Q. What does a logging recorder do?
A. A logging recorder is a multichannel recording system used to record conversations and transmissions from a communications system over an extended period of time. In addtion to the audio, a logging recorder also records time and possibly date, to assist later recovery and playback. Typically, only a very small fraction of the audio recorded by a logging recorder is ever listened to.
Q. What is a communication channel?
A. A communication channel is a specific radio frequency or phone line.
Q. What is a recording channel?
A. A recording channel is a separate and independent recording path. It is the job of the logging recorder to keep information recorded on one channel separated from information recorded on another channel. Logging recorders can have anywhere from two to several hundred independent channels.
Q. What is the SwiftSTOR® II Communications Recovery System?
A. Traditional logging recorders have focused on telephone and conventional two-way radio RECORDING and treated playback and trunked radio as an afterthought. The SwiftSTOR® II Communications Recovery System, while performing the functions of a logging recorder is focused on QUICK and EASY RECOVERY and PLAYBACK of trunked radio communications in addition to telephone and conventional two-way radio.
(Playback can be initiated from your office, your home, out of town - anywhere you have access to a telephone line. Once you have retrieved SwiftSTOR® II information, you can save it as a .wav file to review it at your leisure, transfer it to a disk, send it by e-mail, or save it to a conventional analog recorder. SwiftSTOR® II playback is fast, easy, and user friendly.)
Q. Trunked radio systems have a reputation for being difficult and expensive to record, why is that?
A. That reputation is true. In the past, the only way to record trunked radio was to detrunk the conversations prior to recording. To accomplish this, you needed to have detrunking equipment for each talk group and a recording channel to match. If you wanted to record many talk groups, it took a lot of expensive equipment.
Q. What does the SwiftSTOR® II Communications Recovery System consist of?
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SwiftSTOR® II Logging Recorder selected for the number of channels
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Optional items, accessories, supplies, and spares
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A source of Control Channel information (furnished by customer)
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Sources of "clean" per channel audio for each RF channel in the trunked system (furnished by customer)
Q. How does the SwiftSTOR® II Communications Recovery System differ from conventional trunked radio recorders?
A. Traditional recorders capture trunked radio by talk group using dedicated audio channels. This sort of installation uses telephone logging recorders and softly external hardware to extract the individual talk groups. Trunked radio systems are designed to handle far more talk groups with fewer RF channels. Therefore, trunked radio requires a large number of recording channels, greatly increasing cost and forcing many trunked radio systems to forego recording on at least part of the system.
The Swift system captures trunked radio by RF channel. Therefore, no matter how many talk groups are contained within a system, the determinative factor for how many recorders remains how many RF channels are contained within the system. Additionally, playback of conversations with the SwiftSTOR® II system is exceptionally quick and easy. Instead of sorting through hours of conventional tape, the SwiftSTOR® II quickly consults its database to find your transmissions in seconds instead of hours.
Q. How will this product help me in my business?
A. Backup and recovery systems depending on your industry and the size of your company, can very quickly pay for themselves several times over in legal proceedings, or in assessing or alleviating blame in crisis situations or accidents.
Q. Can it record all my radio and telephone traffic and conversations?
A. Yes it can, and you can have a backup record of it all for as long as you are willing to keep the tapes or the DVD-RAM discs.
Q. What exactly is trunked radio?
A. In it's simplest definable form it is computer aided or controlled radio.
Q. In the future when I want more talk groups what do I have to buy from Swift Computers, and how much does it cost?
A. With the SwiftSTOR® II there is nothing else to buy when you want to add more talk groups. In other words with the SwiftSTOR® II talk groups are free.
Q. Will I ever have to buy a LORI card to record my trunked radio system using the SwiftSTOR® II?
A. No, you will never need to buy a LORI card to record using the SwiftSTOR® II, no matter how many talk groups you may have or may add in the future. With the SwiftSTOR® II talk groups are free.
Q. What is a LORI card?
A. A LORI card is a special device produced by Motorola which is required if you are trying to record talk groups on a radio system. They usually cost about $2,000.00 (US) each.
Q. How easy is it to retrieve my recent conversations or to find a conversation from several weeks or months ago?
A. Very easy. The simplicity of the SwiftSTOR® II is something we pride ourselves on here at Swift. Our objective was to make using the system as simple to use as possible for the end user. Our user interfaces and filterable search capabilities make it very easy for even a new user to quickly find and playback recent or very old conversations that he/she might have been looking for. We also utilize graphical representations of conversations on the playback screen to make it even simpler for the user to follow the conversation as he plays it back.
Q. Many logging recorders miss either the very first second or two or last second of transmissions, does the SwiftSTOR® II have a problem with this?
A. No, the SwiftSTOR® II catches the entire transmission no matter how short or long that may be. Even if the total transmission is only half a second as someone responds "yes" to a question someone else might have previously asked.
Q. How do you know when a conversation is finished on a trunked radio system?
A. A person must listen to the conversation to discern when it is over. Because a push to talk may signal a start of a 5-20 second sentence, yet this is not the entire conversation. In fact a conversation may last hours with just a few sentences said intermittently over the span of a long time.
Q. Does the SwiftSTOR® II record telephones?
A. Yes it does
Q. What is a talk group?
A. This is a group of people with common interest.
Q. What is a talk group extractor?
A. This is a device that can follow a talk group on a trunked radio system. Typically programmed to one talk group so when the talk group is active the audio will be available for listening to or recording.
Q. How long has Swift Computers been in business?
A. The company was originally started in 1977 out of Dallas, but relocated to the Houston sometime thereafter. For a more detailed history of the company click here.
If you have any questions that were not adequately addressed or sufficiently covered by this FAQ please contact us your questions and we will answer it as quickly as we are able.
