The scanner mega-thread

[roys1]

Just had this link sent to me.. it seems as if it's a maycom ar 108 with an upgrade to include more frequencies including PMR in the 400 range..
http://www.wsplc.com/acatalog/Maycom.html
Or this link shows more about it..
http://www.radioscan.co.uk/fr100.html

[HairyDJ]

Yup - got one, but don't like it as much as the 108.

Huge problem for me is that you can't lock the buttons to prevent accidental operation whilst in your pocket.

It does give me the rally frequency 81.5750 as it includes 66-88 band.

For those who want to go more techie, the FR is triple conversion superhet to the AR having dual.
Audio output is 150mW 8ohm against 120mW 16ohm

[Dave Weston]

Speaking of scanners..if anyone is getting a new scanner and by any chance did have a GRE PSR-255 Scanner, and still has the instructions for it, I would find them very helpful, as just banging away at various buttons on the one I have in the hope I can figure out how to work it isn't as productive as I first hoped....!
Thanks

[flagwaver]

try searching for it on the website, have managed to get some manuals for various bits of kit like that.

[Dave Brand]

Originally Posted by Dave Weston

Speaking of scanners..if anyone is getting a new scanner and by any chance did have a GRE PSR-255 Scanner, and still has the instructions for it,

Have you tried the manufacturer's website?

[Matthews Dad]

Originally Posted by Dave Weston

Speaking of scanners..if anyone is getting a new scanner and by any chance did have a GRE PSR-255 Scanner, and still has the instructions for it,
Thanks

Have a PSR (think its a 255) with instructions I have a go at scanning them in or copying them

let me have your emails / postal adddress by PM and i'll be in touch

[Dave Weston]

Originally Posted by Matthews Dad

Have a PSR (think its a 255) with instructions I have a go at scanning them in or copying them

let me have your emails / postal adddress by PM and i'll be in touch

pm'd you - thank you

[PaulPerkins]

At the prospect of flagging a couple of 1 hour races this weekend, I wondered if there could be a way to get a live-timing feed to me whilst track-side so that I can give my addled grey-cells a rest...

So, I had a bit of a play with the Java widget at the http://www.tsl-timing.com website, and realised that the Java applet performs a fairly simple web-service call to get the positions, times, speeds and so on back to the applet.

So, I knocked up a little bit of PHP to slurp the live timing data into a plan-old webpage which can be easily viewed from a phone browser, using very little data.

What I came up with is this: http://www.marshalspost.com/mst/?key_id=BF3GT

It shows the results screen of the latest race or qualifying, in real-time. Pressing the refresh button does what you'd expect.

The system seems to track whatever session is running at that meeting (British F3/GT in this case).

Interestingly, changing the value of 'key_id' to 'TOCA' shows the latest results for the Touring Cars or support races.

Similarly, a value of 'BSB' shows the super-bikes and their support series.

So, it looks like I've now got realtime race stats in my pocket!!

I'm not sure how happy TSL Timing will be about this usage, and I'm sure that it's very much against the marshalling rules to have a mobile phone in your hand whilst the circuit is live, but it's still a nifty little application to use whilst not on-duty!

Please feel free to have a play and report any bugs you might find!

Cheers,

Paul.

[Hepatic]

cooool!

great for people watching the racing trackside

[mmm_five]

At least we'll be able to see how the sessions went during the intermissions.

[The STIG]

hmm, some sort of live timing would be handy for blue flagging [if you lose your place], but it would have to be an on post monitor that you could glance at quickly, rather than a small mobile phone browser.

In short. Nice for spectators, but I'm not sure of it's use for marshals, sorry.

[bella]

bloody hell paul, that's brilliant. add it to the automagic refresh feature on the phone browser and i'm sold already

edit: it doesn't seem to load up the data if you don't put the bf3gt bit in capitals - that's on a nokia 5800 running symbian s60 5th version (says she, sounding authoritative but not really sure of the os details on that phone).

