The easiest way to accomplish bidirectional compatibility between NewsReady32 *.WAV files and your MP3 needs is as follows:

From MP3 to WAV:

Your converter (such as WINAMP) will output a standard uncompressed 'RIFF" compatible WAV file. (16 bit PCM to be specific) These audio files can be put right into NewsReady32, -- What if you want final files at a different sample rate, for example 22Khz:

What you do is after pulling this 32K file into Cooledit, just click EDIT, and click convert sample rate. Choose 22khz mono. In a matter of seconds, it's done, save, overwrite, and you are done. (Most MP3 files are 32Khz.)

The reverse is also possible. Take any file you want into Cooledit. If you have to sample convert to 32Khz, click Edit, Sample convert, 32Khz etc. Don't overwrite your original this time, rather save to the destination you will pick up that file with your MP3 converter, convert to MP3, and provide it to whoever you want. Incidentally, Cooledit is a very handy tool for sample converting files, or going from mono to stereo etc. Cooledit is also compatible with the audio codecs in windows (ACM WAV forms). If your windows 98 machine shows an MP3 codec under controlpanel, multimedia, audio codecs, this means that you can actually use Cooledit to do all your conversions within NR32. That is, if you have a 22Khz mono file, open it in cooledit, choose save as, under file type choose Windows ACM, under Options, choose the MP3 codec, and it will do the entire conversion including going to 32Khz.  Before you send the file to the other person, just change the extension from WAV to MP3 and it should be fine.  Note: One word of caution, if you convert files to other formats within Cooledit, DO NOT OVERWRITE the original wav file, as those are not playable at the current time in NR32. Always save outside the system to a non-wireready folder if you save to anything other than the sample rate your system prefers/requires..