I also caught the DePaul University HALO-II launch this morning (July 20) from Kankakee, IL due to the APRS beacon on board .. when I saw the Icon on my TM-D710 (somebody thank WB4APR for the thousandth time for this jewel).
No announcement seen, this balloon appears to have NO X-band repeater ... just university experiments. It headed south along I-57 for about 2-1/2 hours and around 80,000 feet -- not as high as earlier SpaceJam-3 launch.
Greg w9gb
Had a great time with W9YJ-11 balloon launch. Thanks to who ever posted the info on the Amsat BB. I am the station in Fond du Lac, WI. EN53ss that made several contacts through the balloon repeater after it got above 50,000 ft. When it got to about 98,000 ft. at its peak, I had my Sat. antenna set at 10degree elevation. Great time. 73 N9RPQ
Greg Beat wrote: Yes.
There were actually 2 balloons with APRS beacons. The ATV video package did not make these launches.
W9YJ-11, was launched first and supposedly reached ~ 100,000 feet Landed near the town of Bronson, IL I heard stations on the cross-band repeater from Fond DuLac, WI; Toledo, OH when it was around 50,000 feet.
N9QGS-11 was launched second and lost its GPS data stream above 50,000 feet (just East of Royal, IL). It did recover its latitude/longitude and direction about 20 minutes later (near Oakwood, IL and I-74), but never its altitude. Landed south of Catlin, IL
I have MS Power Point slides of the OpenAPRS.net APRS tracks for both balloons.
You can go to OpenAPRS.net, enter the SSID for each balloon and request data over past 2 days. That will show you the actual tracks.
Greg w9gb