check out the Sony ICD 515 units. They can be purchased through
Amazon for about $210 and come with a PC-based
transfer-transcription program which I believe would be adaptable
to a foot switch. If not, one could save the recordings as .wav
files and then use something like Dictation Buddy which one can
purchase with an USB foot switch. The recordings are made at 16K
and are compressed with Sony's proprietary msv format.

Todd
On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 20:40:37 -0500, you wrote:

>You could consider the PTR-1 from PlexTalk, it isn't necessarily cheap, $895, but it will do most of what you want.  It is a DA*ISY DTB player/recorder, that records onto CE's.
>
>Dave
>
>
>
>At 06:04 PM 10/15/2004, you wrote:
>>Does anyone have any suggestions for a recording solution that might allow a
>>student at university to take useful audio records of lectures and other
>>taught sessions. The solution needs to meet the following criteria:-
>>It produces recordings that are as clear as possible in a variety of
>>settings (allowing an external mike to be used if necessary).
>>It allows for long sessions to be recorded.
>>It has a clear display that shows the student how much time has gone by, so
>>they can annotate their notes with this and so access these parts of the
>>recording quickly later on.
>>It allows index marks to be placed while recording, for easy access to parts
>>of the recording later.
>>It has large, easy to use controls.
>>Very important - It allows the student to control playback using a
>>footswitch, making it easier to take notes afterwards e.g. when working at a
>>computer.
>>It doesn't cost a huge amount of money!
>>
>>The Sony MZ-B10 minidisc recorder with footswitch controller was a good
>>solution but has recently been discontinued.
>>
>>Any advice gratefully received!
>>Ian