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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Wow what a site it was to see on my APRS
screen here in </span></font><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Central Nebraska</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>. I didn’t even know the Manned Gas Balloon Race existed
before I saw them on my screen on a Sunday afternoon. At first I thought it was
the small unmanned type balloons but when I got to noticing more and more I
figured it had to be something else. Thanks to the comment lines in several of
the packets I was able to do some quick googling to find out what, when where
and why. Several of the balloons appeared to have landed not to far from me. It
sure is nice when people included email address and web pages in comment
strings so those of us not in the know can become educated fast.</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b>
aprssig-bounces@lists.tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces@lists.tapr.org] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Vic Fraenckel<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Friday, October 28, 2005
1:50 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> aprssig@lists.tapr.org<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [aprssig] Airborne
APRS</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Just returned from ABQ where we participated on the
long distance (1000mi+) manned gas balloon race. Each of the 24 balloons
carried a APRS tracker. We, in the chase crew, tracked all of the balloons with
using my D700 and APRSPoint software. The balloon track was NE thru NM, across
the TX and OK panhandles, NE thru KS, NE and IA into MN. We lost contact
with balloons in the plains states on occasion because of a dirth of Digis, but
for the most part were able to see most of them most of the time. Our
balloon landed near St. Cloud, MN and we were able to track it to its landing
site with no problem as we were within 20 miles it for the last 4-5
hours. All trackers were using jpole type antennas dangling from their
baskets and most balloons flew well above 2-3000 feet all of the time and
mostly above 9000 feet. </span></font></b></strong></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>An airplane seems like overkill. Just speculation as I
do not know the situation the OP was facing.</span></font></b></strong></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>HTH</span></font></b></strong></p>
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12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Vic</span></font></b></strong></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>________________________________________________________</span></font></b></strong></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Victor Fraenckel - The Windman
</span></font></b></strong><b><font size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-weight:bold'><br>
<strong><b><font face="Times New Roman">victorf ATSIGN windreader DOT com</font></b></strong><br>
<strong><b><font face="Times New Roman">KC2GUI
</font></b></strong></span></font></b></p>
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