The Bowie Card is a field device used for checking the UHF power emitted from the antennas. Use it before a race to be sure you have sufficient power to read all of the participants tags correctly.
- Hold the card with your thumb on the fingerprint icon in the corner of the card.
- Hold it a meter above the center of the antenna, parallel to the direction of the race.
- Start moving it towards the ground making sure it stays directly above the cable guide, take note of when the LED lights up.
- Repeat the process for all of the antennas on the timing point, the distance the LED lights up should be roughly the same for all of them.
The longer the cable that connects to the antenna, the greater the loss and the less the LED on the Bowie card will shine. For example, the first antenna of a control point which is connected to the shortest cable, emits twice as much power as the sixth antenna of the same timing point, connected with a much longer cable.
