Balloon Launch This Weekend MTRAS (Middle Tennessee Robotics Arts Society
Post date: May 01, 2015 12:14:45 AM
Hi Frank,
Can you let all club members know, and other clubs in the area know the following.
MTRAS (Middle Tennessee Robotics Arts Society) will be launching a near space amateur radio high altitude balloon on May 2.
The planned launch is from Franklin at the Williams Co library release time of 10AM.
It will go up and get caught in the jet stream and travel east.
Tracking will be on
144.39 APRS
146.20 FM CW
Those able to track or help launch are asked to do so.
Thanks,
Carlton Corbitt
-.- .. ....- -. .... -.-
First let me start by saying that I personally had nothing to do with this balloon launch at all. I received an email about it a couple days back and thought I'd try to monitor the event.
A Great Big Kudos to all those that made this happen. It was a very good exercise for me from my home qth. I just heard that the PAYLOAD has been recovered. YeHaw
Facebook Group With Launch Info
Started monitoring 146.200 and aprs.fi looking for ki4nhk call, going only by Morse at bottom of email above @ 9:45 a.m. Didn't hear anything for awhile and @10:38 a.m. K4ING text me 145.210 freq to monitor and that the launch would be more about 11:00 a.m. About that time I found the crew on aprs.fi @ the launch site that showed me the call WD4CFN-11 @ 704'. At approximately 11:20 a.m. they launched and were 2 842' by 11:23 a.m. I heard the first squelch break on 145.210 @ 11:25 a.m. 3091' @ 11:26 a.m. Boy this thing is moving. K4ING heard his first signal on 146.200 @ 11:31 a.m. I heard N4CLO working with the ground crew and sent her and projected landing link on Projected Landing by KI4NDN @ 11:50 a.m. The projection software was found online @ http://s3research.com/tools/flightpredictor/ very simple to use, just add the time and coordinates and generate for the arps.fi overlay. The map projection was right on @ 12:07 p.m. At approximately 1:38 p.m she popped and the highest altitude I saw was 109,420'. MSSED IT BY 13.81 MILES. Oh well I tried.
Below are some screen shots from the event. I will try to add comments to a few shots with info I have. Great work for all these guys that were working with this event. I was just a tag along and thanks to Frank K4ING for a couple days notice of this event. I do not know who all was active but I will list the ones I heard below, I'm sure there were more. The blue T in the photos was the projected landing site with limited info input. Great Fun.
KI4NDN
N4CLO Laura Net Control Station
AD4CJ
W4DML
KK4AIZ
KI4PSR
In the shadows fellow hams were:
K4ING
KI4NDN
