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GPS-Sport :: Official rules

Sport Satellite Navigation rules presented on this page are official SSN rules ratified by Europena RadioSPort Federation

Printer friendly version (packaged as zip and in PDF format): Official GPS-Sport Rules in PDF format Official GPS-Sport Rules. Packaged as ZIP

  1. Sport Satellite Navigation (SSN) - is a kind of sport in which sportsmen are to discover certain number of check points (CP), hidden on the territory and displayed on a map with the help of GPS-receiver in the least amount of time using the given geographical coordinates.
  2. GPS-receiver is an electronic recieving device which performs automatic receiving and decoding of special signals sent by artificial earth satellites and calculates object coordinates. Artificial satellites are united into the Global Positioning System (GPS) which allows to define the object's coordinates, distance to and direction towards the selected point at any area on the Earth's surface.
  3. Check Point (CP) is a searched object located on the territory. It has precisely defined coordinates and is equiped with the prism and means of marking/checking.
  4. The territory given for searching of CP region is a forest, a park etc.
  5. WWW.GPS-SPORT.RU is an official SSN Federation website.
  6. Competitors are sportsmen who take part in a personal or team contest during personal/team competition.
  1. These Rules are the official document for organizing and holding SSN competition and are to be obeyed by all competitors and organisators.
  2. While interpreting these rules, the main principle of equal rights for all the competitors must be taken into consideration.
  3. All technical tasks (for example: determining the right direction) and the orientation on the territory tasks are supposed to be solved by using a GPS-receiver, compass and the map of the territory where the competition is held.
  1. The SSN competition is held according to the annual plan considering these rules and competition regulations.
  1. The Competition Regulations is an official document according to which a specific competition is organized and held.
  2. Competition Regulations are developed by competition organizators.
  3. In case of a difference in statements of Regulation and Rules while holding the competition the Rules should be reffered to.
  4. Taking part in a competition is at the athlet's own risk.
  5. The Competition Regulations determine:
    • The aims and goals of the competitions.
    • The time and the place of competition (holding) and competitors arrival
    • Financial and technical questions
    • The order and dead lines of giving the applications
    • The types of competition tasks
    • Complement of teams (in case of team competitions), categories and age groups of competitors allowed for the competitions
    • The order of results determining and the order of winners rewarding.
  1. Invitation for the competition must contain the following information:
    • The competition Regulations
    • The information about the organisator including address, telefon/fax numbers, e-mail address
    • The sum of the starting fee, conditions and price of the accomodation and meal
    • The description of all possible transport communications
  1. The request for taking part in the competition with the information about sportsmen as well as passports are given to the competition mandate committee according to the dead line given in the competition Regulations. Giving the request or making alterations in requests after the dead line is possible only after the organisator's and judge board's permission.
  1. A complaint may be made in written form or orally and concerning the rules violation or mistakes in results calculation or organisators orders. The person who made a complaint will be informed of decision immediately after it's made by the judge board.
  2. A protest concerning the judge board decision or concerning the complaints, rules or competition Regulations violation may be made.
  3. During the competition protests can be made by team representatives, sportsmen or any other person who takes part in the competitons.
  4. Any protest may only be given in written form. The judge board must examine protest and make their decision in the shortest time possible. The decision may be announced to the public or to the protest maker only. The decision of the judge board is final and is not liable for any appilation.
  1. SSN competition may include the following exercises:
  2. Divided start: it is the search of given number of CPs. The competitors start the competition separately with a time interval of 1-5 min. The order of CP's search is up to participants.
  3. Common start: it is the search of the maximum number of CPs in the given amount of time. All competitors start the competition together. The order of CPs search is determined by the competition Regulations.
  4. Relay-race: the members of the team pass parts of the divided start exercise by turns. The first phase begins with a common start.
  1. The competition can be held for different categories of competitors: athletes (runners), bycicle riders and others.
  2. The sportsmen in each category are divided into age groups according to their gender and age: (Women - W Men - М)
    • W15 М15 - 15 & younger
    • W19 М19 - 19 & younger
    • W20 М20 - Not regarding age
    • W40 М40 - 40 & older
  3. The content and the number of categories and age groups are determined by the competition Regulations. The competitor's age is determined by his/her date of birth.
  1. The participants and representatives mustn't use computers in the competition area without the judge board's permission.
  2. It's forbidden to leave start/finish zone on your own decision without judge boards permission.
  3. It's forbidden to inform other participants who have not yet passed a route, of anything concerning the route including the location of CPs order of their passing. The exception is the information announced by the judge board.
  4. It's forbidden to render or accept any except medical assistance.
  5. In case of violation these Rules the competitor can be disqualified from a exercise or from the whole competition with cancelling all the results. In case of violation by one of team members the whole team is disqualified.
  1. The territory must be suitable for rising the route without serious danger for the sportsmen and without noticeable artificial objects which can influence negatively the process of the route passing or GPS-signal receiving.
