Re: Coast-to-Coast Balloon Flight
This transcontinential and trans-Atlantic Balloon mission was fantastic!
But in reviewing all the hundreds of emails and minute-by-minute tracking excitement, I just went back to read about the balloon itself, and can find nothing.
The original post referred to the California Near SpaCe Project as being the owners.
http://californianearspaceproject.com/
But in reviewing all the emails, I can find no other reference to WHO launched it and what it is.
Further, going to that site has NO NEWS about this mission, other than a link to APRS.FI which we are all using to track it.
So what gives? Are there no pictures of the launch, or who owns it? Or did I just miss the memo...
Bob, WB4APR
Hi Bob The tracker was a bigredbee high power 2M unit, I used one on a balloon flight and it's now in my car as G6UIM-9 http://www.bigredbee.com/blgps_2mhp.htm
Launch announcements here http://www.arhab.org/ARHABlaunchannouncements.html
Most of the technical chat happened on the GPSL yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GPSL
you don't need to be running APRSIS32 but it makes using ANSRVR easier, if you are interested in Balloons I suggest joining the BALLOON group on ANSRVR that will give you automatic notification of Balloon launches the callsign and the location of the launch, and also notify you of Balloon burst. If you track a balloon using APRSIS32 you will also get the option of displaying the Balloon communication range circle, so you can see if you are in range. http://aprsisce.wikidot.com/doc:ansrvr
I have suggested that the tracker software is modified to switch frequency and path based on longitude. 144.390MHz in the states, 145.825MHz path ARISS over ocean, and then 144.800MHz over Europe If lucky you then stand a chance of getting a report via ISS or PCSAT whilst out of range of land based stations.
And APRSIS32 also includes the ability to track satellites
Steve Daniels G6UIM
-----Original Message----- From: aprssig-bounces@tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces@tapr.org] On Behalf Of Bob Bruninga Sent: 14 December 2011 21:08 To: 'Nick' Cc: 'TAPR APRS Mailing List'; amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [aprssig] Coast-to-Coast Balloon Flight
This transcontinential and trans-Atlantic Balloon mission was fantastic!
But in reviewing all the hundreds of emails and minute-by-minute tracking excitement, I just went back to read about the balloon itself, and can find nothing.
The original post referred to the California Near SpaCe Project as being the owners.
http://californianearspaceproject.com/
But in reviewing all the emails, I can find no other reference to WHO launched it and what it is.
Further, going to that site has NO NEWS about this mission, other than a link to APRS.FI which we are all using to track it.
So what gives? Are there no pictures of the launch, or who owns it? Or did I just miss the memo...
Bob, WB4APR
_______________________________________________ aprssig mailing list aprssig@tapr.org https://www.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
Hi Bob
But in reviewing all the emails, I can find no other reference to WHO launched it and what it is.
I found some info on their blog http://blog.californianearspaceproject.com/?p=20
73 F.Costa, CT1EAT http://ct1eat.no.sapo.pt
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Michael K6MFW says: December 11, 2011 at 6:31 pm They got a good launch on all four balloons from Precision AutoTune in San Jose (Hwy 85 and Almaden Expwy) late this afternoon. A little wind but not a showstopper. While coming home about 20 minutes after launching #4, it began to rain.
Don KD6IRE had the honors of launching one of the balloons, Johnathan AE6HO launched another, Ron launched the first of the two planned floaters and his dad Frank got to launch fourth balloon (which he predicted will be best of all and said it will reach New York).
I asked Ron Meadows why do four at the same time (it got somewhat hectic), he said it is easier to do all four since he scheduled the garage, organized people to help, setting up the floating arm, etc.
One of the balloons appeared to not send packets, viewing digipeaters on 144.39 the altitude reported 109,000 feet. It then appeared to be good and balloon was launched, aprs data looked weird at first but later got a good track (we were worried for a bit and later relieved).
Two balloons are going for altitude records, the other two are floaters which will see how far across the country they go. Altitude balloons have a fast climb rate (and at 100K, horizontal speed was fast). Floaters have a slower ascent rate as planned. All of us will watching the balloons as sure many other balloon enthusiasts are as well (anyone pulling an all-nighter?). Ron should not have too many jobs planned tomorrow as he will be most interested in flights of these balloons.
Bernhard AE6YN and Ian KO6YQ (and maybe other Stratofox members) are following the altitude balloons in central California. One of them is using same payload as the altitude record setting balloon, it has member signatures all over it (which you can see in the NBC Bay Area television interview).
I took video of the launches and will post some clips on youtube tomorrow or the next day. Thanks to all members that helped. We also had a larger group of people that showed up to see the fill and launches.
participants (3)
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Bob Bruninga -
Francisco Costa, CT1EAT -
Steve Daniels