Hi again. We always managed to get them to accept that two tape recorders running simultaneously was good enough, and duly handed them one set of cassettes at the end. As the assessment lasted more than 90 mins we had a cassette change when the first one clicked off having reached the end. Use a shopping trolley to save carrying it all. Have a practice with pressing the right buttons at home first so you are reasonably used to them and know it plays back ok from the microphone distance you spoke at. Usually 'Play' and 'Record' have to be pressed together. Be wary of the small 'piano key' style ones sold cheaply on the web, some are of very poor quality compared to the ghetto blaster style. Also with any old one you need to be sure it still drives the tape ok, there is a rubber drive band inside which can perish or slip with age. You have my blessing to refer to me as a friend, so if the assessor moans or mocks as you run leads across, get two lots plugged in, plug in mics etc, you can say you are doing it because your 'friend insisted you should' and thereby shift the negativity away from yourself. Lastly when you get home with your cassettes make a copy and keep the original separate safely. Then if you want to listen back and stop and start it lots to check what was said or transcribe any of it, use the copy and you won't risk damaging the original which can happen with lots of stop/rewind/play Do let us know how it goes, Denby
