Is this the future of our sport?

On Monday, November 12, 2012 11:15:36 AM UTC-7, Bill D wrote:
On Monday, November 12, 2012 8:36:26 AM UTC-7, Frank Whiteley wrote:

On Monday, November 12, 2012 7:46:26 AM UTC-7, Scott Alexander wrote:



On Nov 12, 2:51*am, gotovkotzepkoi







wrote:







I don't know whether this is the future but something needs to take







place fast that depicts gliding as exiting and cool. Otherwise this







sport is toast in the US. Look at how much publicity the World







Championship in Texas got: just about ZERO.















--







gotovkotzepkoi















Great point. Having live feed cameras, and the ability to watch the







entire race from the ground is a huge advancement in sailplane







racing. I thought that if any country in the world would do this, it







would be the good ole United States of America. Guess I was wrong!!!







Does anyone know if the WGC at Uvalde had at least a DVD made?







AFAIK there may have been a couple of independent video efforts. We'll see. Live feeds will become increasingly doable and capable. Spot tracking was okay, though some of the competitors had daily 'malfunctions'. It's suggested that Delorme inReach will improve this significantly, but expect both Spot and inReach to be used for some time. Iridium NEXT begins launching in 2015 if it stays on schedule. That could also make live tracking of distance sporting events much more common. Whether it's a paradigm shift isn't clear. Yellowbrick works great for a GP format and inReach may come close at a fraction of the cost may be good for other racing formats also.







Frank Whiteley



Frank, satellite tracking is not the only or even the best way to go. We currently have a FREE terrestrial system called APRS managed by the ARRL. For a Grand Prix race, we'd only need a "Ham" to supervise the in-glider units. They can provide real-time fixes every second or so with altitude, airspeed, rate of climb or whatever else you want. Virtually the entire US has coverage and special temporary ground station repeaters could be set up for the contest area if there are gaps in coverage. We should be doing this at every contest.

Actually, better systems may be on the horizon. Wireless mesh certainly has possibilities and is in current use by military and mining. I've watched APRS tracking. Doable.

Frank