Tony C

Down with the monarchy!

When rearing young the more protein they need (beans, peas, tares) When racing more carbs and fats are needed which = energy (maize, wheat, barley, dari, hemp, safflower, peanuts, sunflower) When moulting they again need a feed high in protein. Winter months feed as cheap as possible (wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas)

Happy birthday T_T. That's the pleasantries over with now can I please have a piece of cake, thank you

I've found when a hen gets on in years the youngsters they produce begin to show signs of this. They'll start throwing youngsters with wishy washy patterns or wishy washy eyes.

Have you opened their beaks and looked down their throats ?

http://www.chevita.c...iouscatarrh.php ?

At least 2 weeks before I even contemplate training them.

If its contagious I hope my wife cops it

Was that after the weigh in

twas a cracking game to finish off. Well done to the Welsh.

Lets hope so Brian, he's only but a kid

I race my w/h cocks up to 300miles and am in the process of looking for a mix with around 40% maize in. I use to feed Natural Concord but cant get hold of it now.

It appears to be working just fine now fifer, thanks.

It appears I'm still having problems Fifer. Seems as if I can receive them whilst signed in but if anyone sends me a PM whilst I'm off line it doesn't come through.

http://irishhomingunion.com/page10.htm In the sport of pigeon racing, knowing as accurately as possible what the latitude and longditude (location) of a pigeon loft is of paramount importance. With the location of the release point also known, the distance the pigeons fly can readily be computed. With the boom in the Irish economy, new housing estates sprung up faster than the mapping system could keep pace with, and the fanciers moving into these estates were faced with a problem.The expert map-readers in the Irish Homing Union had no maps to read for these new fanciers. THE NEED FOR A RELIABLE POSITIONING SYSTEM Apart from the sport of pigeon-racing at all, trying to find out where exactly he is on the globe has been a problem for mankind since the dawn of history. Down the years, many systems have been tried, but each one has had its disadvantages. The Cold War and the arms race that developed after World War II injected a real sense of urgency into solving this problem. The targeting of ICBMs (intercontinental balistic missiles) became so advances that these missiles could be expected to pinpoint targets thousands of miles away. The ability to take out your opponent's missiles had a profound effect on the balance of power. But you could only knock out enemy missile silos (storage places) if you knew where exactly you were launching your attack missiles from. Most of the United States missiles were at sea on submarines, so the Americans had to come up with a system whereby a submarine could surface at sea and know within minutes its exact location. Fortunately for them, they had the kind of money ($12 billion!) to build such a world-wide system. Thus GPS was born. HOW DOES GPS WORK? The basis of GPS is "triangulation". In simple terms, triangulation is a method of calculating the relative positions of objects using the geometry of triangles. By very accurately measuring our distance from at least three (but preferably four) satellites high above the earth we can establish our position anywhere on the surface of the world. A GPS receiver measures distance using the travel time of radio signals. Knowing the distance from the satellite and where exactly it is, is the secret. Lets look at a very simplified example, to see how it works. Suppose we know that we are exactly 10,000 miles from satellite 1. This narrows down the possible positions we could be in the whole universe to the surface of a sphere that has a radius of 10,000 miles centered on satellite 1. At the same time, if we also know that we are exactly 11,000 miles from satellite 2 ,we must be on a second sphere 11,000 miles from satellite 2. That means that we can only be in one of the positions where the two spheres intersect. When we bring in satellite 3 which is 12,000 miles above us and that sphere comes into play, there are only two possible positions where we can be, and one of those is deep in space and so can be ruled out. But by bringing in satellite 4, the position is established beyond doubt. Also, the fourth satellite is needed to synchronise your receiver's clock with a common time standard which is strictly adhered to by the clocks on board all the satellites. In general, the more satellites used, the greater the positioning accuracy. The Americans have twenty-four satellites up there, ensuring that a sufficient number are always in position to give information when needed. WHERE ARE THE NAVIGATION SATELLITES? The satellites are located in what is referred to as 'Medium Earth Orbits (MEOs) at an altitude of about 20,000 kilometres. MEOs are the orbits of choice for a number of reasons: their stability enables exact orbit predictions; the satellites travel relatively slowly and so can be observed over several hours, and the satellites can be arranged in a constellation so that at least four are visible from any point on the earth's surface at any time. As stated above, the distance to each of the satellites is established by multiplying a signal's travel time by the speed of light. That sounds great, but, unfortunately, there are problems! THE PROBLEMS Firstly, the US millitary, understandably, I suppose, could not be expected to leave their system available