Europeans standby for balloon!

Subject: SDG-9 update 21 March 2008 [from Robert, KC8UCH]

The balloon should be over central Pennsylvania right now (1900z). By 2000z it should be crossing the New Jersey coast and heading for Europe. If anyone hears SDG-9 on 29.499, please let me or Pierre know!

Actually it was very strong over Annapolis at 2035z when I first heard about it. In 30 minutes it was down an S unit, by an hour it was down 12 dB and by another 20 minutes it was gone. This 12 dB change in signal strength in one hour, matched with the estimated speed of the balloon, could be used to estimate position. See my attempts at this estimated track based on signal strength alone on this web page: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/dfing.html

See the balloon's web page: http://arhab.blogspot.com/

Lets hope it survives the nights to arrive in Europe in a few days!

Bob, Wb4APR