Can anyone give me some suggestions or advice on options for discreetly taping a discussion? Say if a person were having a conversation in their own home with some guests. How might this best be done without causing undue alarm or needless questions requiring awkward explanations?
Or perhaps in a different setting, where no advance setup is possible. Would a small battery-operated device be the best option?
Would Radio Shack have the needed supplies, or are there better sources?
Keep in mind that this is purely a speculative question about a hypothetical situation.
I used to record my ex-mother-in-law with a small tape recorder in my back pocket. We used to argue and then later she would deny certain things she would say, so I played it back for her. Boy was she pissed!! LOL She started thinking twice before she would say things.
I used a small recorder, you know the ones with the little bitty tapes that some used to use at the conventions. I would put it in my back pocket and wear a long shirt. I would make sure the mic part was facing the top, hit record, and have the volume up all the way to make sure and catch everything. Worked really well. Don't know if that helps but it did for me
Your home is the best setting possible. The recording device can be any size and it is easy to hide a good high quality mic (e.g. on ledges, in ornamental flower and plant arrangements, etc.)
On your person is a little harder. I once used a digital tape recorder in my shirt pocket hooked to a lavalier mic hidden under the lapel of my jacket. Both are readily available at Radio Shack, Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's Electronics, etc.
Small digital recorders in your pocket work well for spontaneous recording, but I think that the ones with the small tapes work much better. While the quality of the recording may be similar, with a tape you don't have be concerned with space limitations, you just change the tape. Also, it has been my experience that if you take the tape and put it into a safe place for later use it will be less likely to fall into the wrong hands.
As for recording in your own home, the possibilities are endless.
Check out a company called shomer-tech. They have a good supply of covert audio and video recording devices. Here is the link...
No Ap, assuming this is for an elder visit, you could set up your PC and tape it on to the hard-drive, just get a good little mic switch the screen off while they sit around and they'll never know!