  1. While planning the route it's important to follow the principles given in Application 2.
  2. The minimal distance between CP or between CP & the start must be at least 400 meters for the athlete category. For other categories this distances are determined by competition regulation.
  3. The length of the route should be measured on a map beginning at start the point through all CPs in the optimal order to the finish point. The length ot the athlete category route should be in range from 4 to 10 km with the amount of CPs from 5 to 15. Route parameters should be established by the judge board and depend on the competition scale, landscape difficulty, age and experience of competitors. For other categories the length of the route and number of CPs is determined by competition regulation.
  1. An optimal way of CPs search shouldn't go to the territory which isn't charted on the map or through dangerous or forbidden areas.
  2. All parts of the territory which are forbidden for sportsmen, dangerous places or borders which shouldn't be crossed must be be charted on the map and information on them should be given. If necessary such places may be marked on the territory. Sportsmen mustn't cross such places or objects.
  3. Ruondabout ways, places for crossing and river crossing must be clearly marked on the map and should be easily seen on the territory.
  1. Every sportsman competes using his own GPSreceiver. It's forbidden to use any additional electronic devices (palms, notebooks, any smart devices with GPS function, other means of communication or something similar) except one's own GPS navigator. The judge board is not responsible for the GPS-receiver accuracy.
  1. Check cards and breast numbers are used during the competition. The usage of electronic means of marking is also possible.
  2. Sportsmen are themselves are responsible for using the means of marking the check card on each check point. They are responcible for the correctness of their marks which should be clear and readable.
  3. A mark, which is missing or unclear, may be considered invalid until it's proved that the sportsman has visited the CP and that the missing mark is not the sportsman's fault.
  4. An sportsman trying to get the advantage by fake mark or those who lose their start cards will be disqualified.
  1. There must be a board with the following information on the start point:
    • Reference/control time, the same for all the competitors.
    • The example of the control map with start and finish points, scale, relief isolines, dangerous and/or forbidden areas and roundabout ways for avoiding them charted.
    • The borders of competition region
    • The emergency azimuth for finding the way out in case of getting lost becouse of GPS receiver being broken, map lost, ect.
    • The start protocol
    • The time of the first start
    • The example prism and means of marking, order of making marks on the check card
    • The distance parameters (amount and numbers of Check Points) for all groups of the competitors.
    • The clock that shows the curent time of the competition.
  1. The amount of CPs is from 5 to 15 for all the categories.
  2. The sportsmen's task is to come up with the optimal CPs search order.
  3. All the CPs are marked by triangular a prism with a 30x30 cm side. Each side of the prism must be divided diagonally into two parts: one is white, the other is red or orange.
  4. At least two means of mark which are to prove CP being passed by a sportsman must be located close to a prism.
  5. A CP number must be attached to each CP and it must be clearly seen.
  1. After having found all the CPs or after the time is up a sportsman must go to the finish line. The route is considered to be pompleted only if the finish line is crossed after passing the special finish coridor. The finish line must be crossed from the side of the finish coridor.
  2. The beginning of the finish coridor should be marked by noticeable prisms or flags which must be connected to the finish line by a ribbon or flag line from two sides. The end of the finish coridor must be marked with banner with writing "Finish" on it. The length of the finish coridor should be 25-30 m, and the width 5-7 m. The finish corridor should be as strait as possible with no unnoticeable obstacles. It should be located on the territory with no obctacles for sportsmen inside and outside the coridor.
  3. For the incomplete passing of the finish coridor with crossing of the finish line as well as for moving through the finish coridor in the opposite direction (the whole or a part of it) a sportsman is given a 5 minute penalty, which is added to the end route time.
  4. After having crossed the finish line the sportsman is to give his/her check card and if nesessary the competition card to a judge.
  1. To restrict the competition time the time given to each competitor for passing the route is restristed by the control time which is established by the competition regulation and is announced at the start.
  2. If the time spent by a sportsman on the route passing is even 1 second more than the control time his result is cancelled.
  3. The penalty time which is added to the route time for incorrect finish corridor passing is not included in the control time.
  1. In the divided start exercise, the sportsman's result is calculated by amount of the found CPs from number of CPs obligatory to be found. If the sportsmen have an equal number of CPs, the advantage gets the sportsman with the shortest route time. The sportsmen who haven't found any CP are not qualified in team or personal competition list.
  2. In team competitions, the result is calculated as the number of CPs discovered by all the team members and then as the shortest time spent by all the team members on passing the route.
  3. In the general start exercise a smortsman's result is calculated by the sum of scores earned for the control time, scores are given for each discovered CP. The number of opints for each CP may vary from 1 up to 3 depending on the difficulty of the CP. If the number of scores of the two sportsmen is equal the result is defined by the route time. The number of CPs (number of scores for each CP) and the control time are established by the competition regulation.
  4. The relay-race exercise team result is determined as the summ time spent by all the team members for passing a route (shortest time is better). Even one undiscovered CP leads to cancelling the whole team result.
  5. If two teams or two sportsmen with the same result get the same place in the competition list, the following place remains empty.
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