Author: smoggypaul

Hi everyone – this is the Agenda for the AGM on Wednesday 23rd November. Following feedback from lots of members that in recent years the meeting has gone on for too long we are trying to keep this to an hour maximum and will take any questions informally after the formal meeting end – allowing this to be concentrated around individuals with specific questions that just don’t concern the whole membership.

Hello everybody……in recent years Sussex Athletics have given Clubs one or two entries to the Brighton Marathon which we have always struggled to hand out at the AGM as no one is interested by this time, since anyone wanting a place is already in.

The news this year is that Sussex Athletics are NOT giving any out. However any individual member of England Athletics has an entry guaranteed, which will cost you £69.50. If you are a) A paid up member of England Athletics and b) Want an entry, then you must contact me as only I can complete your entry.

For the majority who are NOT England Athletics members…………I am getting an average of one Charity appeal a week for someone to run Brighton for them. I haven’t bothered circulating these because…….I haven’t been able to give our own places away each year!!

However, IF anyone IS suddenly interested in Brighton AND is prepared to pay and also raise money (the most recent one was £50 entry plus a minimum of £300 fundraising, to give you an idea) then again, let me know and I’ll connect you.

I am waiting to hear about the situation regarding London Marathon places and will inform everyone as soon as I know. I have made an application and have been promised a response and  hopefully confirmation by 28th November, if not sooner.

Members might recall that the Joggers last year bought a large digital clock.

Just what was advertised about the chosen clock, what was read into the advert, and whether the clock lived up to its advert is no longer of any interest. But it has taken Mark Skilton and Chris Bradfield some while to try to put it into service, for our normal requirement of service on a race finish line.

First, the clock certainly isn’t waterproof. We now know that, having drenched it at last year’s Seven Stiles. Fortunately it recovers after being left for the circuit board to dry out. A small gazebo at the finish line is likely to solve this problem.

Secondly, a minor matter, it came with no provision for support, so with Mark’s help, we have added a bracket to allow mounting on a camera tripod. It remains easily blown over by strong gusts of wind.

Thirdly, finding a small rechargeable battery to make outdoor use simple is still in progress. The supplied mains adapter marked ‘for indoor use only’ is scarcely helpful for use on the Kings Field.
Most importantly, there has been some difficulty getting it to respond to the remote control supplied. We haven’t taken the clock to a race start line, not least due to battery difficulties, so we usually start a race with two stopwatches, return to the Kings Field and load a transfer time onto the clock, and start the clock when the stopwatches show the same transfer time. Unfortunately the clock hasn’t started reliably, and for a year had been set on one side. After all, with race timekeeping live, if the clock fails to start despite two attempts, all one can do is to put it aside and focus on the race.

Eventually, some thought identified a common pattern. The clock remote control works reliably on test, at home and indoors, near a mains power source, but had failed consistently outdoors on the Kings Field. Perhaps it didn’t work outdoors. Transferring the test outdoors, both with mains and battery power, confirmed the failure to work outdoors. Thinking further, a possible cause emerged. The remote control uses an infra-red link, much as TV and other remote controls do. Perhaps the receiver was exposed to too much infra-red as part of the daylight outdoors, and so saturated and could not recognise the smaller additional illumination from the remote control. Tests seemed to show that shielding the receiver photo-transistor to cut out much of the ambient lighting did allow the remote control to work.

For the present, the simple solution is shown in the photograph. The plywood plate registers on the bottom right inside corner of the clock bezel, and holds an offcut of 15mm copper pipe in line with the phototransistor. This now ensures that the receiver only receives light from a reasonably small angle of view, and so cuts out much of the background lighting, just as a lens hood does in photography. Of course we now have to point the remote control fairly accurately, and squarely on to the clock, but this is a small price to pay. Still to come is a clip to hold the plate whilst setting the clock, and avoid a need for a third hand.

We look forward to further opportunities to improve

Chris Bradfield