Pompey Mick

The mini-sites were a little bit more than just results, you could post photos and ongoing Club reports,will the Club Results page offer similar facilities.

Is there any chance of the mini-sites being resurrected on PigeonBasics this coming season. I would have thought that PigeonSportLive has by now lost the right to have sole control over these Club Sites. How long is it going to be before a decision is made, one way or the other.

In late 1964 we learned that our whole neighbourhood was going to be cleared and a new estate built, (you can see from the pictures that it wasn't the most grandest of areas). We were set to be rehoused by the Council and set about viewing offered properties, being a pigeon fancier they had to meet certain criteria and we ended up being one of the last to leave when we finally found a suitable location. It was a far cry from the cramped terraced houses of Buckland, it was a veritable Shangri-La for a pigeon fancier. Situated on the Eastern side of Portsmouth, a short walk from Langstone Harbour with views across to Emsworth and Chichester and it backed onto a special needs school. For us, a dream location. Moved in February 1965, broke the birds in four days and timed in from Pau NFC on the day with a broke-off pigeon. Happy days. Loft No 3

Hi billt, We had the blizzard on Boxing day and the snow stayed till March, We had to fit polythene covers to the front of the lofts to keep out the snow, the youngsters thrived though, they won me the YB averages that year, with 2nd& 4th Solent fed St Malo as the highlight (1st&2nd club).

Loft No1 was quickly followed by loft No2, built late 1962 with racing in mind. Eggs on Xmas day & Boxing Day 1962 (remember that winter 62/63) were my team for the coming 1963 season. Still on top of the air-raid shelter and I used to sit on top of the coalyard shed behind the loft and enjoy the 'wonderful view' of a myriad of chimney pots all across Portsmouth. I was 15/16 in those pictures

This sort of information just goes to prove that the artificial increased numbers of Peregrine Falcons are relying on a domestic food source to maintain and increase their numbers to such a figure which is totally out of balance with nature. It is all very well to say that Peregrine numbers have fallen but so too have the numbers of the natural prey, the process of artificial introduction of a species such as these has created a massive imbalance in the natural world, and this imbalance is being supported by the taking of domestic racing pigeons. Surely this gives us the right to demand a total rethink of the raptor policies embarked on by the RSPB and BTO. when it is our birds that are filling the vacuum.

Please take some time and read the letters in this weeks BHW, page 7, relating to the BTO. http://www.mpldigital.com/bhw/online

This is a rather tatty photo of my first loft with my dad and brother (with fantail trapper), built on a brick air-raid shelter backing on to a coal yard in the centre of Portsmouth, 6X6 with a stray catcher trap, dated Summer 1962.

I've always made a form of 'Old Hand's Boost', pinhead oatmeal with Cod Liver Oil, Calcium, Brewers Yeast, Multivits & any other powdered supplement I have at the time, the birds seem to enjoy it and I have fun mixing it. Does it do the birds any good?, well it hasn't got any harmful substances, and I feel I'm achieving something, so that's all that matters really.

I'm afraid the majority of Pigeon Fanciers only want to spend their money willingly on either pigeons or products that they think will make their birds fly faster, anything else is a 'rip-off'. If you compare the price of ETS rings to all the other costs involved in the sport of pigeon racing then they are but a small part of the overall expenditure. It's a poor state of affairs when fanciers worry more about the cost of an ETS ring when a pigeon is lost than they do about the pigeon. I am about to enter the real world of a State pension existence and I shall be carefully managing the cost of my pigeons and I shall downsize quite readily to accommodate any costs I will incur including ETS costs. The use of ETS in pigeon racing has really professionlised the way Clubs work, electronic marking and checking has speeded up Club House procedures to a point where every member wants to 'push the buttons'. Admittedly there is administration work to be done, but as with any other computer based operation once the data is in, that is it. ETS will never be made compulsory, only by natural progression, as the market for clocks and rubbers decrease then there will be difficulty in sourcing and repairing these items at reasonable cost to the point of ETS being a viable alternative cost-wise.

