in car video + radio on the cheap?

We've thought of several schemes involving digital cameras, VCRs, gerbils, blackjack, and hookers.  In fact, forget the digital cameras.

Seriously though I think we're going to use a digital camcorder with 60 minute DV tapes in the car, hooked up to a small inverter for power.  We'll just swap tapes as we can.  We also thought about hooking up a digital camera to an old VCR with the RCA plugs - i tried this out a while back and it worked great, but I don't know how a VCR will hold up to the vibration. 

As for car to pit comm, we are just going to use cheap FRS radios, because that's all we have.  I'll get a couple of helmet mikes and lash a radio to something in the car (and maybe use a VCR - for some reason I have a lot of VCRs around - on another radio in the pit to record the communications for posterity). I had considered using a CB, since I have a CB walkie talkie and a mobile unit, but trying to talk into a CB mike with gloved hands whilst driving just seemed like a quick path to disaster.

The video at the link below is from a cheapo JVC Everio camera with a removable CD card.  ($250 +/-)  Plus it's small and durable and we can use it for family functions etc...  Some in car systems you see in the magazines aren't exactly portable. 
The camera is hooked up to a power converter since the battery life is so short. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKt4sW5yoCc

For radios we have a few headsets we put on when putting on our helmets with a cord to a walkie that is in a secured radio box.

Last race we used my Sony Mini DV camcorder mounted to the roll cage.  Nice picture, plenty of record time and easy to transfer to my PC.  This time we're adding more cameras, but there's no way I can afford to buy more of these digital camcorders.  Worse yet I'm mounting them outside the car, so they're pretty much guaranteed to get whacked.

Enter Craigslist.  Last night I just scored a another Sony camcorder for $20!  Same great picture and ease of transferability, but now I don't have to worry when the thing gets destroyed.

For our radios we used Motorola commercial grade units without the headsets.  We used cheap earbuds to allow one way communication to the driver.  Worked fine, no complaints.

For FRS radio users.

Do you guys run out channel and have radio interference?  We may have ultra secret pit strategy therefore, we'll need to encrypt our transmission. lol

We ordered a set of these

http://cgi.ebay.com/FDC-FD-268B-UHF-400 … 911.c0.m14

They have pretty good range and allow you a very wide range of frequencies. Price is right and the shipping from Hong Kong was quick.

Legal disclaimer:   you should be properly licensed by the fcc to operate these units....

The ear piece/microphone was not very good. 
What is everyone else using that they have had good luck with for in helmet?

Would a motorcycle Chatterbox work?

Probably not, don't most of those use Bluetooth? The effective range on those is about 30 feet.

Video... cheap -- WOTcam
http://www.wotcam.com/

works. we tested a pre-production model. worked great. He made some changes with it to improve video.
Great guy, known him personally for 10 years.

Only 640x480 for $150USD, you can do way better.

We're going to be using one of these, which I got a few weeks ago for $120CAD ($100USD).  It does 720p at 30fps, or it can do a lower resolution at 60fps, allowing for smooth slow motion.  It's small, it has a removable SD card slot (8gb will hold about 4 hours), and SD cards are dirt cheap.

Another option is a kodak zi6 (~$150USD), which does 720p @ 60fps, which would look awesome.  People often don't realize what a difference a higher framerate makes.  Everything looks so much smoother.

wow I like that for the price!  Wish I would've seen that before buying a GoPro...

Question: can you review the footage and only import bits you want from the memory card or is it one HUGE file that you must import before editing?

We're using this exact same setup.  I'm guessing I'm going to need to learn how the privacy codes work, with 130 teams there's going to be a lot of channel issues.