Summary: "Problem deleting every other byte of speech sample"

(1) single small buffer (my first solution):
#define BUFSIZE 2
char buf[BUFSIZE];

while(!feof(infile))
        {
        fread(buf, sizeof(char), 2, infile);
        fwrite(buf, sizeof(char), 1, outfile);
        }

(2) twin buffers (suggested by Lars Wirzenius and several others):
#define BUF_MAX 2048
char inbuf[BUF_MAX], outbuf[BUF_MAX];

while ((n = fread(inbuf, 1, sizeof(inbuf), infile)) > 0)
        {
        for (i = 0; i < n/2; ++i)
                outbuf[i] = inbuf[i*2];
        fwrite(outbuf, 1, n/2, outfile);
        }

#define BUF_MAX 4096

(3) twin buffers using read() and write() (suggested by several for
Unix systems):
char inbuf[BUF_MAX], outbuf[BUF_MAX];
int ifhandle, ofhandle, bytes, i;

while((bytes = read(ifhandle, inbuf, BUF_MAX)) > 0)
        {
        for(i=0; i<bytes/2; ++i)
                outbuf[i] = inbuf[i*2];
        write(ofhandle, outbuf, bytes/2);
        }

(4) direct method using getc and putc (suggested by Joe Wright; Joe
Pop noted that if getc and putc are not macros there will be an
overhead of unnecessary function calls):
FILE *infile, *outfile;
int i = 0;
int b;

while ((b = getc(infile)) != EOF)
        /*bits in an int are numbered 0-15 or 0-31 from right to left*/
        if (++i & 1) /*if bit 0 of 1st operand and bit 0 of 2nd are 1, get 1*/
                putc(b, outfile);

I tested these four methods on a 1.2 Mb file.  The reduction to a
560 Kb file on a small Xenix 386 system took:
(1)     55 secs
(2)     22
(3)     21
(4)     25

Getc and putc are defined as macros in the Xenix C compiler library
(2.3.1b).

Thanks to all who helped!

Chet Creider