I have a microcassette player with an edited tape of dictation that
Posted By: I keep with me. (sm) on 2007-11-15
In Reply to: Agree with you... - maj
No, really, I keep it with me because I get these questions and responses ALL THE TIME. I got so fed up with trying to explain that I just pull out my recorder, hit play, and then watch the looks as they realize that can't understand a single thing the dictator is saying. Now, THAT, my friends, is PRICELESS!
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Looking for good microcassette desktop player
I haven't purchased and/or looked for a transcription machine in quite a few years. I did a Goggle search but I prefer the expertise from those that have the real experience using one. :)
I had a high end Sony many years ago that broke down several times in the first couple years i used it so I am a bit sour on those. I realize though by now they could be made totally different. I really didn't care for their foot pedal at that time either (way too much flexing of my ankle for my comfort).
I have had 2 Olympus Pearlcorders that I have used for at least 6 years, probably longer. I haven't seemed to be able to find just a transcription machine now (without record feature). I feel if I get 3 years out of a lower priced one like these I certainly did get my money's worth. :) However, due to aging and loosing some hearing (that can come naturally with aging), I think I may need a better quality machine.
I do want one that is a microcassette player, has an adjustable backspace on the machine, backspace and forward on the pedal & erases tapes. I would like to find one with excellent sound quality as well. I am willing to pay up to $500 for one that is highly recommended by you pros.
Thanks so much.
Sandi
(If I am talking in circles and/or am incoherent, I apologize as I just came home from having surgery today on my foot - and my latest transcription machine died this morning so I need to order one on line fast).
I never got rid of my tape-player or my -sm
typewriter. You just never know what sort of disaster could come up in the future, where those things would be a real life-saver. And amazingly, PCs never increased my daily work output. It actually DECREASED a bit once we went to PCs.
Microcassette Machine
Not sure if it will help, but I have a Sony M-2000 microcassette transcriber. I know your sour on the Sony's, but I don't use this anymore. Let me know if you are interested.
Starting job using Olympus Player/pedal - does this have a good player with slow down speeds - I do
Until now I have always used company software with player included. I hate to spend money and find out the player is mickey mouse!!
Thanks- you may e-mail me if you prefer.
edited to say should be adapter
I spelled adapter wrong. It HAS been a long day.
Most places can tell who has edited
a report, whether the MT, QA, or other personnel. I had a physician actually go in and change something on mine which was not correct. I saw that it had been changed and contacted my supervisor and she was able to tell the physician had changed it, not QA. So there are things in place most programs that can tell who made what changes.
It would be 3 cpl on corrections to edited
I do not know of a company or a platform that credits typed corrections on edited reports at a straight transcription rate. Of course, that does not mean that there are not any out there, just that I have not heard of any.
At 3 cpl, your production would have to be incredible to make decent money, especially if all you were doing was editing.
I've edited your message. (SM)
Stop the name calling. You can disagree but must post respectfully without name-calling or other such tactics.
In actuality, if the report is edited in any
go after your initials as being the one who edited the report. This does not happen, but I think it should. This way, the ultimate responsibility for that edited report falls on that person and not the original MT whose initials are first. Wouldn't you agree? 
Your reply was to an edited post
l
I don't look at edited reports anymore. Not only do
what WAS a correctly-typed report, they also can't seem to even agree with each other. Take the word 'disk/disc', for example. If I spell it with a 'K', it'll come back corrected to be spelled with a 'C'. So, when I start typing it with a 'C', a different QA person will send it back as incorrect.
If you try to call them out on it, (which of course you have to do through the supervisor because there's no way to contact the Holy Ones (QA), they just standy by their QAs.
Anyway, I'm not paid enough to have QA's snotty attitudes raise my blood pressure 20 points. It just ain't worth the aggravation.
You're right about number of errors, too. I'm sure those QA people come nowhere near a 98% accuracy rate, based on the junk they send back to me. They seem to get all anal-retentive about tiny little things that really don't matter, and not what really matters: A correct, easy-to-read medical (and legal) document that makes the doctor look good, instead of making him look like a fool.
In my experience, every company I have worked has only edited
reports that I send to them with blanks or questions, which is probably less than 5%. From reading these boards, I get the impression most of the work from India needs to be edited. So you would think if it needs so much editing, it would not worth it. But maybe not. Who knows - we'll just have to see. If doctors complain about the quality that would probably slow the offshoring down.
Edited to remove place of employment. sm
That might be a little too much information. 
