It is starting to become more common to see events that advertise they will be using the Sportident Air+ system for timing. The feedback from the runners that have used Air+ has been very positive. However, until they go to use them at the event, organisers may not have considered how this will affect their race commentary and live results. Prior to Air+ being introduced, the split time when the competitor punched was sent from the station to the radio. With the advent of Air+, it is now the Sportiident Air+ card ( SIAC) that the competitor is wearing that transmits the punch information directly and wirelessly to the radio.

This means a radio control at an event may need to be setup differently to what the organiser is used to.

Here are 3 scenarios for setting up a radio control when Air+ is being used.

Scenario 1. A mix of Air+ and standard Sportident cards will be used at the control. The station will be a Sportident serial station – BSM7D.

Scenario 1 : BSM7 station with OLC-1 and OLC-3 radios

If like me, you have a finite number of Air+ cards, the race organiser may choose to run only certain classes with Air+, with others just using standard cards. This is not a problem with the latest Sportident station software as they quite happily support both standard punching as well as Air+ punching. However the O-Lynx radios do not currently support both wired and wireless connections at the same time, so 2 radios are required. The BSM7 station will be connected to an O-Lynx OLC-01 radio by a cable, while the SIAC cards will transmit wirelessly as they pass and so require an O-Lynx OLC-03 radio to be situated nearby.

The BSM7 Serial station will be set up as …

  • Operating Mode: BC CN – Beacon Control
  • Radio – Send Last Record
  • Advanced Settings – Auto Send – ticked
  • Legacy protocol – unticked

Scenario 2. A mix of Air+ and standard Sportident cards will be used at the control. The station will be a Sportident Short-Range-Radio station – BSF8-SRR

As both the station and Air+ SIAC cards will transmit via Short-Range-Radio only a single O-Lynx OLC-03 radio needs to be used.

Scenario 2 : BSF8-SRR and OLC-03 radio

The BSF8-SRR station will be set up as …

  • Operating Mode: BC CN – Beacon Control
  • Radio – Send Last Record
  • Advanced Settings – Auto Send – ticked
  •  Legacy protocol – unticked

With “auto Send” ticked the station will send all punches from standard SI cards, while ‘send last record’ tells the SIAC’s to send their punch information directly to the radio.

Scenario 3. Only Air+ Sportident cards will be used at the control. The station will be a standard control. E.g. BSF7 or BSF8 or one of the Air+ only BS-11 controls.

The punch information will only be coming from the SIAC cards as they pass, again using Short-Range-Radio, so a single O-Lynx OLC-03 radio is required.

The BSF7/8 station will be set up as …

Scenario 3 : BSF8 and OLC-03 radio
  • Operating Mode: BC CN – Beacon Control
  • Radio – Send Last Record
  • Advanced Settings – Auto Send – unticked
  • Legacy protocol – unticked