I have been looking for a pa system for a van.  I need something so when
we do our hikes people can hear what the driver is saying.  I have seen
a cassette "thing - a - ma- jiggy" that has an attachement on it that you
can then plug into a cd player .
So I have been looking and looking and cannot seem to find anything like
this.  
Any help appreciated....

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 30 Aug 2002 13:02 PDT

Real public address systems are quite expensive (but powerful,) and
Ronco's "Mister Microphone" is cheap (but flimsy.) About how much were
you planning to spend?

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Clarification of Question by radioflyerx-ga on 31 Aug 2002 02:35 PDT

I was hoping to get away with just a couple of hundred bucks.  i would have
thought that this was not so difficult to find but when i started looking, i
was confused somewhat by the techno terms and such.

Ideally, I would have a cassette adapter that would plug into an amp. or
something so the driver would plug mic. into amp. and amp goes into cassette
....powering amp by cigarette lighter or right into fusebox.....

when i was younger my dad gave me an old cb radio with pa built in.
all it required is a decent outside speaker and it worked quite
well.it would fit your basic requirements ie I have been looking for a
pa system for a van.  I need something so when we do our hikes people
can hear what the driver is saying.it can be plugged or wired into the
fuse block. it would require little effort to install.you can get a
new cb with this feature for as little as $49.95 usd and an antenna
would not set you back too much more a cheap weatherized speaker
another 10.00 give or take and you would have a cheap pa system with
an emergency radio to boot.

Cobra 19 DXII
Nat'l Emerg. Channel 9
Combination S/RF Meter
CB/PA Switch
 $49.95 
 i only offer this as an alternative thats cost effective.

link is here http://www.pepperelectronics.com/cb_cobra.htm

Small vehicle PA amps are readily available - such as the Radio Shack
32-2001, about $US 80). You'd need to add a microphone (for safety,
preferably a handsfree one - a lot of coaches have gooseneck mics for
their drivers) and some speakers. Several small car radio type
speakers (3" round, a few watts each) are probably available cheap
from yard sales where owners have upgraded car stereos.

To use a cassette adapter with a microphone you will require a
microphone-to headphone amplifier. Mic-to-line level pre-amps are
readily available, as are line-to-headphone headphone amps. I don't
know if the cassette adapters will work off a line output, so you
might need to chain two amps. Didn't spend time searching through the
R/S website, but they probably do them.