Since your work will have to be edited for a while, expect 5 to 6 cpl realistically.
if you took one of the better courses and did not get placed, then you should expect an increase in that line rate within WEEKS of hire, not MONTHS. All the MTSO should have to do is see that you are getting the job done then raise your line rate. Good luck!
edited to add I have checked ebay and amazon
nm
It's true. You have to be reassigned a job to get the voice again. Jobs can't be edited once s
s
That was hundreds of thousands of WELL-WRITTEN and WELL EDITED letters
.
I edited MT with mistakes in template,told bout
x
He's just yanking your chain. Has ever edited the train wreck that is left
x
Tape - sm
I just saw some down the street from me, it was yellow with black letters saying "CAUTION".
There is a tape
and available at most Home Depot or Lowe's stores. Bright yellow with black lettering. Used it on our home when we had a major disaster so no one would fall in major holes in our yard. Worked well.
tape
A few years ago I was shopping for Halloween goods and in a store like I-Party they have that tape for Halloween - try one of those stores. I bought some years ago for a mummy and coffin for front yard. Just an idea.
that is why I tape them
I'll watch them while I iron, etc. Then I don't feel so guilty for "just watching TV". Plus you can zip through the commercials.
The one I used did not use tape
Sorry, I don't remember make or model, it was a while ago. But I would dial into the hospital's dictation system. That was where the voice files were stored. I had to have a dedicated phone line with unlimited long distance for the C-phone.
I too used to tape the tape together (sm)
You might lose a bit of dictation where you are taping it together, but I was usually able to salvage most of it. Good luck! :)
Anyone know how to erase tape with...
a Lanier transcriber? Bought it on ebay and do not see an erase function.
TIA,
Dawn!
Tape erase
A lot of people also have disabled the erasing mechanism so that tapes cannot accidentally be erased and have to manually erase them. I have always done that to prevent it after my first accidental erasure. Other than allowing the tape to play forward without background noise, to tape over what is there, no answers here and have been using tapes for 15+ years. A manual eraser cost is cheap.
Patti
Tape eraser
You might wish to invest in a tape eraser; the one I have is from a company by the name of Geneva. The device consists of some strontium-ferrite magnets in a housing; just pass the tape through the housing and it is erased. The part number and description are as follows:
Audio cassette / mini-data cartridge eraser QM-230
Phone: 1-800-328-6795
Hope this helps.
Do you have a tape transcriber, or does it have to be
voice files? I have some practice dictation minicassette tapes here that I'd be willing to send you. As for the voice files, you could try Google searching. I typed in "medical transcription" practice sound files download but don't really have time to search through the results. I don't even know if there's anything out there.
tape her or get it in an e-mail or IM, something
x
try barricade tape
or cordoning tape, but I didnt find much on that
To MTs who transcribe via tape- SM
I found great, low-cost software that allows you to convert tapes to digital files (MP3, WAV, WMA, etc.). Check out www.dak.com ! Your PC needs a sound card and a line-in connection (usually next to your line out to plug in your headset or speakers), as well as a tape player and an actual line that plugs from your PC line-in to your tape player. Think they call that line a male-to-male or male-to-female or something like that (got my line from www.martelelectronics.com). Use Dak to convert your music cassettes, too. Hope this helps!
P.S., I'm an MT, not from DAK
The end of the tape becomes detached
from the spool and is no longer winding outside the case/housing. It is all wound on one spool. Our office manager has been able to repair some by taking the tape apart and reattaching to the spool, so we can get some of the info off of it, but by handling the tape, etc. it distorts it to where we can't hear some of what was dictated and we lose some notes. Thanks! I will suggest one of those brands.
One tape about 2 hours.
or make templates.
Broken tape
HELP! I have had a microcassette tape break. Any ideas on how to fix it (if possible!)?
Thanks!
fixing tape
I had that happen quite a few times - take a very small piece of scotch tape and splice the pieces together- cut the scotch tape as narrow as the cassette tape is so that it will line up on the rollers. You will lose the dictation at that spot - probably a sentence or so - but it's better than nothing. On mine, I had to pry open the cassette case because the ends were inside. If you end up having to do that, pry it open carefully. Hope this helps.
Scotch tape
Try putting a little scotch tape over the letters. You can rewrite them with a fine sharpie.
I have 2 tape accounts.
I love it! It is so cut and dry. I throw the tape in and start typing. You may save time so people think by going digital, but it takes time to upload and download voice files. I just find that throwing the tape and typing is just simple! Of course, I'm a simple person.
