Sim-SAT, a high-altitude balloon carrying an Amateur Radio payload lifted off at 8AM in Maryland and [WAS] at about 94,000 feet.
The payload includes a 2-meter APRS transmitter. See:
Now you will see its final report on the APRS system (at 705 feet and zooming down at 4000' per minute!). Be sure to select the SATELLITE image to see the field it landed in. See the following image to see where it finally landed after that last 705 feet:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/DF-ing/N8PK-11_recovery.JP G
The field was full of crops and I could not see the balloon until I was 20 feet away, even though the crops were only 1 foot tall!. To see how I could find it with nothing but an HT, see my new images on the APRS DFing web page (about 70% down the page). Look for the topic "HT-ONLY Dfing:".... Follow the 5 links to the 5 maps as we zoomed in with nothing but an HT.
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/dfing.html
What a fun time had by all. More to come. Lots of photos... AND LESSONS LEARNED (again and again...)
Bob, WB4APR
Refresh this page every so often to check Sim-SAT's course and altitude. It will probably continue climbing to about 105,000 feet or so, then the balloon will burst and the payload will parachute to the ground. If you see the altitude suddenly decreasing, you'll know.
Paul
As my kids would say "way cool!"
We lost one around here someplace 2 years ago, I'm still waiting for it to show up! (google: CAPSAT timberlane) Living on the right coast has it's advantages and balloons arn't one of them ;-)(except maybe during a Nor'easter) Roger WA1KAT
----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Bruninga" [email protected] To: "'Paul L Rinaldo'" [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 5:50 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: SimSAT Airborne
Sim-SAT, a high-altitude balloon carrying an Amateur Radio payload lifted off at 8AM in Maryland and [WAS] at about 94,000 feet.
The payload includes a 2-meter APRS transmitter. See:
Now you will see its final report on the APRS system (at 705 feet and zooming down at 4000' per minute!). Be sure to select the SATELLITE image to see the field it landed in. See the following image to see where it finally landed after that last 705 feet:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/DF-ing/N8PK-11_recovery.JP G
The field was full of crops and I could not see the balloon until I was 20 feet away, even though the crops were only 1 foot tall!. To see how I could find it with nothing but an HT, see my new images on the APRS DFing web page (about 70% down the page). Look for the topic "HT-ONLY Dfing:".... Follow the 5 links to the 5 maps as we zoomed in with nothing but an HT.
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/dfing.html
What a fun time had by all. More to come. Lots of photos... AND LESSONS LEARNED (again and again...)
Bob, WB4APR
Refresh this page every so often to check Sim-SAT's course and altitude. It will probably continue climbing to about 105,000 feet or so, then the balloon will burst and the payload will parachute to the ground. If you see the altitude suddenly decreasing, you'll know.
Paul
Sent via [email protected] Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
On Jul 25, 2007, at 2:50 PM, Robert Bruninga wrote:
What a fun time had by all. More to come. Lots of photos... AND LESSONS LEARNED (again and again...)
Sorry for the brief foray into balloons instead of satellites, but perhaps others would find this interesting also... and since we're calling a balloon a "simulated satellite" now here on the AMSAT list... (GRIN)...
If you want to speed through the lessons, get in touch with these guys, Bob:
http://www.eoss.org - Edge of Space Sciences
They've flown more than 100 balloon flights, all different kinds of balloons and payloads, and really have it down to a science. They even have Rick N0KKZ who built custom flight prediction software for them using winds-aloft data, and he's RARELY off by very far on the actual touchdown zone these days. I won't embarass him further since I'll CC him on this reply, but seriously -- it's good stuff, from everything I've heard.
They also have some incredibly good/fast DF'ers amongst the group, guys who have been chasing balloons for close to 2 decades now. If some of those guys could be coaxed into writing some articles, the tidbits of information us other more "Amateur" DF'ers would/could learn would be incredible. Balloons around here regularly head off from the Front Range of Colorado into Eastern Kansas or Southeastern Nebraska, and these guys are always "right there" most of the time, ready to scoop up the payload and head back in.
I've been chasing down Aircraft ELT's for over ten years, and frankly, those guys in that group are another notch better than I am at DF'ing. They're really good.
Give 'em a shout and see if they have any of their presentations they've done over the years or other stuff they've only presented at their meetings here in Colorado available somewhere - or even pester Rick to put some more of that type of thing on their website. What's there is pretty incredible, but i always want MORE! (GRIN)
-- Nate Duehr, WY0X [email protected]
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Nate Duehr -
Robert Bruninga -
Roger Kolakowski