Checkpoint 2 radio problems

Well, I figured out the two issues I was having radio wise. I could receive fine all day long, but transmitting was an issue.

1 - Not a good idea to park under the 230 kV line. A quick look at the map told me that's where the checkpoint was. Not so - it was supposed to be a little further upstream, in the shade and away from the hydro lines.

Comms were fine when I set up, but got bad once the juice started flowing. The IESO site says output from the dam in Mattawa was:
8am - 7 MW
9am - 8 MW
10am - 114 MW ...and therein lies the problem.

The debate rages among the four people who worked checkpoint 2 as to the severity of the deer flies out in the open (and under the wires) vs. in the bush.

2 – I went through the manual for my radio and figured out what the ‘beep' was. Turns out if your fat fingers inadvertently push the left volume knob, the radio goes into WIRES™ mode – some type of Internet connection feature. In this mode, cross-band repeat worked, but using the hand mic on the radio didn’t.

It’s three button pushes to get into cross-band repeat mode, yet only one really-easy-to-press button away from Internet mode. Hmmm...

Anyway, it’s two mistakes that I won’t be repeating any time soon.

Other than that, I though things went fairly well. Do we provide any type of report or feedback to the race organizers?

Bill