<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername"></b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:wb8elk@aol.com" target="_blank">wb8elk@aol.com</a>></span><br>Date: Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 2:30 AM<br>
Subject: WB8ELK ozonesonde hitchhiker flight results<br>To: <a href="mailto:balloonatics@yahoogroups.com" target="_blank">balloonatics@yahoogroups.com</a>, <a href="mailto:BarryL@hiwaay.net" target="_blank">BarryL@hiwaay.net</a>, <a href="mailto:shane.wilson@mindspring.com" target="_blank">shane.wilson@mindspring.com</a>, <a href="mailto:garydion@gmail.com" target="_blank">garydion@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:kg4wsv@gmail.com" target="_blank">kg4wsv@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:jdw@eng.uah.edu" target="_blank">jdw@eng.uah.edu</a>, <a href="mailto:wb4vhf@yahoo.com" target="_blank">wb4vhf@yahoo.com</a>, <a href="mailto:rwilson@hiwaay.net" target="_blank">rwilson@hiwaay.net</a>, <a href="mailto:w4htb@insightbb.com" target="_blank">w4htb@insightbb.com</a>, <a href="mailto:spacefelix@gmail.com" target="_blank">spacefelix@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:gmmann55@yahoo.com" target="_blank">gmmann55@yahoo.com</a>, <a href="mailto:ka9szx@gmail.com" target="_blank">ka9szx@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:dbowen1@mac.com" target="_blank">dbowen1@mac.com</a>, <a href="mailto:n9qgs@me.com" target="_blank">n9qgs@me.com</a><br>
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I flew a low-power (10 milliwatt) version of my multi-mode tracker on 144.34 MHz running DominoEX22 and 300 baud ASCII RTTY.....total payload weight of 4.5 ounces. In addition we flew a small camera payload for the local Makers Local 256 club all attached to the weekly ozonesonde from the NSSTC building near UAH-Huntsville</div>
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<div>Shane N4XWC, Barry N4MSJ, members of the Makers Local 256 club and I set out to chase....we could see the balloon visually during a good deal of the flight since it wasn't traveling very fast and we could keep close to it during the flight.</div>
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<div>It burst around 101,000 feet and only landed a mile southwest of the burst point right in downtown Decatur, AL. It was about a mile NW of Point Mallard park and a half mile south of the TN River. Donna Avenue just north of Harrison St.</div>
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<div>Although weak and being directly under the balloon in the cone of silence for a vertical antenna, we still had enough signal to get most of the DominoEX signal to keep track of the balloon position. My home station was decoding the 300 baud ASCII RTTY signal and uploading that info to the <a href="http://spacenear.us/tracker" target="_blank">http://spacenear.us/tracker</a> website which plotted to a Google Map.</div>
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<div>I lost half my antenna at burst but still could copy a few weak position reports a couple of minutes before landing which helped narrow the search zone on the east side of Decatur. When we were about a half mile away, Barry N4MSJ was able to DF the ozonesonde signal which allowed us to get close enough to copy the DominoEX signal on 2m to decode the final lat/lon position. </div>
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<div>It turned out that the payloads had dropped into a woman's backyard off of Donna Avenue right next to her cathouse. She has a large outbuilding and fence covering about a good portion of her yard as a cat sanctuary for two wild cats that she didn't want roaming the neighborhood after she moved to the city from the country. Her cat "Tom" seemed particularly interested in the buzzing ozonesonde sitting right next to his fenced in sanctuary.....photo of the landing site (myself and the Makers 256 team holding the payloads). The Makers 256 club is participating in a competition called Hacker Spaces in Space to take photos in Near Space as economically as possible.</div>
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<div>You meet some interesting people when you drop things on them from 20 miles up.</div>
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<div>- Bill WB8ELK</div>
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<div>PS...landing site coordinate: 34d 35.18m, -086d 57.45m</div>
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