[aprssig] FW: Tranasatlantic multi-balloon mission in progress

[Ron]

When I posted my first message this morning, the balloon was crossing into NB and beaconing about every 20secs from 20,000ft with a radius of over 200 miles.
Things did seem to settle down later in the afternoon when beaconing dropped back to about once a minute although the 2 hop path was still banging into dozens of nodes.
A path of just Wide1-1 would have been plenty to track all the way across. Hopefully it will soon be in range of Newfoundland stations as its last heard packet at my station was about 17:46ADT (almost 45 mins hour ago).
I was able to hear his beacons direct to about 250 miles out.

Position of KJ4GQV --- 88.7 miles northwest of PORT AUX BASQUES, NFL --- Report received  42 minutes 20 seconds ago Course: 75.0   Speed: 58.7 MPH Altitude: 15219 feet
    Mic-E message 5, Special 
Raw packet: KJ4GQV>4X4U9Q,VE1EXP,WIDE1,VE1TRO,WIDE2*,qAR,VE1AIC-3:`WTDq*gO/"fq}

I too though he was about to land as he reached the NE cost of New Brunswick while showing almost 0 alt and very low fwd speed. 

2013-09-12 11:48:48  9 km/h 108° alt 0 m

Hopefully he can stay well ahead of Gabrielle.


73, Ron VE1AIC