In answer to your question, yes I think you may have something there as the tape doctors do not want to go digital because they like doing things simply. They don't want a lot of hassle, and yes, I do believe there are physicians that still like the old method. Some do not think that digital is very user friendly.
The other problem with digital is there needs to be someone in the office doing the uploading, which mean the physician is paying them to do that. With the tape, the doctor puts it in a folder with his patient list at the end of the day, and then leaves it for me. The only thing required by the office staff is the copying and mailing when I bring the work back usually anywhere from 3-4 days later. They do not require 24-hour turnaround, which is great. But, if they do need a note, which happens very rarely, I can simply fax it over to the office.
I am quite content with my tape accounts and the other thing I like is the networking. I can network with the office staff and feel like a movie star since they don't see me every day. They usually stop what they are doing for a friendly quick chat, which is very nice. I have business cards that I carry just in case someone mentions to me that so and so is looking for a transcriptionist.
Broken tape. sm.
I just broke my dictation tape while rewinding it. Should I try to open it and put it back on the wheel. Any ideas. I has three days of dication on it. Thanks.
if you need to cut it, you can tape it back together.
nm
mangled tape
I was able to take the cassette apart to get the tape inside unmangled, but now I'm trying to figure out how to roll it back up as tight as I can so it doesn't happen again, and I don't know how to do that. I have a few feet of tape hanging out and I can't roll it tight by hand unless I want to spend days on it, and it still may night be tight enough around the spool. The tape is intact so I don't think I need any splicing. I'm think right now this is just ridiculous that I'm having to do this and yes, the doctor is technotarded. He kept erasing his dictation accidentally on the digital recorder so went back to using cassette tapes.
tape broke
Did you hear me scream? I guess I'll cut and tape and try it from there.
mangled tape
A company I found on the web called audio-restoration.com repaired a tape for me. The cost was $25.00. The doctor's office paid for it because it beat having to redictate 1-1/2 hours of dictation. It took about five days to get the tape back.
Do you have a tape in the machine?--sm
If there is no tape with dictation, there would be nothing for the machine to indicate. My Lanier has a counter but is not this model. This site has info on the 210--http://www.transcribesolutions.com/lavwmicama2.html
Hope this helps.
erase tape update
See below, don't want to rewrite the entire thing but it did all work out. Basically I had put the envelope and tape from one day in a different spot due to being in a hurry and the other one the doc did not hand in as he was going on vacation. So when both were gone, I thought I had erased them and handed them back in. When I told the doc that I thought I had erased one and he grinned at me and gave me the tape, he told me to include some extra charge for the time I spent looking for the tape -- so it did all work out. God just threw me a curve to tell me to slow down. I averaged 2500 to 3000 lines per day last week and that was with one doctor on vacation. So just hurried, hurried, hurried. Thank you to all of you for your support, it really helped me in a tme of need. Patti
Patti
Also many offer $30 for a 60 minute tape -sm
so if 600 lines you get a whole .05 a line, WOW!! I have only seen 1 I was remotely interested in doing so far, but have not bid on any as yet, doubt I ever will.
All the different colors of correct-tape!
Sure does bring back memories. I remember sitting at my Selectric in my basement when I was a newbie back in 1975 crying my eyes out because I had just finished a 3 page report and the doc wanted me to insert a paragraph at the beginning of the report! There was no "memory" back then and the whole thing had to be retyped just to add one paragraph! I remember them fondly, but am much happier with my computer! Thanks for the walk down memory lane, though!
Oh no! Tape missed part ....
I have Desperate Housewives and Grey's preset to tape every week. Wasn't thinking with the Super Bowl that Grey's would start late. The tape cut off right after Dr. Burke sent everyone out of OR except for 2 other people. He had just told the EMT that her hand was keeping the man from bleeding out and the bomb squad was coming. Then <poof> that was it! What happened next? Anyone, please? Thanks.
I don't think anyone is saying give up a tape account but
I think what started this whole thing is a person asking about how to go about getting a new account, picking up tapes, how much to charge for paper or whatever. In that case, I think OP should research the options out there and start with the approach to go digital first, then accept a tape account only if you have to. Of course you don't give up an account. No way. Never. Ever.
Re: Going rate for tape tx/delivery
The only advice I can offer, since I have never been in business for myself, is to state where you live. Rates can vary by region.
If you mean one side of a mini tape
For my private mds, each side of a tape yields approximately 500 lines, takes me no more than 2 hours to do a side, sometimes 1-1/2 hours if I'm a speed demon and take no breaks!! 
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