Poll

In the event of a crystal/channel conflict, the solution should be to:

Race the two drivers in different heats
3 (42.9%)
Get one of the drivers to switch crystals
4 (57.1%)

Total Members Voted: 7

Voting closed: September 07, 2004, 06:32:31 PM

Author Topic: Radio Frequencies: Collisions and working it out  (Read 3784 times)

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Offline Svelte

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Radio Frequencies: Collisions and working it out
« on: September 07, 2004, 06:32:31 PM »
Hi all,

Just writing to vent some frustrations about last Sunday's race... it was a tough pill to swallow having to cede out of the final race due to a wicked radio glitch, esp. after doing kinda good (for me anyway) in the qualifiers.

The situation was that the guy getting bumped down into the D heat had the same frequency as I did... and being the nice guy I scrambled to get a different chip set... and the set I managed to bum off Nick (thanks for the loan Nick!) worked fine... until everyone else turned on their transmitters :(. Not anyone's fault, this kind of failure/problem happens: and I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad either, that guy that got bumped was just following directions.

So what's my point? I just want to see if there's any willingness (esp. in the D heat where this seems to be a problem) to a) try and work out the crystals situation on a permanent basis, and b) set some sort of precedence on who has the responsibility to 'fix' their setup when a conflict happens. For instance, in the case of last Sunday, what would have been so bad about keeping the guy who I ended up sharing a channel with up in the C class same as he was for the rest of the day, and letting me finish the day on a positive note rather than a 'this-f*ing-hobby-licks-the-balls' one? Just wondering if anyone agrees that it might be safer to let someone race in a different heat than to mess with setups at the zero hour. I know it's more fun that way... For me, anything's more fun than last Sunday.

-Dev.

P.S. I've added a poll question regarding this topic (racing in different heats vs. forcing crystal changes), if you feel like it plz vote.

Offline Tom

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Radio Frequencies: Collisions and working it out
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2004, 06:56:33 PM »
Normally, any official policy will state that the driver who qualifies lower is responsible for finding an alternate crystal.

You are new to racing, maybe you don't understand exactly what we do when it comes to a race day.

For the qualifying rounds, we tend to sort people based on how they finished the previous week; this tends to promote good racing and healthy rivalries, since you will tend to run with the same people most of the time, with a similar skill level.  If there are frequency conflicts that cannot be resolved otherwise, people may be moved to a different qualifier in an arbitrary manner in order to resolve the conflict.  After the qualifying finishes, we get on with the one round of serious races for the day, the mains.

You are seeded in the mains based on your best qualifier for the day.  The reason you were racing with someone else in the main vs. the qualifiers is due to this.  This is also why the above policy is the only one of the so-far suggested policies that is at all practical.  Perhaps others will have other suggestions, but I have heard none better than what I mentioned above to date.  If you win your main, you have the option to use that win as a "wild card" to qualify yourself last place in the next-fastest main.  This is why races are run from the slowest to fastest.

Most people who have been racing for any length of time will have horror stories about frequency conflicts and radio interferance; this is just the nature of the beast.  It is in your best interest to amass a collection of alternate crystals that you know work with your system to alliviate concerns due to frequency conflicts.

The race organizers hate to not let someone run due to a frequency conflict, so we will try our best to resolve frequency conflicts to the best of our ability.  We can impose a rule such as the one above, so that if you have out-qualified the person you have the conflict with, it is your option if you would like to change or not.  The only problem with this strategy is it will occasionally result in someone not being able to run while they otherwise may be able to (something we try to avoid at all costs), with the benefit that it is less likely someone will have the problems you had.

That's why these new-fangled radios which allow arbitrary channel selection on both the transmitter and receiver are so cool; you can always find a free frequency that you should be able to get working.  Few of us can afford them though, so we're stuck with the old system of getting alternate crystals that others you race with don't tend to have.

Rewarding people who do not have an alternate frequency they can use by allowing them to run in a race they did not qualify for won't work very well; we want to reward people who have the most frequencies available, not those who can't change!

This brings up a more administrative topic, but I believe there are instances where the frequency information available in the computer is different than what people are running in their cars.  We need a concious effort to re-synch the computer database with reality.