[aprssig] A strong argument for a cutdown device

[Tony VE6MVP]

Camp David isn't anywhere near by, is it?   <smile>

Tony


At 11:06 PM 2013-08-10, you wrote:
 >You lucky guy!!!  Your coming down within 25 miles of the nearest
 >anything, and luckily it is a home IGate!  At least you'll be able to
 >hear down to a thousand feet or so.  Its 1 Am and it will be on the
 >ground at this rate at 0119 EDT.  Good luck!
 >
 >BOb, WB4APR
 >
 >Its falling within direct range of an IGate!!!
 >
 >On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 11:14 PM, John Gorkos <jgorkos at gmail.com> wrote:
 >> Our local club did a HAB launch today that went horribly wrong.  Check out
 >> the track of AB0OO-11 to see what I mean.  After 12 hours aloft, we are
 >> still getting good positional data from the balloon, but we have no control
 >> over it.
 >> We ran out of fill gas and only had about 3.5 pounds of lift on a 3 pound
 >> payload.  Instead of just aborting, we launched anyway.  The balloon
 >> averaged about 100 feet per minute of lift, and after 7 hours it had only
 >> made it to 60k feet.  For the last 4 hours, it's been gradually drifting in
 >> circles, getting lower and lower.  We're going to lose it somewhere over
 >> south western North Carolina, and we'll probably never see it again.
 >> This balloon was flying the new Byonics 
MT-400 tracker, which is still going
 >> strong with a Sparkfun >60k GPS (it's been flight tested by us to 93k) on 6
 >> Energizer Lithium Ultra batteries..  Unfortunately, I didn't include the
 >> additional battery pack, relay, and wiring 
needed for a nichrome cutdown, so
 >> instead of being able to abort the flight at the time of our choosing, it
 >> continues to drift aimlessly over the Carolina's, along with 2 HD video
 >> cameras.
 >>
 >> If anyone happens across what will probably 
be a still-inflated balloon, I'd
 >> really like the memory cards out of the cameras

 >>
 >> John Gorkos
 >> AB0OO
 >>
 >>
 >>
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