[aprssig] KC0YA-11 and AE0SS-11 Balloons Aloft

[Keith VE7GDH]

Stephen WA8LMF wrote...

> Two simultaneous balloon launches by EOSS about 45 miles north of
> Denver, CO are now aloft. Both are experiencing a really severe case
> of the KPC3+ KISS  delayed packet syndrome from an IGate somewhere
> in the north-eastern Colorado area... <http://wa8lmf.net/LiveTrack>

Perhaps the APRS frequency isn't overly busy in CO, but I see that at
least one of tem is beaconing full NMEA sentences with a WIDE2-2 path
(at least they weren't using WIDE1-1)...

2011-03-12 13:53:21 UTC:
KC0YA-11>APRS,EOSS,qAR,KC0VJE
:$GPGGA,135316,4028.3444,N,10457.8329,W,1,08,1.00,1950.0,M,-21.0,M,,*77

and then a delayed copy gated by KC0D-3.  From that point onwards,
there lots of delayed packets with a delay of almost 10 minutes...

2011-03-12 14:02:51 UTC:
KC0YA-11>APRS,EOSS,qAR,KC0D-3
:$GPGGA,135316,4028.3444,N,10457.8329,W,1,08,1.00,1950.0,M,-21.0,M,,*77
[Location changes too fast (>500 km/h)]

I was almost the same story for KB0YRZ-11 (one of the "track and recovery
teams) except it wasn't beaconing full NMEA sentences, but it was using a three
hop path of WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2. An original beacon...

2011-03-12 11:30:52 UTC:
KB0YRZ-11>APZTKP,N0ESQ-1,WIDE1*,WIDE2-2,qAR,KC0VJE
:/121130z3944.43N/10500.84Wk/A=05220 Monitor 146.64 (H)

and then a copy with about a 4 minute delay gated by WB0BLV...

2011-03-12 11:34:51 UTC:
KB0YRZ-11>APZTKP,N0ESQ-1,WIDE1,ALMGRE*,qAR,WB0BLV
:/121130z3943.97N/10500.93Wk/A=05223 Monitor 146.64 (H) [Duplicate position packet]

Later, KC0D-3 became the usual IGate involved in delayed packets.

The other balloon was AE0SS-11. It was using a custom path of EOSS.
I presume they had a digi set up somewhere to respond to that. Ah hah!
It appears that the other balloon had a digi responding to EOSS! It was
also sending telemetry via WIDE2-2.

A beacon heard direct by KB0TVJ...

2011-03-12 13:59:06 UTC:
AE0SS-11>APRS,EOSS,qAS,KB0TVJ
:$GPRMC,135858,A,4028.4504,N,10457.7338,W,0.000,0.0,120311,10.1,E*55

and a delayed copy digi'd by KC0YA-11 and gated by KC0D-3 with a delay
of nearly 9 minutes... 

2011-03-12 14:07:22 UTC:
AE0SS-11>APRS,KC0YA-11*,qAR,KC0D-3
:$GPRMC,135858,A,4028.4504,N,10457.7338,W,0.000,0.0,120311,10.1,E*55

Hmmm... it appeared to be beaconing both full $GPRMC and $GPGGA
sentences about 2 seconds later. Twice as much noise but a non-terrestrial
path. I didn't spend any more time on it, but I would guess that KC0D-3 wasn't
the only IGate introducing delays as the amount of delay introduced by KC0D-3
varied... i.e. the previous IGate could have had a few minute delay.

I sent several APRS messages to KC0D-3 about the delays. Hopefully he
will see them and take action.

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"