Thanks Rob for pointing out some GT-31 alpha anomalies.
However, since the GT-31 is the most used GPS (at least since 2012 when I re-entered windsurfing and probably also was for a number of years before), it does seem logical to regard it as the de facto standard measuring device to which other devices are compared and evaluated, especially since such a high % of the riders use it, don't you agree ? Even if we cannot be objectively sure whether the GT-31 is the most accurate measuring device. Someday, in a few years, it will of course be replaced by some other GPS device that will have the biggest market share and gradually have the most sessions posted with, and so will become the new de facto standard, probably with its own specific flaws. But we are not there yet, as the successor GW-60 still is coping with various usability problems, with continually evolving firmware versions, corrections and improvements, so that it will be probably 1-2 years before it stabilizes as a product, attracts more buyers and starts to take on the market share of the GT-31.
Now as to how to solve the discrepancies between the Suunto (non-doppler) and the doppler devices. I have no solution due to my lack of knowledge about GPS theory, can't give another suggestion for the site than the bird's eye view. I am assuming that the geographical data points (positional coordinates - 1 sec or other frequency) are the elementary granular items on which any speed computation is done. So the site could take the data points of the Suunto as they are uploaded, and calculate the best alpha based on the raw data points, using the GPSResults calculation engine (according to the Basic Rules sections this is the engine used).
Difficult to tell as an outsider it this is programmatically possible or even sensible. Maybe not all the data points get uploaded, or maybe they are, but not with all the necessary attributes to do a recalculation. Maybe the integrated GPSResults code base has been stripped down and has no algorithm for computing alphas. Maybe this kind of processing would slow down the uploads too much. Maybe it would even temporarily freeze the entire site as now happens frequently when you click View Track. The crew already hinted at some difficulties surrounding this. So apparently it's not easy to solve technically and maybe this is not the way to go.
I would certainly not go so far as to demand that your postings (and those of others posting with Suunto) would be invalidated or that in the future it should be forbidden to upload using a Suunto or any non-Doppler device for that matter. A handicap or penalty may be a good solution, but than the discussion will become: how much penalty or how to calculate it for any given session, if the uploaded session numbers cannot be compared to another Doppler device...
Therefore, for the sake of fairness, I would just like to encourage you and others, who own a Suunto but also a Doppler device, to post sessions using the Doppler device, not with the Suunto. In that way we will return to a more level playing fields for all riders. I do understand the immediate satisfaction of reaching a personal target, or posting the highest number on any given day. But I am also sure it will give even greater satisfaction, to also reach those numbers on a device that has less tendency to flatter the results.
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