Grid Calls / Announcer

I've been watching this, and I take away three ideas. I've personally experienced the challenges with calls, too. I know it's a real problem.

1. A unique chime sound indicating a call vs. other radio chatter.

2. Consider putting calls on a unique channel not used for corner workers and other operational communications.

3. Work from a call list with all the calls printed out. Cross them off as they are called so we don't lose place.

Did I get it?

How about some sort of chime or horn prior to all 1st, 2nd, and 3rd calls?

For instance: one horn sound and the announcement for 1st call, two horn sounds and the announcement for the 2nd call and so on.... That way you know what it is whether the announcement come through clearly or not...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scott Finning

Would something like this paging system be a possible remedy?

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That is one more thing to fail and it probably isn't cheap. It may or may not have the range needed as well.

This last round I just needed the scanner to be more reliable, like it usually is. It wasn't at MSRH, it was horrible.

Most people have smart phones and texting capabilities, anyway we could incorporate these technologies in addition to the radio?

Perhaps a CMRA calls app?

I'm aware it may be labor intensive to set-up initially.

If our phone number was listed like our transponder number could we create something to generate text message calls?

I do like Peter's idea about a unique sound to indicate a call is forthcoming.

I watched Michael & Daisy to know when I needed to go, THANK YOU!

Twitter account for CMRA that everyone can follow and an official can manage? Works very well in most cases and a pinch to set up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brad Thomas

Most people have smart phones and texting capabilities, anyway we could incorporate these technologies in addition to the radio?

Perhaps a CMRA calls app?

I'm aware it may be labor intensive to set-up initially.

If our phone number was listed like our transponder number could we create something to generate text message calls?

I do like Peter's idea about a unique sound to indicate a call is forthcoming.

I watched Michael & Daisy to know when I needed to go, THANK YOU!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brad Thomas

Most people have smart phones and texting capabilities, anyway we could incorporate these technologies in addition to the radio?

Perhaps a CMRA calls app?

I'm aware it may be labor intensive to set-up initially.

If our phone number was listed like our transponder number could we create something to generate text message calls?

I do like Peter's idea about a unique sound to indicate a call is forthcoming.

I watched Michael & Daisy to know when I needed to go, THANK YOU!

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Lol we were watching you guys :D

SMS is less reliable of a technology than what we are already dealing with. Signal strength varies wildly from track to track and carrier to carrier.

My personal though is we need to go simpler rather than more complex with a solution. Tones, gongs, air horns something more low tech and more reliable will be better than additional technical solutions - I am tech guy and love technology and solving problems with technology I just don't think there are enough gains to outweigh the costs in time and money here.

One horn sound and the announcement for 1st call

Two horn sounds and the announcement for the 2nd call

One long horn sound followed by by the announcement for 3rd call.

Easy to distinguish. Easy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brad Thomas

Most people have smart phones and texting capabilities, anyway we could incorporate these technologies in addition to the radio?

Perhaps a CMRA calls app?

I'm aware it may be labor intensive to set-up initially.

If our phone number was listed like our transponder number could we create something to generate text message calls?

I do like Peter's idea about a unique sound to indicate a call is forthcoming.

I watched Michael & Daisy to know when I needed to go, THANK YOU!

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I call people at the track all the time...no one ever answers. Either they can't hear their phone or it's in their truck/trailer/tool box, etc. They almost always hear when they are paged to Registration though.

There ya go, I knew there would be good, reasonable explanations/answers. Thanks

Maybe I should write a CMRA iPhone app with push notifications. Of course you can always put your name in Race Monitor and it will announce when you're on the track. It notifies as soon as that race becomes active.