My mistake,must pay more attention in class.

I've taken this from Pigeonchat courtesy of dooman. http://www.mpldigital.com/bhw/blackpool Looks good and easy to read with the zoom facility

I feel really jealous of you lads North of the Border, at least you live in a Country, have a National Anthem and a Parliament. Here in England (a part of Great Britain and the United Kingdom) we have none of those.

Would this be suitable for loft locations, it looks the part. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Fixed-Marine-Internal-Antenna/dp/B0043VMRIK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1326229320&sr=8-14

I am in agreement with modern technology such as GPS being used but I would prefer that the marking of a loft would be done on Google Earth, which you could then print off and send to the RPRA for them to enter into their database. This website is ideal, you can zoom on to the loft and it will give your Lat/Long in the boxes below. http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html

I think you'll find that the RPRA is bringing in GPS Locations at the AGM. The stumbling block is that the co-ordinates from GPS do not match up with the co-ordinates obtained from pin-pricking a map, I believe the RPRA has obtained software to match GPS co-ordinates with Ordnance Survey co-ordinates. Before this was available, in order to accommodate GPS, it would have meant that every RPRA member would have had to gone over to GPS and be re-measured for every race point in a single season, an almost impossible task. When we do go to satellite mapping I think that everyone's Lat/Long should be available for inspection, then you could check on Google Earth the authenticity of everyone's distances. I quite agree it's a much better and more accurate way of measuring and I shall gradually re-map all my Club members in this way.

You can try this website to get a reading just to double check. It's ideal for checking training distances as well. http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

I've bought two from B & R in recent years a 18-23 bird and 7 bird . They look good and do the job. I'm pleased with them. Just checked their website and they are in stock. http://www.pigeons.co.uk/pigeon-baskets/7-8-bird-boddy-ridewood-wicker-pigeon-basket.html

This is the Hilsea Inv 1963 Prize Presentation, I'm the young lad sitting in the front Just trying out photobucket, works a treat.

We have been using EastCoast Software since we first went over to Unikon, in fact the reason we went for Unikon was that EastCoast Software was fully compatible with Unikon. I do everything through EastCoast Software, all the Clock, Ring & Racepoint allocations allocations. It works a dream on checking night, everything downloaded into the computer at the push of a button. It copes easily with holdovers and late racepoint changes. It also has the facility to download Email RPRA distances electronically to the respective members. It has definitely moved the administration of Pigeon Races into the 21st Century. Have a look: http://www.eastcoastsoftware.co.uk/

As a South Road Fancier living on the South Coast I find the Channel crossing is usually the easiest bit of the race. If we have a difficult race from France its usually poor weather at the Lib Site or on the French mainland. The Channel forecasts are usually very accurate and are constantly updated so it is fairly easy for the Race Controller to avoid hazardous Channel crossings when there are problems about. I also race the North Road and the general consensus of opinion of Fanciers who have experienced both N & S racing is that North Road is the hardest. Obviously when racing across the Channel into Scotland you will have the extra 350-450 mls to bring into the equation once they have reached this side.

There's an interesting article in this weeks BHW,Page 87, about Norwegian Racing from the North Sea culminating in (hopefully) a race from Aberdeen. They are looking for a fancier(s) to take care of things in Aberdeen. They seem to have hit on one method to help overcome the Peregrine problem.

Doing well down here on the South coast, finished work, spending the morning cleaning out the lofts prior to the Xmas festivities and travelling. Awaiting a phone call from Bristol where No 1 Daughter has a baby due on Xmas Eve. Cars filled up ready for action.

Lot 14 £40.00 please & Lot 14a £70.00 please >>>> Done Thanks Ian

This is the Garvo price list. http://www.garvo.co.uk/price_list_UK_consumer_march2011.pdf