Shorter travel time to Baguio

It is now possible to reach Baguio from Manila in less than 5 hours, including two stops.

The bulk of the trip consists of a breeze along three interconnected expressways:

NLEX-SCTEX	164 km Balintawak-Tarlac	P322
TPLEX	70 km Tarlac-Urdaneta	216
Kennon		15
Total	234 km	P553

If you drive at a boring 80 km/h, you should cover the 230-plus-km stretch in under three hours; the legal 100 km/h in about 30 minutes less.

Thankfully, just before the 2016 Holy Week, an integrated NLEX-SCTEX greeted motorists. The Dau exit, where the buildup could take as long as a half hour, is now a thing of the past.

From Urdaneta, it's 34 km on the MacArthur highway until Rosario, La Union. In another 36 km you see the Baguio General Hospital, the first real sign that you are in the Summer Capital.

The expressways cut driving time significantly. At the Urdaneta TPLEX exit, you can see that work is in progress on the final leg to Rosario which will probably be open next year. That means an even shorter traffic time from Balintawak to Kennon.

There are some problems the links can't solve: the standstill around the Baguio plaza and a vehicular version of the Hunger Games at Balintawak.

Converting RCA VOC files to MP3

What worked for me: I downloaded the VSDC free audio converter, opened the VOC file, chose a target format (I chose MP3). Done!

I like the RCA VR 5231. It's small, light and records faithfully (I hear every one clearly from the office meeting). It's got a USB cable that allows easy PC transfers. Until you discover that your files are in the .VOC format which your Windows Media Player or VLC player won't play.

I tried online VOC to MP3 converters. Nah. I downloaded at least three other converters. Nyet. They were limited to five minutes only, and I had three hours worth of talk time.

I was almost resigned to playing back from the recorder itself except that the 5231 doesn't let you go to specific parts of the audio file. Pressing the rewind/fast forward button take you to the previous/next file. The "off" button takes you back to the beginning of the recording.

It is possible to record in the WAV format which conventional players read. Just set the options to HQ. The only downside -- if you can call it that -- is that recording time is cut from 800 hours to 68.

To reset recorder to HQ

1. Press on
2. Press info/menu for about two seconds. "FOLDER" will flash
3. Again, press info/menu twice quickly
4. Toggle the +/- button until you see HQ
5. Press off