[aprssig] Balloon profile switching

[Bruce Coates]

Hi Tony

 

I was planning on adding exactly this into my Trackuino code.  It already
has profile switching above a specified altitude (5000 feet around Saskatoon
or 8000 if GPSL goes back to Denver)  I was also going to add an additional
switch on descent that would beacon with a single hop at a rate of every 10
seconds for the last 1000 or so feet of descent.  We would include one hop
because we set all of our vehicle trackers as fill-in digipeaters once we
get outside the existing digipeater coverage.  I also plan to tell it to go
back to once a minute after is senses the GPS isn't descending any more.

 

As you know, those of us in the prairies hardly don't need a radar altimeter
to know the altitude of the ground.  ;-)

 

73, Bruce - VE5BNC

SABRE

 

From: aprssig-bounces at tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org] On Behalf
Of Tony VE6MVP
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2014 1:35 PM
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
Subject: [aprssig] Balloon profile switching

 

At 07:18 PM 2014-03-16, Keith VE7GDH wrote:
>The exception 
>would be devices that are capable of doing profile switching. changing 
>the  path above a certain altitude and changing again on the way back 
>down. For high altitude balloons, no path is needed at all when there 
>at the edge of space. It's only at the start and end of the flight 
>that any path is needed.

I'm wondering if is needed.   However before I dig myself into a hole what
is the descent rate of a balloon at lower altitudes and the standard balloon
beaconing interval?

I'm thinking that the last transmission an igate would receive would be when
the balloon is at, guessing, 600' above the ground.   How far horizontally
is the collapsed balloon going to travel in that 600'?

In an ideal world the balloon should be beaconing relatively rapidly the
last 500' before it hits the ground.  But I suspect that a ground radar
altimeter isn't generally include in amateur radio balloon launches. <smile>

Tony

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