What is E-punching?

Electronic punching (E-punching) 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. If you do not own an e-card, they can be rented at the event for a small fee.

Before doing a course, you must prepare your e-card by deleting old data and making sure it's working correctly. Before you Start, first insert the card in the Clear unit, and keep it there until the unit beeps and flashes (this may take a couple of seconds). Next, place your e-card in the Check unit, which verifies that the card is cleared and writes a check time on it.

When the starter tells you to begin your course, stick your e-card in the Start unit, and it will beep and flash. This records the start time onto the e-card. (If the Start unit doesn't beep & flash, then you have not cleared your e-card, and you need to do the Clear/Check steps again.) 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 elapsed course 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! This will record the control number and time onto the microchip. If you punch at the wrong control or punch out of order, the software will catch you and disqualify you - unless you go back and punch at the correct control, and then punch all other subsequent controls in the correct order. In that case, the computer will ignore the incorrect punch and accept the subsequent correct punches.

At the Finish, "punch" the final control unit which is labeled Finish. This records your finish time. Next, go to the data-transfer station (the same place you picked up and/or registered your e-card before you went to the start) to download your card's contents into the computer database. When E-Punch official tell 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.