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Very favourable comments were made from those I interviewed at
the finish. It was clearly an excellent event with an inspirational
course (I’m still trying to find an optimum route!) set
by Bill with such little notice. Personally I’m rather glad
I wasn’t competing with so much climb involved on the south
of the map. The high values as we hoped made people venture up
the hills at the start, whilst being tempted back down again for
high values in the middle causing a major loss of height. It will
be interesting to see if anyone managed to get both 182 in the
south- west and 177 in the south-east?!
I realised when I was running the course this morning it was
perhaps wrong to have the controls codes in numerical order, although
it was easier for reading on the run for checking descriptions,
it was harder for those unlike me who were being timed and wanted
to easily find the larger values without consulting the map as
much.
Apologies to the lads who showed up late and were sent off without
SI cards. We totally forgot that the last 4 controls put out had
no old skool punches. And as fate would have it these happened
to be the controls that you visited!
Finally best wishes to Wilbert following his fall in the event,
hopefully it’s just a sprain and you’ll be out fighting
at Castleward.
Those of you who read Event Officials reports will know that
the last LVO event in Cairn Wood had 6 Sportident boxes fail on
the event. This put the wind up your truely, but today's event
in Tollymore passed off peacefully with only one competitor reporting
a box failing to beep. No-one else reported any problems.
Correspondence with the UK Sportident rep resulted in the following
information and recommendations: - batteries should be replaced
every year or if the monitor in the Sportident software shows
>90% life used - a continuous squeal means the battery is dying
- a rapid series of 10 beeps when you turn the unit on with a
magnet means the battery is >93% used and should be replaced
After the last event I opened up the Sportident units which failed
and tested the voltage on the batteries. I also tested a similar
number of
units which hadn't failed. The voltages on the failed units ranged
from 2.50V to 3.50V whilst the good units had voltages in the
range 3.00V to 4.11V. I put the failed unit with the 3.5V battery
in the freezer for 15 minutes and when I turned it on the voltage
rapidly fell until it failed by squealing continuously.
Therefore, if you are running an event in winter time, turn on
the units with the magnet whilst they are as cold as possible
and listen for 10 beeps. The only other time I personally had
trouble with significant numbers of units failing was also a cold
event in February. (Another famous Cecil disaster at Slieve Martin
with the Planner and Controller stuck in a Land Rover on the top
of the mountain with all the equipment, whilst the tent was blowing
down the valley below) Progamming the units in your nice warm
kitchen is not going to catch a problem.
Before this event Bill Hopkins, Declan and I put new batteries
in a START, 2 CHKs, 2 CLRs, 2 FIN, 151, 152, 154, 155, 157-159,
160-169. I still have 156 for experiments with alternative batteries.
When you put new batteries in, don't forget to connect the units
to the computer, go to READ SI STATION and click on the New Batteries
button. This makes sure the computer keeps track of the remaining
life accurately.
I planned the course to make it a challenge in the hope that
some people would be tempted, to get all the points but would
galantley fail. I wanted the event to be a test of skills not
least of route chioce and time and distance. I was pleased with
the event it all went well and everybody seemed to enjoy it.
Wibert retired but he is OK I called him today and he thinks
he has a very bad strian on a previously injured ankle.
Thanks to all
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