[PaulPerkins]

Originally Posted by bella

bloody hell paul, that's brilliant. add it to the automagic refresh feature on the phone browser and i'm sold already

edit: it doesn't seem to load up the data if you don't put the bf3gt bit in capitals - that's on a nokia 5800 running symbian s60 5th version (says she, sounding authoritative but not really sure of the os details on that phone).

Thanks, Bella!

Indeed - it needs a value for key_id in order to load data from the TSL website.

BTW, a value of 'SF' loads the Superleague Formula results

[Mark Mitchell]

Could anyone translate all the above into English please?

[numbersix]

Originally Posted by Mark Mitchell

Could anyone translate all the above into English please?

LOL! I run 5 networked computers and servers at work covering 52 websites and I haven't got a clue what they're on about either! Seems good though, whatever it is.

[Guinness2702]

Originally Posted by The STIG

hmm, some sort of live timing would be handy for blue flagging [if you lose your place], but it would have to be an on post monitor that you could glance at quickly, rather than a small mobile phone browser.

In short. Nice for spectators, but I'm not sure of it's use for marshals, sorry.

I can plug my phone into a TV! All I need is a portable TV and a power supply for it.
Come to think of it, if timing is in t'internet, I could just take my laptop.
Definitely would be useful for blue flagging, especially longer races where there're pit stops....I've found myself listening to the commentators in the past, trying to keep track...although whatever size screen you have, not the sort of thing you could look at if you're single manning a flag point.

[The STIG]

IF you could have a simplified display which only showed the first 5 cars or so, that would be good enough for blue flagging really. less information to take in in a hurried glance.

[Urgentemente]

Looks good Paul,
definately be better to have it on some sort of monitor on post of course.

I've just started learning PHP (just self 'taught' with a book and google ), if you don't mind could I have a copy of the code ? I've knocked up a basic system in work for booking in trucks arriving at our yard (initially using text files to store the data, just changing it to use a mysql db - learning that from scratch as well!)
. I'd like to see how to use more dynamic data etc.

[garybirch]

Great idea for those not on post - speccys or stand down marshals.
I wouldn't like to think my flaggies or anyone else supposed to be watching the track would have their heads down in a mobile to see timings. Aren't use of mobiles while track is live a no go anyway?

[mattt]

Brilliant

Works really well and uses very little credit to look at it

Just a question - will it display what cars have pitted and which haven't

[Hepatic]

Originally Posted by garybirch

Great idea for those not on post - speccys or stand down marshals.
I wouldn't like to think my flaggies or anyone else supposed to be watching the track would have their heads down in a mobile to see timings. Aren't use of mobiles while track is live a no go anyway?

100% absolutely. Good when a session has just finished, and you've done the necessary track checks etc and you wish to find out what just happened tho. Most of the time i have no idea on quali results until they form up for the green flag lap for the race!

[zakeriath]

Strange, two distinctive train of opinions here, some want to embrace technology to help them marshal and others who dont.

[Sticker Rub]

A bit of common sense on the "no mobile phones" rule should be applied here. I can understand concerns if everyone on post was staring at their phones but if a flaggy was to glance at the timings for a few seconds every few laps, I can't see a problem. They probably get more distracted asking the rest of the team if they know who the leaders are.

[m1fcf]

I would have thought that an occasional glance by one of the track marshals should/would be OK - thought here being that they would only swing in to action once things have stopped going bad, the flaggie or i/o should be the ones seeing things go wrong.

either way, it should only be an occasional glance, and in no-way replaces watching the action itself

[Burnsie]

Originally Posted by zakeriath

Strange, two distinctive train of opinions here, some want to embrace technology to help them marshal and others who dont.

I don't think it's a case of people not wanting to embrace technology. All of us know that it only takes a split-second for an incident to occur on the track, and if Race Control asks for a report on what happened, I don't think they would take kindly to being told that you missed an incident because you were looking at your mobile. This is just my opinion though, and it shouldn't take anything away from Paul's great piece of programming. As others have already said, it can be (and I'm sure it will be) a great resource for spectators and for marshals in between live sessions.