devices use on trail

[life (jplife)]

using devices on the iditrod race,So they are allowed to use phones at rest stops? Saw a musher using a cell on live feed.Few years ago Brent stop from the race useing a device.I guess I didnt see a rule change.

[fladogfan]

I haven't either JP and still think Brent got a raw deal

[Another UK Fan]

Yes I remember that - it all seemed very odd.

[Leaddog]

Yes, they are now allowed to use cell phones etc (rule change), but no, Brent did not get a raw deal when he was DQ'd for having a transmitting device (ask him and he will admit that he was in the wrong and what happened was entirely consistent with the rules). The rule was explicitly discussed in the Thursday musher meeting in an attempt to avoid misunderstandings. Knowing how much everyone was getting "addicted" to such devices and knowing that they were still prohibited, Mark Nordman even went so far as to do a "gear check" with each individual musher at the restart that year, reminding them specifically about that rule. In fact, he was caught because his device did exactly what they were trying to prevent with that rule: as he entered the checkpoint, it automatically searched for and connected to the Wi-Fi in the checkpoint (and the comms people immediately saw that it did because it popped up on the checkpoint computer). Iditarod went out of their way to prevent someone from breaking that rule. No one is asserting that Brent was being malicious - just exceedingly careless in the face of a considerable effort by race officials to avoid that situation.
Sort of like when you are hurdling down the interstate doing 75MPH in the 65 MPH zone, and the state trooper flashes his lights at you. He/she has gone out of his way to give you a chance to dial it down - if you blow him/her off and he/she goes ahead and pulls you over for a ticket, do you think you're getting a raw deal?
FWIW, the rule was changed after the incident several years ago in which the teams of Jeff King and Aliy Zirkle were harassed by a snowmachiner and the race officials realized that they needed more of an on-trail emergency system than simply hitting the button on the tracker.

[fladogfan]

Thanks for the explanation Leaddog, I see your point. But I was still upset when it happened.
At least the attack on Jeff and Aliy brought something useful for the mushers.

[JLJ]

As I recall, the upset over Brent was that he wasn't just ignoring rules and carrying a cellphone, but was using a device which had as its primary function (and Brent thought of it as its only function) playing music, which it may have been able to download, making it a communication device of sorts, but not one capable of conventional person to person commuincation without special adaptation, which I don't believe Brent's device had. I am fairly confident that everyone conceded that there was no indication at all that Brent had made any attempt to use it for ordinary interpersonal communication or, as I recall, that it was even possible to use it, as it was, to do so. It was taking Brent out of the race over a technicality of that sort, plus the "see that's what happens to cheaters" by feeble minded sensationalist journalists and those who follow them that vexed many people.

Brent behaved gallantly and accepted the race officials' decision without further objection, but many thought that he was not the party at fault and that the exclusion was made on the basis of a device that might technically fall within the letter of the rule, but definitely did not fall within the functions that were allegedly being prohibited. It would have been easy, if officials were really trying to clarify the issue for everyone, to tell everyone. Check with ___ specifically about any device, including radios, etc. that you have that might be able communicate at all for any purpose, including weather reports, downloading music (and whatever else such devices do) to get a definite ruling on that device.

It's also my recollection that many others in the race were astonished that Brent's device led to expulsion from the race and dumped similar music downloading and playing devices that they, also, had believed to be permitted.

[Breeze]

I knew Brent was destroyed over the device issue. He went home after his DQ by sled, because he needed <space>. Lucky for him it was a F'banks start year, and he was close.
The best thing anyone can say about that cluster function is that the ITC was primed to learn a lesson. The worst thing for me ( because I knew, at the time, the ITC was stupidly out-of-bounds over SPOT and GPS) was that mushers would pay with their safety if the ITC didn't pull their heads out of a snowbank.

Let's just all be glad that no musher paid dearly in any physical way for the corporate arrogance that was infecting the ITC at the time.

[fladogfan]

Thanks , I had forgotten a lot of the other mushers also had 'devices' and they didn't get kicked out of the race. That might have been part of why I was so ticked off about what happened to Brent.

[life (jplife)]

so what is the infomation they can get from people talking on the phone.Does it help their race.O is there a rule of what info they get.

[Leaddog]

I doubt there is a rule about what info they can receive because it would be completely unenforceable. But on the Video Snippets thread, there is a great observation by Danny Seavey about the limitations of what info could be available, particularly about folks like Brent who studiously avoids checkpoints where his movements are easily observed.
All things considered, the most valuable information that could be passed along would be less about what other competitors are doing (although that can be very helpful, particularly when you are the front-runner and can't tell what folks behind you are doing) and more about precise weather forecasts for the next 48 hr - whether storms or wind might cause a trail to drift, etc. Weather along the coast can be VERY local, so knowing what is ahead is at least as important as what is behind.