Carol and Tweeters,

No need to mess with MiniDiscs. There are cassette recorders on the
market that are perfectly adequate for playing bird song tapes in the
field.

I use a Realistic cassette recorder Model CTR-73, purchased from Radio
Shack (Realistic is their house brand) for the equivalent of about $50
U.S. a few years ago. It has a speaker that is powerful enough to
elicit a response from a Rock Wren several hundred yards away.

I originally purchased a similar model from Radio Shack in 1987, used
it until I literally wore it out, and bought my current model in the
mid-1990s. I'm sure they still sell something similar to this model.

My philosophy is, why spend a pile of money on new technology when
inexpensive, tried-and-true existing technology is perfectly adequate?

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at shaw.ca


----- Original Message -----
From: Lynn & Carol Schulz <linusq at worldnet.att.net>
To: Tweets <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 2:14 PM
Subject: MiniDiscs


> Hi Tweeters:
> I occasionally co-lead birding field trips and I occasionally play
bird song
> tapes. (I'm careful to NOT play tapes in parks or heavily-birded
areas.)
> Right now I use audio-cassette tapes, but am unable to find suitable
> recorders w/ built-in speakers that are compact and reliable and
have decent
> volume.
> I would like to switch to MiniDisc recordable CD's. There was a
good
> article in Feb 2001 Birding Magazine called "MINIDISCS, A new
technology for
> the birder" by Tom Stephenson. He mentioned 2 for birder use, a
Sony and a
> Sharp MD system. It consists of a recorder/player and a disc. A
speaker
> isn't included in the inexpensive models and must be purchased
separately
> from Radio Shack. Ditto for a shotgun mike. The author seems to be
very
> familiar w/ Sony, and says the recorder will cost about $250. and
the discs
> about $2.
> Is anyone on Tweeters familiar w/ MD's? Any recommendations about
brand and
> where to buy them? Any recommendations about a speaker? I probably
won't
> need a mike at the present time. Maybe I'll get into recording of
bird
> songs later.
> You can reply off list if you'd like.
> Carol Schulz
> DesMoines
> linusq at att.net
>