[aprssig] Trans-Atlantic APRS Balloon Flight Wed 29 April!

[Bob Bruninga]

IMPORTANT for NY, New England and NovaScotia Newfoundland APRS hams:

LAUNCH: The transaltlantic APRS balloon attempt (PBH10) will use the callsign of KC2TUA-10 with an anticipated launch window 8-11 PM EDT wednesday evening 29 April.  The anticipated flight path from Owego, NY is northeast through New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland on to Europe.

FREQUENCY: To maximize the potential for reception in Europe the balloon will operate on the European frequency of 144.800 and a 10 meter CW beacon on HF:10.146.960MHz (+/-100Hz).

To track the early part of the track, APRS operators throughout the flight path are asked to QSY their RECEIVERS to the 144.800 freqeucny and to activate their stations as WIDE1-1 digipeaters or as IGates so that the packets are digipeated over onto the USA frequency while over the USA and Canada so they can get into IGates along the way.

Also, please beacon bulletins in your area to announce the balloon's presence. Please  see http://twitter.com/PBH3 for the latest information and email us at pbhdata at gmail.com with
any questions.

It is unfortunate that there may be some 1-packet-per-minute QRM to four VHF voice repeaters along the way that operate on 145.41 with an input of 144.81.  But the balloon operators are attempting to contact the repeater groups to give them advance notice in these areas:

Vernon Connecticut
Hudson Falls New York 
Prattsburg New York
Philadelphia Pennsylvania

APRS operators in those areas are asked to also monitor those voice repeaters and if any interference is noted, to be prepared to announce the mission in progress and that the QRM should go away in a short time.

A map of mission control (see the flag) and the four sites of 145.41 repeaters can be found here:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=42.111038,-76.050131&spn=0.007386,0.013733&z=16&msid=102979319735671127311.00046893c256d8ab6dc65

Good luck!
Bob Bruninga, WB4APR