[The Old Al West]

Hello,
I need some info on timers. I do not race. Apparently I do not even have a club near me. I have a small loft and road train and loft fly. I may never have any clubs near me but I would still like to time my released pigeons.
I have many opportunities to road birds 200-300 miles and a few opportunities at longer distances. As I said I would like to get more serious about timing and selecting breeding stock based partially on timing. Obviously to do this I need a clock. My problem is that I can find very little info on retailers of these items (Have seen that Siegels has them), cost, models available, problems with particular models/types etc. Obviously if I could join a club I could ask other members directly. I Would appreciate any advice. I believe that a low end electronic clock might be what I want but I do not know enough about flying to be sure of that.
Thanks.

 

[West]

Pick up a used Unikon clock. They tend to be very reliable and pretty affordable if bought used. The only issues most people have are the module battery dying but it's too easy to send it back to Deister for a new one. The most expensive thing you are going to run into depending how your losses are is the electronic bands.

 

[sky tx]

Pigeon Clock for Training??????
you Folks never heard of pencil and Paper.
With the internet--you folks have forgot how to ADD-SUBTRACT-MULTIPLY-DIVIDE

 

[West]

I'm assuming he is the one tossing them and can't always beat the birds back. So pencil/paper would not work.

 

[luckyloft]

The only thing I would say is if you get a Benzing clock you will need the club unit.I dont know everything about them but at our club we cant do anything without the club unit.I think you can do everything you would need with a Victory clock but you would need to buy the software to download to your computer. Jeff

 

[soymi69]

The Benzing G-2 is the most economical, but you will need to have the club unit to be able to couple the chip ring to each bird. If you're only training I would go with Sky tx advice, because once you go over 35 miles (airline) there is no way your birds can beat you home unless they really hit a very strong tail wind. Also where you located? My club is 40 miles away and I'm on the far end, but I still able to race my birds not really winning but now I know which birds are my good producer and which one are the dull ones. So not finding a club is hard to believe there is always one in every city, if not there is always a pigeon fancier maybe you can start a club.

 

[Crazy Pete]

Are you a PC geek? get a motion detector to turn on a mini cam hooked into your PC so it will send you a text with a pic of your first bird and if your camera stays on for 5 min you should be able to watch them on your PC. just thinking out loud
Dave

 

[The Old Al West]

Thanks for the info gents,
No club near me--not even one in the COUNTY. I am interested in getting the birds down the road for wing stretchers from 50 to 1000 miles. Have not done the longest distance yet. Am planning at least a couple of these longest ones a year. These would require me camping out under the trap and a pencil/paper will not work in these situations. I am assuming of course I will get at leasst one of the birds back on the super long events.