Ridecamp: [RC] WS100 Webcast

Lucy Chaplin Trumbull elsie@xxxxxxxxxxxx
MB wrote:

> Whoever did the webcast deserves a medal.  It is the best 
> one I have ever seen.  Thanks to the Where is your runner? 
> link I was able to keep track of my friends.  The information
> was accurate and timely.  I hope the Tevis Ride does as 
> well......maryben 

Thanks MB!

It was a collaborative effort:

* Richard Goodwin (also Tevis webmaster) put the WS100 
website up and set up the most excellently clever database 
for tracking runners.
* A *slew* of radio operators and data entry people at aid
stations throughout the course got us the runner information,
some of them working several checkpoints, and throughout the
night. We were surrounded by a multitude of radio equipment
set up by a multitude of radio guys.
* Richard and I manned the database at the Overlook in 
Auburn, feeding it the data and sorting through problems 
for the 30 hours that the race was on for.

To sum up on the day:

"Excitements" included the power supply for the main computer 
exploding - a BANG, smoke, everything - upon plugging it in 
on Friday night when Richard was trying to set up. Yikes. He 
managed to get it up and running by 1:30 a.m. - in time for
the 5 a.m. start.

One of the remote radio "somethings" (radio ignoramus here - 
one of the radio guys told me what it was, but I don't 
remember) apparently suffered a melt-down at some stage 
during the race and ceased working and it wasn't until 
after the event they discovered why.

During the day, the main radio comms computer (which was
pulling the packet radio reports from the checkpoints) also
suffered some intermittent hiccups and needed some imaginative
tweaking to keep it going.

I think it's safe to say that computers don't like being
moved around much.

We had a figurative Black Hole in data from Foresthill 
to the HW-49 crossing (~35 miles). We were supposed to get 
packet radio reports from the river crossing (~15 miles 
after FH), but there were some technical difficulties, 
and in the end we got nothing. This meant for a frustrating 
night - answering emails from anxious people at 3 a.m. who 
thought their runners had vanished into thin air. The only 
consolation I could give them was that we were getting radio 
reports of *drops* only, so if their runner wasn't showing as 
a drop, then they were still out there.

Finally, after the river crossing checkpoint at Rucky-Chucky
closed at 5:15 am, the radio guy drove the data disc to us in 
Auburn and we were able to get it up on the web.

The hw-49 crossing also suffered computer trouble when initially
the computer wouldn't work properly and then, when they finally
got it going, it got dropped and broke totally. Our thanks to 
the guys there for persevering with voice reports. Trailside 
reporting is *hard* on equipment (picture nearly *all* of the 
checkpoints/aid stations being in remote areas with no power, 
no cell phone coverage, and with the air filled with infamous
"Tevis red dust").

Apart from all the interesting developments above <g>, the 
reporting itself went brilliantly and we were pleased 
with what went out. 

Every year we learn from the mistakes of the previous years 
and fine tune it to work a little better.

As for Tevis - right now, the best I can offer is similar
to what I managed to put up last year - me grubbing about
in the dirt with a laptop, trying to type out any radio reports
I can get my hands on. We don't have same the radio support 
for Tevis that we get for WS100, so it's much, much harder to
get comprehensive coverage. We'll have to see what I can pull
off on the day (thank goodness it's just a 24 hour ride, and
not 30 like WS100... I'm still totally spacey today from lack
of sleep).

I'm trying to get ahold of Tevis RM to sort something with 
them, but they are proving elusive. We'll have to see how it
goes.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull
Repotted english person in the Sierra Foothills, CA
elsie@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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