[aprssig] [amsat-bb] USNA Party Balloon Success!

[Greg Dolkas]

Thanks for the update, Bob.  You guys certainly had quite a day.

Greg  KO6TH


On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 6:52 AM, Bob Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:

> >> When we got in about 4 miles range we began to see the wireless
> >> camera again and could see chicken coops below.  At 2000' we
>
> > How'd the 4' dish with tracking work?  I still can't imagine
> > this thing being able to track the balloon while in motion.
> > it's the opposing forces of a 1 RPM Az / El motor system vs
> > a bouncing, turning, wind buffetted minivan.
>
> The beamwidth of the 4'dish is 7 degrees and most roads are quite straight.
> The only time it should loose the signal is at a 90 degree corner turn.
> Then it would take take about 15 seconds to make the change in azimuth, but
> with the 7 deg beamwidth and several seconds to actually make the turn,
> only
> about 10 seconds probably.  But on the entire chase, we only made one 90
> deg
> turn.. Everything else was just following the highway, and those sweeping
> turns the dish can follow easily.
>
> But we did not do auto tracking.  We were 2 hours past our launch time and
> found out we were still one cable short (between the van GPS and the
> controller) it had to be custom made and there was just not time.  SO we
> manually steered the beam.
>
> Sometime today we will go back thorugh the 90 minute recording and see what
> we got.  Though, only the last 10 minutes is what we remember.  And even
> then we were more concentrated on finding a way to the balloon than
> watching
> the video.
>
> Bob, Wb4aPR
>
>
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