CarChorus!

On a (recently rare) sunny day (1/23) 11 SeaChordsmen gathered in their cars to have the first experience singing together as a VLQ since almost a year ago!  This was possible due to the recent acquisition of a used 16 channel mixer and some microphones.  The chorus and other members had previously acquired a low power FM transmitter and portable AC power supply.  On this day we used 10 wired microphones and 1 of four wireless microphones.  Nine cars were arranged in parking spaces and everyone listened to the complete mix either over their car FM radio, or a portable radio with headphones or earbuds.  Tyler actually lives close enough and just walked there, so he is the one standing at one end in the picture.  Yours truly, Chris, continued to futz with the mixer and stood outside his car.  Andy and his wife Kristi shared their car, but each with their own microphone.

Jim and Chris arrived early to have everything nearly ready to go.  This paid off as we spent very little time adjusting microphone levels.  One technical item we still don't have completely resolved is loud interference over the radio which suddently appears when somebody touches a cable or moves around near the equipment.  For whatever reason simply unplugging the transmitter power supply for 5 seconds and plugging it in again seems to resolve the problem, at least for a while.  We might have actually gone for an hour with no further problems!

For now, our ability to get together outside is limited by daylight and no rain in the forecast.  With chorus and member loaned equipment we should have the ability to accomodate around 20 singers, with the ability to add equipment for more, if there is interest.  We have been working for a number of weeks to get permission to use a park and ride garage, which would let us schedule such rehearsals regardless of the weather.  Fingers crossed.

Bottom line, we spent over an hour and a half happily running through most of our recent repertoire, and a whole bunch of Polecats.  A bit rough in most places, but just so great to be able to do it at all!