to people who could use it against them, so they introduced Selective Ability (SA). This changed the time signals enough to bring in inaccuracies of up to 100m in the locations computed by anyone other than themselves. Secondly, the speed of light is only constant in a vacuum, and the GPS signals get slowed down a bit on their way from space. For example, the Ionosphere, the layer of atmosphere ranging in altitude from 50 to 500km consists largely of ionized particles which can exert a perturbing effect on GPS signals. The troposphere, the lower part of the atmosphere that encompasses our weather, is full of watervapour and varies in temperature and pressure. Thirdly, as the Americans controlled the entire system, they could turn it off or on as they thought fit. SA on its own, regardless of the atmospheric problems, meant that GPS could not be considered for use in loft location, as the built-in inaccuracy was too great. But then came Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) DIFFERENTIAL GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (DGPS) The idea is quite simple. With GPS, a receiver takes in timing signals from at least four satellites to establish where it is. But if you put in a land-based reference receiver on a point that has been very accurately surveyed and keep it fixed there, it already knows where exactly it is! Instead of using the timing signals from GPS to calculate its position, it figures out what the travel time of the GPS signals should be, and compares it with what they actually are. The difference is an "error correction" factor, This error information is passed on so as to give more accurate measurements. MARINE DGPS When the Irish Homing Union learned at the turn of the century that as an aid to shipping, the authorities ( General Lighthouse Authorities) had established numerous land-based, fixed reference receivers around the coast of Great Britain and Ireland, giving an accuracy of up to 5m, it decided to adopt the Marine DGPS. The equipment used required two separate aerials - one to receive the GPS signal, and the other for the correction factor from the fixed reference receiver. Depending on where it was calculating loft locations, the IHu used signals from Tory Island (north coast), Loop Head (west coast), Mizen Head(south coast), Nash Point(south Wales) or Point Lynas (north Wales). WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS and GLONASS The rest of the world were not going to let the Americans have it all their own way, and so other systems were developed around the world. In answer to the US military, the Russian military established their GLONASS system (Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System) As an aid to navigation, non-military systems were also developed, which correct the errors of the military systems. WAAS (Wide Area Augumentation System) is maintained by North America. MSAS (Multifunctional Satellite Augumentation System) is developed by Japan and other Asiatic countries. EGNOS European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service is maintained by the European Commission, the European Space Agency and the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. In principle, all systems are the same and even more astinishing, the systems are compatible to each other. For obvious reasons, EGNOS is of more interest to us in this part of the world, and it entered its pre-operational phase in 2006. It is Europe's first activity in the field of global navigation satellite system, and is a precursor to Galileo, the full global navigation system under development in Europe. Consisting of three geostationary satellites and a network of ground stations, EGNOS achieves its aim by transmitting a signal containing information on the reliability and accuracy of the positioning signals sent out by the American GPS system and the Russian GLOSNASS system. It allows users in Europe and beyond to determine their position to within 2 metres. By the way, with all the error correction satellites going up, there seemed little sense in the Americans continuing their 'Selective Ability' built in error, so as of 1st May, 2000, it was discontinued, and the GPS error now ranges around the 20 metre mark. We are glad to report that the Irish Homing Union Differential GPS system in operation uses EGNOS, and we believe our calculations to be accurate to a metre of even less.

He'll more than likely do the same again next year, pair him a 4-6 weeks later next year.

It appears I've had problems receiving PM's. If anyone has PM'd me in the last 3 weeks could they do so again. Thanks Tony

Good for pigeons or not? Remember reading an article stating its poisonous to birds.

Its my opinion that these are nowt to do with what pigeons eat, I agree with others that think it a type of virus.

I'm happy with what I have here and more important am confident with what I have here BUT I'll not rest on my laurels.

I've found the older the pigeon the harder it is to keep the form going, whereas if a yearling hits it he'll keep on coming week after week.

If they're sexually mature my guess is they're flirting with hens somewhere.

Got too many wheels for me

Paired up 9 w/hood cocks today which I plan to send to the distance race's.

I know one or two fanciers that let them all lay out then sling the eggs and let them all go down again so they get an even hatch. How long they sit the first lot of eggs I dont know. One of these fanciers won Thurso Combine a couple of years ago which was our last and longest old bird race.