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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Congratulations on a successful
flight! I managed to watch the action via APRS from about 6500
feet to landing. Thanks for the show and I hope their cubeSat
test worked, even with the heat.<br>
<br>
Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and
Win32<br>
<br>
PS. You can see the RF and APRS-IS coverage maps of the flight at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://tinyurl.com/ljflrre">http://tinyurl.com/ljflrre</a> You may have to zoom in to see the
detail of the higher zoom maps.<br>
<br>
The files with -RF- near the end are non-dupe-suppressed packets
provided by APRSISCE/32 IGates around the country. They show just
how far your packets were going without the duplicate suppression
(first in wins) of the APRS-IS. Those green hops at the end of
the red direct lines are the unnecessary digipeats from a station
flying at altitude. Altitude sensitive, path-adjusting trackers
are really sweet for this kind of work. You normally won't see
the digipeats on the APRS-IS because it's quite likely that an
IGate somewhere actually copied the balloon directly.<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part1.07010501.01060202@homeside.to" alt=""><br>
<br>
Those straight lines with no packets must have been
heart-stopping...<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part2.09010701.07030307@homeside.to" alt=""><br>
<br>
On 7/18/2013 7:34 PM, Robert Bruninga wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">We recovered
it! Amazing. I was only peripherally involved and could
not take over a student project from another school, and our
students have been trying for weeks to buy a high altitude
GPS, but with the Government Sequester we cannot spend a
dime, and it takes WEEKS of paper processing through 10
different people even without the sequester!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Callsign was
W3ADO-11 and chase vehicles were WB4APR-9 and USNA-2 near
Lancaster PA.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Anyway, it was
their risk, not mine (though since they could not even buy
their own tracker, I gave them one at the last minute (My
risk$ was only for the low-altitude tracker)…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Actually the
students did pretty well. I could not resist checking EVERY
KNOT in the string, etc. that tied our balloon, to a
string, to a chute, to a chute-ring, to their cooler-payload
and then hung my coke bottle tracker below it all. The
balloon filled without incident. The chain of stuff on the
string was walked down towards the payload but when the guy
let go of the string to then transfer the load to the
chute. Up went the balloon!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">My heart sank,
since I had checked every single knot. What I did not check
was the strong metal 2” diameter Key ring at the top of the
chute. Three students were in charge of the chute which had
flown several times before successfully. What I did not
know was that no one checked the chute ring.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Apparently in
all past flights, the ring was tied through the chute to a
big Styrofoam ball. The ball inside the chute was attached
to the key ring above the chute and then to the balloon.
Turns out, the students had seen a ball, but discarded it..
with the ball gone, the only thing holding the ring on the
top of the chute was just a knot under a hole in the nylon!
And a piece of duct tape on the top!!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Anyway, thank
heavens for a spare balloon and spare tanks!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">The GPS2 (OEM
version) on the TT3 worked fine. Its last vertical altitude
was 77,894 feet. Then there was no change in altitude or
position for 20 minutes as it peaked, and burst and then we
got it on the way down (8 miles away) at 73,930 feet. Track
was great , but only to 67,959 where it stuck for 27
minutes! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> Oh, and the
overall track was only about 12 miles or less, because winds
were non existant and air temps were 98F and well over 105
with the humidity. The air was so thick you could cut it
with a knife…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">A big sigh of
relief came out as it started tracking again at 9026 feet
6? miles away and in another 10 minutes one car was able to
SEE the package land in a corn field. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> The loud 80 dB
squaker made it easy to find in the 10’ tall corn. The hard
part was to get the army of eager students to STOP and
LISTEN. Then we walked right to it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Photos
someday.. !</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color:#1f497d">Oh, My method of maintain
temperature in the outside -65F is to simply put my APRS
stuff in a clear plastic water bottle and let the sun keep
it warm. The package is very light. And it floats, and it
meets the density requirements for inadvertent impact.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Their main
payload (a small CUBESAT) used the classic method of placing
it in a Styrofoam cooler with 6 hand warmers. When we
recovered it, the cubesat was so hot the cooler had to be
emptied and allowed to cool before one could even touch the
cubesat with bare hands.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">But instead of
my few party balloon flights, they had a 1500g balloon with
8 POUNDS of free lift! (That lifted a full Milk Jug as the
test weight).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Bob, WB4APR</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
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1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">
Robert Bruninga [mailto:<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:bruninga@usna.edu">bruninga@usna.edu</a>]
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:57 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:aprssig@tapr.org">aprssig@tapr.org</a><br>
<b>Cc:</b> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:aprs@yahoogroups.com">aprs@yahoogroups.com</a>;
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:wa3nan@lists.nasa.gov">wa3nan@lists.nasa.gov</a>;
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:bruninga@usna.edu">bruninga@usna.edu</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Balloon Launch Thursday maybe 10 AM</span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Launch from Lancaster PA, mild winds.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Should go up to 100k feet and then come
down not far from launch. Be heard across 15 states.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Though it is a non high altitude GPS and
FIX will be stuck above 18k feet until it comes back down.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Callsign is W3ADO-11 and it will be on
144.39</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If anyone KNOWS that a Tinytrack3 and GPS2
from Byonics will *<b>not</b>* re-aquire when it comes back
below 18k feet please let us know NOW.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">
Thanks The rest of the payload costs $10,000 and we don’t
want to lose it. It is a different schools project that noone
else can access, so I wont bother with details.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bob</p>
</div>
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