[aprssig] APRS RFID apps? and Marathons ?

[Frank or Barbara Rossi]

The Idea of APRS RFID apps sparked a major interest with me.
I'm involved in the ham radio part of the Pittsburgh Marathon.
Something like 2000 runners and all have RFID tags.
The timekeepers have a very nice tag reader system that all the runners 
step across at various places on the course.
If we had a way to interface their data to radio, that would be great.

Currently Ham Radio had only kept track of runners that drop out of the 
race, and where they were going.
That data goes out on computer monitors at the finish line.
They have several types races going on at the same time, 10K, Half 
Marathon, 4 Relay Marathon, and Wheel Chair.

Problem we had was at the early checkpoints and Relay points, to many 
people coming in at one time,
faster than we could report the numbers by voice.

If I could interface the timekeepers data, we could keep track of all 
the runners status by radio.

Last year the APRS part of the Pittsburgh Marathon was a job done by the 
University of Pittsburgh ARC.
APRS on Bikes following the Lead runners of every category.

Pittsburgh Marathon is usually the first Sunday in May.
I'll be watching the APRS RFID app threads with interest.
N3FLR - Frank