The PA system is a bunch of battery-operated CB radios that are put in place by the ECTA staff -- there's no true public address system. We tried one once, when John Beckett got one donated, but it was a pain in the neck to set up and operate. So -- everyone turn up your CB radio and we'll all hear Joe's announcements. He (well, whomever is in the tower) communicates with the officials and the line and shutdown on the VHF FM radios -- and he uses the CB to announce to the crowd. When he's working in the tower he is using a pair of microphones -- quite entertaining to watch. I've been the timer a few times -- it's confusing to do, so let's take an extra minute to thank Joe and the other timers for the work they do.
Back to CB radios: I've just modified my truck Cb a bit, and this next event will be the first test of it. I've got the thing dashboard mounted, with a speaker mounted above the back seat in the cab of the truck. And now I've got remote speaker jacks mounted under the hood and inside the cap, in the back, and a speaker with magnet-mount to plug in to either of the jacks. So -- when we're in line and everyone usually crowds around the driver's window to hear the announcements -- I'll have the speaker attached on the roof of the cab so we can all hear that much better. And when the truck is parked in the pit -- we'll use the rear jack to have the speaker mounted back there so we can hear the CB from the pit itself. This is gonna be slick. Sure hope it works.