[aprssig] K6RPT-12 Balloon INFO for newbies

Mon Dec 3 15:31:00 EST 2012

High Altitude Floater Balloon with APRS on its way !!  This is the group that sent one across the Atlantic last December.     http://www.californianearspaceproject.com/ 
   Click the Twitter link for updates. They haven’t been very verbose. 

Due to GPS issues, some position reports are bad.  Watch those that show around 110 k feet.

Location pages:
http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FK6RPT-12&timerange=21600   (better in view of GPS issues)
... or ... 
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=K6RPT-12

   It will be around 100,000 feet and have a 400 mile radio horizon.    If it gets close enough (I doubt it) I’ll try to receive it directly.
  Based on the December 2011 launch, it’ll pass south of Illinois about 23 hours after launch which is about 6:26 CST - though this is VERY ROUGH since that launch was in the morning. This was in the evening and who knows what the jet streams are doing now.

The larger circle at APRS.FI appears to be the Radio Horizon.
   http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FK6RPT-12&timerange=21600 
    I haven't found out what the smaller circle is

If you want to read the telemetry, read the RAW PACKETS on either of the pages below.

The altitude in FEET follows the "A=".

To calculate the battery voltage,:
   Take the HEX number after the "V".
   Convert to decimal.
   Multiply by 0.009677 to get volts. [note slight correction per CNSP]

Example V244 = 5.615648 Volts
   244 hex = 580
   If you want to do it manually, The digit weights are 256, 16, 1
   ... 244 calculates as
       2 x 256 + 4 x 16 + 4

Steve

Raw Packets direct:
http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=K6RPT-12
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/raw.cgi?call=K6RPT-12

--------------------------------------------
Re Post -  CORRECTION, bad math last time...

Having fun following this puppy.

Comparing the V233 to last Dec flight

Last Dec flight the voltage dropped to this level at about 20 minutes into the flight. 
Re-doing my calculations, this flight it first read V233 at about 02:22 Z, or about :55minutes  into the flight.
[ assuming 1:27 Z launch]

Still looks like the battery is doing better.

73, Steve, K9DCI USN (Vet) MOT (Ret) Ham (Yet)

Up to date APRS Beginner Guide - updated Oct-2011
http://K9DCI.home.comcast.net 
Click 'APRS Beginner INFO' under Contact

More Details, Features and Downloads at:
http://k9dci.home.comcast.net/

--- On Mon, 12/3/12, Joshua Shriver <jshriver at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Joshua Shriver <jshriver at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] K6RPT-12 Balloon Track
To: "TAPR APRS Mailing List" <aprssig at tapr.org>
Date: Monday, December 3, 2012, 2:27 PM

Is there a website for this project?  It's at a high altitude right now, is it expected to cross the atlantic? 

-Josh

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