Dimmerdave wrote:
Assuming there are no adjustments on the tuner, then you will need an attenuator pad. Check out this webpage for some info - http://www.uneeda-audio.com/pads/
If what you see there sounds like too much trouble, then hook up your tuner to an amplifier and connect the speaker outputs to you computer sound board. Start off with the amplifier volume control at the lowest setting. You will find that you will need to run the volume contol at almost a quarter of the way - this is because there is an impedance mis-match. The amplifier speaker output is at an impedance of about 8 ohms; while the computer sound board line-in jacks are built for about 1000 ohms. This mismatch will not effect the recording quality, it only effects the amount of power that will be transfered to the sound board. The attenuator pad will make for a lot less space used on your desktop, but if you have an amp handy - that will work for you too. You might also be able to buy an attenuator pad at Radio Shack.
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My amplifier (a vintage Kenwood of superb design) has a headphone output from the preamplifier unit, which contains the volume control. I simply run this headphone output to my computer soundcard line input. I have determined the proper setting of my amplifier volume control to work with the input to the soundcard, which also has a software volume control. So I leave the amplifier set, and then make level adjustments using the soundcard volume control. This works like a charm, although I temporarily lose the headphone output from the amplifier. This is not a problem for me, since I listen to the result of this from my computer speakers. That is, I am using my Kenwood amplifier only for the preamp unit which feed the headphone output.
If your amplifier has a headphone output, then you can do the same thing. You may need to have an adapter cable, however, to run from the headphone output of your amplifier to the soundcard. Also, you may run into a ground loop problem if your PC ground and your amplifier ground at are at different potentials. I solved this problem by buying a small isolation transformer which is used in the signal line. This prevents nasty hum resulting from tying the two grounds together. I bought this neat little ground isolator online from http://www.dak.com. It is cheap and does the job perfectly.
Until you have experienced ground isolation problems, you will probably not appreciate the necessity for taking this precaution! But be forewarned.....
Musikone
(and then some)