What is e-punching, and how do I read the splits?
Electronic punching (e-punching or EP) is a faster, better way to record your visit to each control on an orienteering course. Instead of carrying a paper card and punching it at each location, you wear a plastic e-card, or "finger stick", which contains a microchip. At each control site, you insert the finger stick into a control unit, which records the control number and time onto the microchip.
When you finish the course, you download the data at a transfer station, and receive an instant printout of your time and splits. Even better, you can view compiled printouts that show everyone's splits for the course, so you can see where you gained or lost time.
E-Punching at BAOC Events
BAOC policy on use of e-punching is roughly as follows:
- A-meets will have e-punching on all courses (White through Blue). These are the once-a-year, multi-day regional and national meets.
- Our standard B-meets will have e-punching on all intermediate and advanced courses (Orange and above). At the event director's discretion, the White and Yellow courses may also have e-punching.
- C-meets, which often have unusual formats (such as Score-O), normally will not have e-punching, but it's up to the event director.
Getting an E-Card
BAOC uses the SportIdent e-card system, which has also been adopted by the U.S. Orienteering Federation for national A-meets. If you do not own a SportIdent e-card, you must rent one ($3 per day)¹ at events where e-punching is used. You can also buy an e-card—prices vary depending on model (as of January 2005 they were $35–60). This becomes your personal finger stick (it has a unique ID number), and can be used at all (SportIdent) e-punching events—locally, nationally, and internationally.
Using an E-Card on a Course
(Also see our User's Guide to Electronic Punching for more information.)
Before doing a course, you must prepare your e-card by deleting old data and making sure it's working correctly. At the Start, first insert the card in the Clear unit, and keep it there until the unit beeps and flashes (this may take several seconds). Next, place your e-card in the Check unit, which verifies that the card is cleared and writes a check time on it (this happens very quickly if the card is cleared).
When the starter tells you to begin your course, stick your e-card in the Start unit, which records the start time onto the e-card. Unlike with paper punches, the exact second you start is not crucial, as the actual start time is written on the card and is used to determine your course elapsed time.
At each control, insert your e-card into the control unit until it beeps and flashes. This takes less than a second—much faster than punching a paper card! If you punch at a wrong control or punch out of order, the download software will detect the error and disqualify you if you have not corrected the error. As soon as you realize that you have punched incorrectly, go back and punch at the correct control, and then punch all the subsequent controls in the correct order (including re-punching at any control you had visited out of order). The computer will ignore any "extra" punches, and accept the correct punches.
At the Finish, "punch" the Finish control unit, which records your finish time. Then go to the download station to load your card's contents into the computer database. When the e-punch official tells you to do so, insert your e-card into the download unit and wait for it to beep and flash. This may take 5 to 10 seconds, because all of the data has to be uploaded to the computer. The official will tell you if you punched all of the controls correctly, what your course time was, and give you a printout of your splits.
All e-punch results for each course are printed and posted periodically during the event, so you can compare your time and splits against everyone else's. In addition, a link to the splits is available on the BAOC Web site when the results are posted.
Reading the E-Punch Splits
Here's how to decipher the color-coded WinSplits information in the e-punch results on the Web site:
- There are two lines of information for each person:
- First line (light yellow background) shows the split times for each leg.
- Second line (darker yellow background) is the cumulative time on the course.
- For each line, the times might be highlighted as follows:
- For each leg (column), red numbers indicate the people with best leg and cumulative times, blue numbers indicate 2nd and 3rd fastest times.
- Pink background indicates a leg with lost time (as calculated by the WinSplits program).
- If you hold the mouse pointer over a split or cumulative time, a popup will show the difference between that time and the best time for that leg.
- If you hold the mouse pointer over a Finish time, a popup will show the difference between that time and the first-place time and the total "lost time" for the course.
Want to Know More?
Visit our Electronic Punching Guide for Volunteers (http://baoc.org/volunteer/e_punch/) to learn about e-punch setup and operations, and to read the BAOC and USOF e-punching reports. You can also contact the club's 
.
You can search the WinSplits online database (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/) (which lists worldwide events) for previous BAOC e-punch events—or follow a link to the WinSplits from the BAOC Results page for an event.
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¹ Rate as of Summer 2007.