Race Report using New FX9500 system!

[mstompro]

I've been using ART now for nearly three years.  I recently upgraded to FX9500 system that I used to time a triathlon and a road bike race.  This document discusses my recent experiences with the new system. 

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzxFVI81EChxQnh5dk1YaGJFQm8/view?usp=sharing

[mstompro]

We timed three races yesterday (half marathon, 10K, and 5K), all with different start times and constant race day registration (against my wishes).  We ended up with 100% read rate, and the system worked flawlessly.  I can't believe how much of a difference the FX9500 and additional antennas has made.  Last year I spent the entire race staring at my RFID timing computer fearing non-reads.  This year I'm totally relaxed and I even wonder off to take the occasional picture.  At the end of the race, the race director was so pleased he told me they wanted to hire us "forever."  That's six races in a row with perfect read rates and flawless performance with the new setup.  

RISING SUN RUN PHOTOS

[Paulo Medina]

Nice set up, your race report has convinced me to go big with a fx9500. Otherwise I see myself upgrading in the future. What type of tags did you use for the running events? where did the runners wear them?

thanks

[mstompro]

I use Agee's tags for running as they are pretty easy and work well, but you have to be very aggressive in educating your runners on how to wear them correctly. After a couple of years, most of the people in my area know the drill. I really only had one race with poor read rates when I first started, and that was because the volunteers working the packet pickup table did not do a good job of explaining how to wear the tags. After that race I started aggressively educating racers and made that a priority. I let them wear the tags in either their shoes or on their shorts. Both work very well. I timed a cycling race recently with dogbone tags and those are amazing. They worked so well I'm him got experiment with mountain them on bibs.

[Jon Beverley]

I use dogbone tags that I make into Agee style shoe tags, positioning of the tags doesn't seem to make much difference as I get great read rates anyway.

The best I have found are the Smartrac Impinj Monza R6 tags. I have a good stock of them in the UK if anyone is interested. I can do smaller quantities cheaper than https://www.atlasrfidstore.com/smartrac-r6-dogbone-rfid-wet-inlay-monza-r6/ and shipping to the US is only $10.

Jon