RadcapTunerType Mode int TunerID Parameters Mode Specifies AM or FM tuner TunerID Index of the station to be read beginning at zero for the first station Return value The return value is the deviation in Hertz of the 19kHz pilot tone or zero if this information is unavailable Comments The pilot level is only available on the FM Radcap ca...

Page 19: ...no and optionally reduce their audio bandwidth The following functions provide access to RDS transmissions carried by some FM stations BOOL __stdcall RadcapRDSPresent enum RadcapTunerType Mode int TunerID Parameters Mode Specifies AM or FM tuner TunerID Index of the station to be read beginning at zero for the first station Return value The return value is TRUE if RDS is present on the received si...

Page 20: ...ogram at present Decoder Bit 0 set Stereo cleared Monaural Bit 1 set Artificial head cleared Not artificial head Bit 2 set Compressed cleared Uncompressed Bit 3 set PTY code dynamically switched cleared PTY code static ProgramServiceName Null terminated string identifying the program BOOL __stdcall RadcapRDSGetRadiotext enum RadcapTunerType Mode int TunerID char Buffer size_t BufferSize Parameters...

Page 21: ...rror Comments This function will fail with error code ERROR_NOT_FOUND if no date time information has been received or ERROR_DEVICE_NOT_READY if no RDS signal is being received For other RDS applications not covered by the preceding functions the raw data groups can be streamed directly to an application using the following functions RDSStreamingHandle __stdcall RadcapRDSOpenRawStreaming enum Radc...

Page 22: ...DSRawData pointer passed to this function is only valid until the function returns and must not be retained outside this function void __stdcall RadcapRDSCloseRawStreaming RDSStreamingHandle hStreaming Parameters hStreaming The handle returned by RadcapRDSOpenRawStreaming Comments This function must only be called from within the same thread that called RadcapRDSOpenRawStreaming In particular this...

Page 23: ...Notes ...

Page 24: ...www sonifex co uk t 44 0 1933 650 700 f 44 0 1933 650 726 sales sonifex co uk ...

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