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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Let me get this straight....</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> A balloon package is decending to
earth all the while it's sending it's Lat/Long/Course/speed/Altitude every
minute or two ( a properly programmed OT, TT, or etc. )</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Are they saying they can't locate it within simplex
range, even when they have the last known course, speed, altitude. It doesn't
take very high math</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>to figure out the rate of decent (a minimum of only
two position reports) and to estimate how much time from last known position to
touchdown. From there you can easily get the estimated distance traveled, and
send the search team there with a VX-8 or TH-7 and read the packets to the EXACT
location w/in 10'.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I have e-mailed high altitude APRS
balloonists before about their poor choice in paths, frequency (rate) of
transmissions, etc. Never got a reply such as that!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>How about passing the email address out so we all
can write a note of two? Just might get through to them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I don't think they would like very much it
if I were to send my KA1GJU-6 (Aeronautical tracker) position reports every
30 sec with WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 overhead while they were tracking balloons. That's
why I run WIDE2-1 and automatically beacon at 90 sec, to avoid QRMing the
terrestrial APRS network and receiving emails about it. Unfortunately I work
every weekend, so apparently I haven't QRM'ed them yet.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kriss</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>KA1GJU-6</FONT></DIV>
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