Well, you know how they have radios you can buy and listen into NASCAR chatter at races? Well, is there any standard for radios used at events? I dont know, I just thought it would be cool if we could listen to what was going on in the que and such. I could wear an earpiece and get updates on what was going on, you know, like when a match was starting or problems on the field (cause we all know that we want to know what the big hold-up is!)
Anyone experienced with these things know anything on it? (or if that was illegal at competitions?)
If you need to know something, you’ll be told over the PA, or someone will come talk to you. Otherwise, you don’t need to know it.
Personally, I don’t think some of the comments that would be made during a downed field would be very good listening. Plus, much of that sort of thing would be “X, can you come to the field” or not spoken at all, as the FTA and his crew would be all hunkered around the problem part of the field.
Not to mention that they operate on multiple channels. If you need person X, then the call goes on channel Y. Person Z to get team A for a match, channel W. I’ve seen this personally, while working as an inspector. Even if you–in violation of the walkie-talkie prohibition–managed to listen in on one channel, you’d only get part of the story.
I’ve been on a radio at a regional as an FTAA-- and I did occasionally listen in on other channels. It would be pretty boring to listen to, actually. You’ll get much more out of the event if you have two way conversations with real people on your team, on your alliances, in other pits, with inspectors, judges, visitors, etc…
As a lead que while I a, flattered that you are interested in what we do there isn’t all that much excitement in announcing to Pit adman " Match 17 is starting get ready to que up match 19." all the action is pretty much in front of you anyways so there are no BIG SECRETS to discover out there really. At least from the competition. I can’t say the same for the teams.
Well, I can say that I wasnt interested in secrets big time, really it was just a way for me to stay informed with my team, as it always seems someone is asking what match it is! Maybe now you can see my point now. As im sure you guys know, it can be kindof hard to hear in the noisy pits. With an earpiece I would be forceing myself to listen!
“What match is it?”
“Match 15 just went onto the field”
“Are we queing yet?”
“In two matches, they just went and got the teams for match 7”
Sundial. How I wish that program was still being used. The problem is, the ban on teams setting up wireless networks keeps it down.
You can also pay attention to the pit announcements, have people in the stands tell you what match just went, wait for queuing volunteers to come get you, or just send a couple people to queuing about 3 matches before yours is to start. At the Championship, you’re responsible for making your matches–there are no pit announcements.
Oh, and there is often a screen in the pits for the matches.
Sundial was a network-based application where you entered your team number and got realtime status updates on the match progress. The problem was that you needed someone to setup the network, usually a team.
If it’s matches that you want to keep up with, FRC Spyder, a free mobile app for iOS and Android devices does a pretty fair job of keeping you updated on matches.
If you have a signal in the arena, that is.
It uses the twitter feeds from the FMS to keep track of scores and matches, and updates very quickly. You may want to look into going that route.
I found it extremely useful during Regionals and Championships, since it also shows the rankings and match times.
I wouldn’t call a scanner a walkie-talkie; one would think, or at least I think that FIRST is most likely concerned about interference, which should not be an issue with any scanner.
A: While walkie-talkies are specifically outlawed in the manual, there are handheld scanners that have the capability to automagically pick up nearby transmissions. I have one on my desk. While that would do exactly what you want, remember the “intent of the rule.” Is the intent of “Do not use walkie-talkies” to keep you from interfering with transmissions or to keep you from listening to begin with? There are probably some things said on those radios that aren’t meant to be heard by teams.
B: Most event radios are provided to event staff by Show Ready Events. While radio use between events may be somewhat consistent, the frequency they operate on may not. It would be difficult for you to find those frequencies without one of the previously mentioned scanners.
Is there any form of communication that i could use to comunicate with my fellow driver at a competition easily. Like asking if he is on his way to the match, or something. Mind you i do not have a cell phone, and we cannot use our cell phones in the states (we are Canadian) and we are going to 2 regionals, and the championships in the states. Especially at championships a simple communication device would be a great help. We (the drive team) would be able to communicate between ourselves about when we need to get to queing, and we could talk to someone in the stands if we need a particular person to the pits, etc.
As far as I know, there’s nothing about scanners in the manual and the only thing that comes close is 4.15’s “Do not use walkie-talkies”. Based on that, it’d lead me to believe that scanners are allowed since they are simply for listening. You could make the case that if scanners aren’t allowed, they shouldn’t allow AM/FM radios either because they essentially do the same thing - monitor a specific frequency for communication, but that might be a bit of a stretch.
… but all we can really do on Chief Delphi is guess. If you really want to pursue this (even if it doesn’t sound like there’s much to listen to), ask on the Q&A.
