from answering machine to CD [Telecom]

Assuming the answering machine doesn't have a headphone output, go with clip leads from the speaker of the answering machine, through a small transformer and into your PC's sound card.

How can I most easily do that? - Use a microphone to your computer and hold it close to the answering machine's speaker.

The handset most likely has an earphone jack. Connect it to the mic input of the computer. You'll have to play around with the right adapter cable.

You can use a program called Audacity to do that. You'd need a line-out from the answering machine going to the mic/line-in jack on the computer. A pre-amp might also be necessary.

Then just use Audacity to record. Very simple.

See

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

(Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or I may never see it. Thanks!)

thanks for all the replies.

Would there be a way to call the machine from a PC, to remotely retrieve the messages? That way I could use Audacity to record, but wouldn't have to mess with any cable or transformer.

I can't seem to locate any program that lets you do that. I think that Win 95 had that built it.

Audacity has a record function? Never noticed that. I use the YoGen sound recorder.

I think the easiest way to do this is to get a "telephone pickup coil", the little suction cup thing you stick on the back of the receiver. Plug it into the microphone input on your sound card, and you're on your way.

Harold

Harold, I and every other James Bond wannabe gave up on pickup coils in the sixties: they're noisy, unreliable, and their performance changes with their orientation to the earth's magnetic field.

Sorry to bust your baloon.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

(Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or I may never see it. Thanks!)

Sorry to hear you have not had good luck with them. I have one of those fancy Radio Shack units that works well on my old Western Electric phone and would, I think, work well on any FCC compliant (hearing aid compatible) phone. I do a few telephone interviews for articles I write. I plug the pickup coil into the microphone input on my laptop, fire up Audacity, and I'm in business. I'm sure a direct connection would work better, but this is simple and adequate for the job.

Thanks!

Harold