burro bob
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Location: Poblado del Ejido Plan National Agrario
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Status Channel
First let me say that we are still in the process of putting this together, nothing is final yet.
Some friends and I started brainstorming ways to help out the Weatherman after listening to him get overwhelmed with radio traffic at the last couple
of SCORE races. Originally he was (and still is) the person RACERS call to report problems. Lately he is spending a lot of his time holding the hands
of incompetent chasers who want to know where there car is. You know that guy that keeps saying "Hey Weatherman, you got a copy" or "Where is car #xxx
he should have cleared the checkpoint 10 minutes ago."
We think that maybe it is time for the Status Channel.
Rafael Navaro of Pete's Camp has given us permission to use his frequency, 152.930. There are two different race teams that race on this frequency.
One has allready agreed to move to another frequency. We a still awaiting a response from the other team.
What we envision would be similiar to an automated weather report. Every half hour we would list vehicles that have passed various recording
locations, starting with the vehicle furthest downrange and working backword. While times might be recorded by the recorders they would not be
broadcast. This is listen only radio. The members of the Status network would only respond to other members. Yes we would break this rule for
emergencies or situations where only we can here the caller. The recording locations would not necessarily be at check points but rather at locations
that have pit teams.
We need volunteers. We think that there is allready enough people with radios and masts that we could easily cover the course. The race/pit teams are
there. Checkers, Locos Mocos, Baja Pits are all doing this recording allready. We just need to gather it up (or have it fed to us) and broadcast it.
This is not an attempt to compete with the Weatherman. In fact we plan on being able to feed him this info so he can pass it out as he has the time
and ability. We expect to also have a radio mast at the observatory that we would broadcast from.
As stated at the beginning, this is still tentative. But it has allready been posted on another board so I decided to post it here also.
You can contact me, Robert Kinson - rkinson@telnor.net. Or you can contact Tony Tellier with any thoughts or comments or if you would like to help
out.
burro bob
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bajawife
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Great idea! Wish I could be of help. Don't get to go again this year.
Good luck!
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burro bob
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Ok time for an update about this idea.
Bob Steinberger, the Weatherman, likes the idea. He wants us to broadcast on 154.515 as that is a channel he allready monitors. So we will send in our
reports on 154.515. The other race teams can go back to using the Pete's camp frequency.
As of now we only have equipment and volunteers for two, maybe three locations. We will try to cover the first half of the course.
We still could use volunteers. Especially for the downhill side (El Coyote back to Ensenada) of the course. It is best if there is a pair of people at
each recording location. The only requirements will be to call in every half hour and give a list of all the vehicles that have passed that point
since the last check in. Time could be recorded but would not necessarily be passed on in the report. We expect each recording location will only take
3 or 4 minutes per hour to pass on this info.
This has the support of both SCORE and the Weatherman. Bob has told people privately that he expects to be swamped with traffic and does not plan on
doing any status'. If we want to get status reports we need to do them ourselves.
So give the Weatherman a break. If you want a status then dial in 154.515 and listen. And if you listen to Bob on 151.625, and you are not in a race
car, please UNPLUG YOU MIC.
burro bob
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surfer jim
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Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: high desert
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Great idea and there sure is a need for it.....let me see what I will be doing race day...maybe I can help out.....
I have an ICOM (?) radio from pci....it doesn't display freqs ...only team names....do you have any idea how this would communicate with your freq?
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burro bob
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Jim
154.515 is the PCI customer service channel. Not sure what it would say on your display, possibly just PCI or maybe weatherman 2. If you bought your
radio from PCI it should be there.
burro bob
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surfer jim
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I will check over the weekend.....
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surfer jim
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Didn't bring my radio to race....
Was status channel in operation?
I did listen to WEATHERMAN when I got home to computer late saturday and he was getting status calls on the live feed over the internet.
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TMW
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I think the status channel was very helpful except they only had volunteers at the first 2 checkpoints. They would call in racers that went by 5 at a
time. Weatherman would then repeat the race numbers on his weatherman channel. It's a good ideal and I hope it gets enough volunteers to work every
checkpoint location.
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Geronimo
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Registered: 6-12-2005
Location: Salome Arizona/San Felipe BC Mex
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It worked, sort of. I think we kept Whetherman from going insane untill about 2 in the afternoon. It was a lot of work but looks like I will be
doing it untill the thing gets established and we get some more help. Congrats to Burro Bob and Tony Tellier for transforming this from a bench
racing idea to a reality. I think that since it worked people will step up, I hope.
\"The only cure is to be perpetually South Bound\"
~Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers from the song Mexicosis
Geronimo
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