Pompey Mick

I am sure the Unikon has a 'Race progress' mode whereby you can get a print out and then continue with the race still active

As a secretary who has just felt his way through 25 ETS systems and 25 members worth of ring allocation I can quite understand other Secretaries being reluctant to take on this work load. I am pro ETS, but it has been a long learning curve, and the recent updates haven't helped. But every cloud has a silver lining and I inputted 16 members birds (127) directly into the FSS race program in a matter of minutes directly from the clocks. Basketting went quite smoothly, no hiccups with the birds, printing the sheets took a little time. Clock checking was very relaxed and the results went a dream (apart from my own performance). If it carries on like this it has been worth the extra work.

Had an ETS trainer from Poole 42mls, sent 4 odd cocks well off the pace but the ETS went well. Used FSS and all the club birds clocked (16 members,127 birds) were entered automatically and calculated in no time. Saved my fingers. At last I'm getting some benefit.

Portsmouth 08.00, Blue sky with broken cloud, cold westerly wind .

It's been snowing here since 8.00am. Not what we're used to in Portsmouth in April or, come to that, at any time.(Global Warming) Glad we cancelled our trainer pencilled in for today. Glad Pompey played yesterday Play up Pompey

Portsmouth 08.00 Cold & Gloomy, recent rain Glad we cancelled our trainer Hope its better at Wembley Play up Pompey

This one gives up to date radar pictures http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/se/se_latest_radar.html And this is a really good amateur weather station just North of Portsmouth http://www.clanfieldweather.co.uk/index.html

This has been posted on Pigeonchat. RPRA - No limit on number of PADS by UNIKON on Fri Mar 28, 2008 6:02 pm RPRA meeting today No limit on number of PADS So you can join UNIKON Pads together to make any size PAD you like by connecting UNIKON pads together, so you can have 13”, 27”, 40” or even 54” to cover as many entrances as you like Sales Desk The UNIKON Team UNIK

The2.82 will be displayed on the clocks and on any printouts Tony, I don't know about the Club Master, I suppose that will show when you start it up

If you check the update website mentioned above there are two further updates following the major 2.8, there's a 2.82 and a Club Master 3.2. At least no info was lost during these updates.

I have purchased FSS because of averages and after a couple of minor problems with the colours and address all seems well.(You must use the FSS colour menu) Back to my question. As you have more experience with FSS and Unikon in Scotland can you download data to the FSS race programme while there is another active race in the clock. I.e. the Club race has finished whilst the National race is heldover. It tells you in the handbook that you cannot access the clock via a computer whilst it is in race mode, I dont know whether this applies when you have multiple races and need to access one of them for race result purposes. Any Club encountered this possible problem?

When using FSS in conjunction with Unikon in a two race scenario, can one race be downloaded to the race results program if the other race is still active, either held over or a longer distance?

Is this race only for the Scottish fanciers or have the RPRA and other Unions been invited. I sent to the Merville race in 2004 and would like to send to this race.

If you have the bob hole as high as you can under a roof overhang so a cat can't get to it from the roof that would be safer,especially if you have a dog.

Why have 'Snow' and 'Happy Easter' been moved to the Members Photos board. These are purely temporary postings, of interest now, which will be efffectively 'dead' by tomorrow. They will now clutter the Members Photos board for months to come. Will our Weather photo postings and lib photo postings suffer the same fate. I thought the Notice Board was ideal for postings that have a limited shelf life, I dont think the 'Members Photos' is the best place for this type of posting.

I am in the throes of getting 25 systems up and running, if they are going to do updates now isn't really the time to do it. Any updates should be made available at the end of the Racing Season.I have just had to re-assign 25 systems before we have had a chance to use them. It's all very well all these systems trying to out-do one another with extra capabilities, but not at the expense of administrators. From what I've seen all the marketing is aimed at the Fancier purchasing the system with little or no emphasis on the administration side I am just hoping that the automatic inputting of race result data with the FSS program will give me something back and that after the first year things will get easier, ETS will make things a lot easier at the Club, especially if you are a Clock Station, so it's best to look at the positives and find a way of delegating the negatives.

I've started to use ECS and I've had problems with the colours not being recognised by Unikon, giving a BK reading. This only happens if you use your own abbreviations and not the one on the ECS menu. Unikon recognise the ECS colours OK, so only use them. Bill has just upgraded ECS so that it prints the Address on Race Entry (an RPRA requiremnet) and Ring Assignment forms. The Town has to be entered on the second line of the members address after the Street in the East Coast Software database. If members are using Clocks for other organisations in would be best to upgrade now, because clocks will be automatically upgraded if connected to a 2.8 version Club Master. with possible loss of all data.

1) NO 2) NO 3) NO You need to have willing and competent officials to do the Administration. It's no good just taking an ETS system to your Club as there is a fair bit of administration behind the use of ETS.

Thanks Lads, I only hope the YBs appreciate what I've done. After two very poor YB seasons I felt a change was needed.

A closer look at the trap, the dowelled door is the let- out door.

Nearly there, I've finished the YB Trap with the ETS entrance (I may put a portal on it). Nice coat of bright orange to let the yBs know when its time to come in. Just the top trellis to make and its ready for the YBs ( just ringing them now)

There was an appeal to the NW Region against time penalties imposed and the appeal was upheld under existing RPRA rules. The NW region then submitted proposals to the RPRA to enable them to allow time penalties and it would seem they all failed. So a precedent has been set and time penalties will not be allowed under RPRA rules. I think the use of ETS is snowballing and here to stay, and when you hear that the production of rubber rings is being stopped by the main supplier, ETS will become the main Clocking tool.

This could be ongoing for ever, the restrictions had only just been lifted and now they're back on again. It will be interesting to see if visitors are allowed into the swannery area We race the west road early on and we were hoping to have two training races (for ETS purposes) on the 5th and 12th of April both points either side of the restricted area and could be affected by DEFRA rulings.

Started in 1962, bred my first YBs in the winter of '63, eggs on Xmas day & Boxing day, polythene on the front of the loft to keep out the snow. Was top prizewinner and YB Ave winner with those YBs. Been downhill ever since, but the lower you go the higher you aim.

Amost done, just some trellis to fit to the top and the YB trap to sort out then I'll be finished at last.