[aprssig] Balloons again

[Al Wolfe]

    Once again we have balloonist with apparently no idea of how to set 
their path. Tuesday the Purdue effort with KC9UKT-5 and KC9USY-11 were aloft 
with paths of Wide1-1. While I applaud these folks for their efforts, I 
think a more beneign path of Wide2-1 would be much more appropriate. (For 
that matter once these balloons reach 1k feet they probably don't need any 
path.)

    I appreciate their efforts and benefits of the package being trackable, 
and their desire to recover their assets. But somehow lighting up every 
properly configured base station for 400 miles twice minute doesn't seem 
like the right way to do it. Maybe if the chase vehicles were set to 
temporarily digi Wide2 it would help.

    Of course, probably the best option would be to turn off or minimize any 
paths above say 5k feet. A simple aneroid device could switch the TNC. Or it 
could be done with a PIC looking at GPS altitude data. At low altitudes the 
chasers need all the help they can get, so a 30 second rep rate and Wide1-x 
would be quite useful. (Hint: An acoustical beeping device like the old 
Sonalerts hung on the flight string has aided many package searches.)

73,
Al, K9SI