Barry,
I haven't looked at the microphone outputs etc. but assuming that they are
pretty standard there might be somewhere to plug in to get the announcer. Or
you could split the PA microphone output, send it half into a recorder. There
isn't one for the safety radios as they're all standalone, which I believe are
on the GMRS band, but either a spare radio might be used or a compatible
radio/scanner could be set to capture all of that. Of course there's overlap
between the PA and the course radio, timewise, sometimes folks are speaking on
both.
One idea might be to just set up a video camera in the trailer. A good old
VHS like mine will have a 2 hour and possibly 8 hour lower quality mode. Of
course the trailer workers swearing and sweating trying to get the cards
sorted right might not be the best family entertainment if you catch my
drift....Been there, heard that, nearly swore into the open mic! Anyway just
run either a mic above all the workers, or plug the PA mic into one channel if
stereo and the other into a local mic that can catch voices and tires and
engines? You'd probably have to have all the workers sign additional releases
to use their faces and voices, which not everyone may be willing to do and the
Region certainly does not want to discourage people from doing their jobs,
particularly the "skill jobs" in the trailer! One gag I've used on work days
at home is to set the camera on a "skip" mode, for instance mine will record
roughly two seconds every thirty seconds, such a setting can be used to
capture long events such as setup at a substantially increased speed. Caveat
- few camcorders can record without 110 volt power for more than 1-2 hours on
their batteries. Once the generator is set up you could rely on it and an
extension cord, however its exhaust is something that we can tune out from our
ears in person but that will be picked up by all nearby recorders most
annoyingly.... Finally, I do have a tripod I'd be willing to loan for such a
project, but you'll find that the editing takes up to twice as long as the
total of the tape you have recorded, a "Day in the Life" is a really ambitious
project to do well. PaulT
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