The
Squamidian Report – Jan. 26 / 13
Issue #557
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I guess there must have been a movie called ‘Bates Motel’ or something like that. Now there is, or is going to be, a TV series of the same name. One of the shooting locations is Horseshoe Bay. The film crew for the show had taken over the Bay on Tuesday evening. Tuesdays are when my club meets for dinner and coffee and we can usually park right in the village by the park and water front. This time (and a few other times as well when they were filming) we couldn’t. The streets were all blocked off and there were numerous traffic cops around to make sure no unauthorized vehicles got past the check points. There were lots of cars parked there, but they all had Oregon license plates in order to fit the ‘location’ properly. We were still permitted to sit at our usual out-door tables, but were asked to keep our voices down when any filming was happening.
When a film crew takes over, they really take over. All the commercial signage and all the street signs had been replaced with ‘location’ signs so that the viewers of the TV show would not see anything that would identify the Bay as the Bay and not the story location. There were big man-lifts, or cherry-picker, with huge, bright lights on them. Funny, they were filming at night but needed to illuminate the whole place. You’d think they were filming at night so that the shots would be dark, and dark is free. We all wear our club and chapter crests when we meet, after all, we are meeting as a club. Several of the police would walk up behind us and read our crests in order to try to figure out who or what we were. They were probably disappointed when they found out we were just a bunch of old guys who ride bikes and not some wild bunch of bad guys.
Ok, now I’m going to get even more boring, so those of you who are not interested in bike stuff might want to just skip on down to Greg’s Ontarion…
The Vancouver Bike Show was last weekend and we all went as usual. One of the things myself and several of my chapter members wanted to look into while there was bike-to-bike communications. This has been a problem for us and we have spent a lot of time and money trying to find a solution for it. We’ve tied the little GMRS radios but range when riding has been a problem due to engine induced interference. We’ve tried other types of radios as well, but in all cases the weakest link has been the required headsets. Everything we’ve tried has proven to be garbage. There is also the cabling that runs from the radios to the headsets to fuss with, and push-to-talk switches that get in the way or don’t work properly. We do use hand signals but when information is needed instantly, such as in heavy traffic or an emergency, hand signals fall way short for getting the info to the riders. Some type of radio communications needed to be found for our group rides.
There are several systems on the market that use Bluetooth, a form of wireless networking. These systems generally work well but have some major limitations, the biggest limitation being the limited number of communication units that can be ‘paired’ onto the same network at a given time. Most systems must also be toggled between users, further limiting their group usefulness. And, most systems use a boom mic that sticks out of your helmet and is therefore in the wind stream and ends up picking up wind and back ground noise when the user is talking. We checked out different systems at the show and found one that just might solve most of these problems.
Like all Bluetooth systems, they are rather expensive but they seem to work and something that is expensive but works is cheaper than something that is cheap but doesn’t work. A company called UClear has had a system available for a while but brought out the latest generation of their system last year, the HBC200. It does not use a boom mic, the mic is built into the speakers that mount by your ears in the helmet, and combining noise cancellation software and being out of the wind, there is no external noise at all. The system can include up to a dozen units on a network, with further expansion after the next firmware upgrade. Like all Bluetooth systems, other Bluetooth devices such as cell phones, GPS’s, MP3 players etc can be ‘paired’ to a given unit. One of the drawbacks of Bluetooth over standard radio is that when radios broadcast, all units within range and on that frequency can hear and be heard. With Bluetooth, the units are daisy-chained, meaning that packets of digital information are passed from unit to unit, in the order that the daisy-chaining took place. This draw-back is also a major strength. You see, claimed range between units is 700 meters under optimum conditions. Now, lets say that under real world conditions that range is closer to 500 m. As long as the riders are arranged in the same order that their units are daisy-chained, they can get spread out up to 500 m apart, and information continues to get passed along the chain in real time. If there are 10 riders, they can theoretically be spread out for 5 kilometers and still communicate. That example is not likely to ever happen. What is more likely around here is that we get spread out a bit and the front of the group is around a bend in the road with a big rock cliff between it and the back of the group. As long as there is sight-to-sight between individual riders in the sequence, communications stays intact.
