Lovebirds on Thu Feb 12, 2009 1:04 pmBrad stated that he didn't realize that these things existed, so I thought I'd try to explain a little about them.
Here's a picture of the antenna pad that we use. Different brands of clocks use different looking pads, but they all do the same thing. You can see in the lower left corner, the wire coming out that goes to the clocks. The instant the bird steps on that pad, he's clocked. These clocks can clock birds within 1/100th of a second.
Here is a close up shot of a chip ring. Every race bird wears one of these during the race season. You'll notice that mine has a label with my information (name, phone number, etc...)...so if someone finds one of my birds, they don't have to go through the whole "looking up the band info" process. They simply email or pick up the phone and give me a call.
Now you've all got my phone number.............
So basically, here's the process for the type of clocks that we use. Before the race season begins every fancier must give the club race secretary a list of his race birds with complete band information. The RS takes that information and puts it into a program called "Pidex". Once all of the birds are in this program, we assign a chip ring to each bird. Each fanciers clock is hooked up to the computer and the birds information is downloaded into that fanciers clock. He is now ready to put the rings on the birds and race them. On shipping night, the fancier bring his birds that he wants to race that week end. The club system is set up and each birds chip ring is scanned before they go in the basket. Once a fanciers birds are all scanned, he gets a printed list of every bird that he's sending to the race. He then takes his clock back to the loft, connects it to his antenna pad and waits for the birds. As each bird comes home, it walks across the pad and is instantly clocked. When the race is over, all of the fanciers bring their clocks back to the club house and the RS downloads all of the information from that race into a program called Winspeed. After all of the clocks have been downloaded to Winspeed, you hit a couple of buttons, and presto, you've got your race results with all birds listed in the order that they flew home to their respective lofts based on speed and distance.
That's it in a nutshell. Matt had said at one point that these clocks made it easier on the RS. I beg to differ.
.......I AM the race secretary and there's a LOT of behind the scenes work that goes on before the average fancier ever clocks that first bird. The clocks DO make it easier on the fancier and as far as calculating the races, it's hand down easier.........but the work and time put into getting everything set up for those fanciers CAN be a real headache.
I remember a few years ago, we (Everett and I) had just put everyones birds into the Pidex program. This was young birds, so we had probably just typed info on about 500 bands. The next time we opened Pidex.....ALL of that info was gone. We had to redo it. WHAT a pain that was. Winspeed isn't the greatest program that's ever been invented either. There are lots of bugs in it.
Hope this helps you understand a little more about what we do.
Here's a picture of the antenna pad that we use. Different brands of clocks use different looking pads, but they all do the same thing. You can see in the lower left corner, the wire coming out that goes to the clocks. The instant the bird steps on that pad, he's clocked. These clocks can clock birds within 1/100th of a second.
Here is a close up shot of a chip ring. Every race bird wears one of these during the race season. You'll notice that mine has a label with my information (name, phone number, etc...)...so if someone finds one of my birds, they don't have to go through the whole "looking up the band info" process. They simply email or pick up the phone and give me a call.
Now you've all got my phone number.............
So basically, here's the process for the type of clocks that we use. Before the race season begins every fancier must give the club race secretary a list of his race birds with complete band information. The RS takes that information and puts it into a program called "Pidex". Once all of the birds are in this program, we assign a chip ring to each bird. Each fanciers clock is hooked up to the computer and the birds information is downloaded into that fanciers clock. He is now ready to put the rings on the birds and race them. On shipping night, the fancier bring his birds that he wants to race that week end. The club system is set up and each birds chip ring is scanned before they go in the basket. Once a fanciers birds are all scanned, he gets a printed list of every bird that he's sending to the race. He then takes his clock back to the loft, connects it to his antenna pad and waits for the birds. As each bird comes home, it walks across the pad and is instantly clocked. When the race is over, all of the fanciers bring their clocks back to the club house and the RS downloads all of the information from that race into a program called Winspeed. After all of the clocks have been downloaded to Winspeed, you hit a couple of buttons, and presto, you've got your race results with all birds listed in the order that they flew home to their respective lofts based on speed and distance.
That's it in a nutshell. Matt had said at one point that these clocks made it easier on the RS. I beg to differ.
.......I AM the race secretary and there's a LOT of behind the scenes work that goes on before the average fancier ever clocks that first bird. The clocks DO make it easier on the fancier and as far as calculating the races, it's hand down easier.........but the work and time put into getting everything set up for those fanciers CAN be a real headache.I remember a few years ago, we (Everett and I) had just put everyones birds into the Pidex program. This was young birds, so we had probably just typed info on about 500 bands. The next time we opened Pidex.....ALL of that info was gone. We had to redo it. WHAT a pain that was. Winspeed isn't the greatest program that's ever been invented either. There are lots of bugs in it.
Hope this helps you understand a little more about what we do.
