Reasonably accurate, inexpensive dB meter--ideas?

Aolmrd, so how does Radio Shack (mis)treat employees IYO? Probably just like every corporation in the USA - badly.

Joey, You answered your own question...Badly... At some point, in the future of this great country, either we will stick together as one or fly apart as none...

Well at least now at Radio Shack, you don't have to give them all your personal info just to buy a pack of resistors like you used to. That really suxed.

I didn't want to wait for the end of an auction, so I bought this one from a very fine seller who goes by the moniker "carnesto". I broke the first microphone (this appears to have been my fault, not his or the manufacturer's) and he sent me a new one--overnight arrival, no less--for FREE, and the unit now appears to be working perfectly.

Anyway, it turns out that, in the car at least, 85 dBA is rather....LOUD, although certainly not at screaming levels either. I'd like to keep my hearing relatively intact.

So now I have three MORE questions:

1) Is it true that 85 dBA is generally considered the cutoff for "safe" levels of continuous exposure during an eight hour work day (or is what I've looked up out of date)?

2) How necessary is it to buy a calibrator for one of these units? I haven't seen one for under ~150-200 bucks, I don't think.

3)And anyway, how is the calibrator calibrated; i.e., what's the reference signal?

Thanks.