So, this is the system we settled on at the bike show and a couple of my officers worked out an agreement with a local dealer where he will honor Bike Show prices for 30 days. That gives any of our members who want one to get one. Not all our riders want or need them. In fact, we really only want ‘core-member’ riders to be connected. Our use of this system is not to let us chat, but to pass necessary info and directions between Road Captains and Tail Gunners. ‘The Wife’ and I can also use the ‘private’ channel for rider to passenger communication, separate from the group communications, and then default back to the group after our conversation has ended, and that’s a good thing. Should be fun.
We have had a chance to road test several units and the results were everything we had hoped they would be. The test was on the Upper Levels Highway from West Van into North Van, at highway speeds, in traffic, letting ourselves get separated, using a couple of bikes and a car. Sound quality was clear, range was close to advertised and the ‘network’ operated very well. Like I just said, should be fun.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Just to bring you all up to date, I have finally gotten notice that surgery on my hand is booked for March 18th. I guess unless someone cancels their turn with my surgeon, I’ll be waiting and putting up with sleepless nights for another 7 or more weeks. I’d be keeping my fingers crossed for an earlier opening but they’re too twisted up already to even attempt to cross them! At least crossing two of them on the same hand is impossible so I’ll cross my legs in stead! LOL! I finally found a drug that at least helps me sleep for a few hours a night so the bags under my tired eyes are finally lessening. For a while there I was starting to look like a raccoon! Hard to imagine, a bald headed, mustachioed, blue-eyed raccoon! LOL! Oh well, at least now I know that there is light at the end of the tunnel,
“The Carpal Tunnel” that is! Hahahaha…… ! Ouch! That last typing stroke hurt! Gotta try to type a little slower I guess!
I haven’t been on my soapbox for a while now but I feel compelled to jump back on it this week to comment on something that truly appalls me! We have a P4W (Prison For Women) here in Kitchener and it’s come under a load of scrutiny lately because of something that happened within it’s walls approximately five years ago this month. I’m referring to the death (or should I say murder) of a young woman that was in desperate need of professional understanding and mental health treatment! Her name was Ashley Smith and I’m sure you’ve all heard about her death in the news lately! She’s the young woman that died an agonizing death in her isolation cell while several jail guards stood and watched it happen. They not only watched and listened as she took her last breath but they also made a video/audio recording of her death! All of their actions or inactions were taken under the orders of their superior officer not to interfere with what was happening to Ashley ……….. “Unless she stopped breathing!” Now, I understand that this young woman was a difficult person to deal with and the prison staff had indeed had their hands full with her. However, Ashley was a human being and most certainly deserved to be treated as one! She was obviously not in her right mind! I’ve dealt with many a suicide during my years in the fire service and trust me when I say that any person who resorts to taking their own life or attempting to do so is NOT in their right mind! They need professional help from the psychiatric community and not from the criminal institutions in this country! To make this article shorter, I’d just like to say that in my opinion, the guards that stood by and let Ashley die should be thoroughly ashamed of what they did and the person that gave the order not to help her should be charged with man slaughter at the least! Anybody who could stand by and watch as life slipped out of this young woman can’t have a shred of human decency to call their own! In fact, I believe every guard and administrator involved in the death of Ashley should be charged, found guilty and imprisoned for many years for contributing to her death! Ashley was a human being and standing by and doing nothing as she died such a sad death is a criminal act indeed and being involved in her death deserves criminal punishment! I hope our so called “Justice System” stands up and does the right thing this time!
How sad indeed!
Say a prayer for Ashley and may God forgive her her transgressions as well as those involved in her death!
If she were my daughter I don’t know that I could forgive those involved!
That’s it for this week!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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