Announcement of EOSS-122/123

LAUNCH DATE: October 27, 2007
LAUNCH TIME: 

• EOSS-122 - 07:30 am MDT (13:30 UTC) AirCore
• EOSS-123 - 08:15 am MDT (14:15 UTC) Bacteriological Sampler

LAUNCH SITE: Windsor, CO (directions)

Pre-Flight Information

On Air Nets

Check into the weekly EOSS net every Tuesday evening, except the 2nd Tuesday of the month when we hold our face to face meetings.

• Tuesdays at 8 PM (20:00) Local time
  • 147.225 MHz 107.2 Hz tone CRA Repeater (Denver)
  • 145.460 MHz 107.2 Hz tone CRA Repeater (Boulder) manual link required (link may be unavailable)
  • 145.160 MHz 107.2 Hz tone CRA Repeater (Colorado Springs) full time link active
  • 146.640 MHz backup DRL Repeater (Denver only)

Pre-Flight Coordination Net

The evening prior to flight we hold a coordination net at 20:00 Local Time to assign the grid information and tactical callsigns. Any last minute information, launch time changes, launch location changes, maybe even a cancellation will be announced on this net.

• Preflight Net:
  • 147.225 MHz 8 pm MDT preceding Saturday night
    • 145.160 MHz simulcast in the Springs
  • 146.640 MHz will serve as a backup frequency

Tracking and Recovery Team
Flight Day Breakfast

• Ft. Morgan McDonalds
• 6 am start
• Depart to begin recovery ops at 6:45 am

EOSS Flight Day Frequencies:

Global Frequencies

• Tracking and Recovery Operations
  • North flight track: 449.450 MHz RMRL Repeater (103.5 Hz Tone)
  • 146.550 MHz simplex (for both field ops and the launch site)
  • Repeater Coverage Pages - Listings of all repeaters available in the expected flight areas.

EOSS-122 Balloon Frequencies

• Beacon
  • 147.555 MHz W5VSI built beacon
    • CW ID: AE0SS
• APRS
  • 144.340 MHz
    • ID: AEØSS-11
    • DIGI: EOSS
    • Node: BALNOD
    • APRS Time Slotted Every 30 seconds at 0:00 and 0:30
    • Telemetry once a minute
      • power up at 58 seconds past the GPS minute to properly slot telemetry
    • Sample Data

EOSS-123 Balloon Frequencies

• Beacon
  • 445.975 MHz
    • ID: KØANI in CW
• APRS
  • 144.340 MHz
    • ID: KC0YA-11
    • DIGI: EOSS
    • Node: BALND2
    • APRS Time Slotted Every 30 seconds at 0:15 and 0:45
      • power up at 13 seconds past the GPS minute to properly slot telemetry
    • Telemetry once a minute
    • Sample Data
  • 445.975 MHz
    • ID: KØANI-11

     

Radio Coverage:

• Green, you should be able to work the payload systems.

• Red, is the border of the received signal. Red appears jittery because it is depicted topographically. Thus, the red dots on the eastern half of the map but well within the maximum distance show hilly terrain behind (east) which reception is not possible.

This is a generic 95,000 ft ASL coverage map for flights that depart from the vicinity of our launch site. Flight day coverage may vary depending on upper air winds.

Flight Systems:

EOSS-122

EOSS-123 

Payload Configuration:

• Payload_Plan_122-3B.pdf

Tracking and Recovery Info:

Data for 10/27/07

Grid

Location	X	Y
Rt 71 & 14 (West Intersection)	10	60
Touchdown (see Prediction Page)

 

Tactical Callsigns

Tactical	Callsign	Name	Notes
Alpha	WA0GEH and N0AUS	Marty and Al	Tracking and Recovery Coordinator
Bravo	KC0RPS and W0NFW	Jim and George
Charlie	KC0VJE	Louis
Delta	WB0DKT, KC0ZIE, KC6HXM, WB6DKF	Glenn,  Darren, Sam, Loren and Heather
Echo	KC0UUO	Rob and Bob
Foxtrot	KB0QQW	Chris and Caleb, Jeannine
Golf	KB0YRZ	Chris
Hotel	N0NDM and W0CBH	Larry and Benjie
India	AE0SS	Nick	Ground Station
	K0ANI	Larry

 

Internet Gateway Stations:

Future I-Gaters:

EOSS is always in need of I-Gate stations. Check out the EOSS I-Gate page for information on how to participate and why we need you.

Current I-Gate Station:

If you are present at your iGate during the flight try and monitor the tracking and recovery frequency. The ground station likes to check the frequency prior to launch to find out if any stations are out there ready to igate the traffic onto the net for the FAA to monitor.

The prediction program used to determine the track of the balloon prior to flight can now output a prediction for the Rise, Closest Approach, and Set of the balloon for each of your stations. I have posted a prediction page for stations that I have been able to discover geographic coordinates. See the I-Gate prediction page for an example. The page will not be updated daily, however, it will be updated the evening prior to flight for I-gate planning purposes.

I have often been asked by iGaters when they should expect to either start receiving signals (AOS) or expect to see those signals disappear (LOS). This prediction page should answer all those questions for you.

Your Log Files

Our technical committee members would also request you open a log file and record all the packets you hear and forward onto APRS-IS. Whenever there is a technical failure of a package it is always helpful to have the most complete dataset possible to attempt to determine the cause of failure and possible fixes. After a flight send your data files to me (webmaster) and I will distribute them to the appropriate payload builders. They appreciate these logs even if all goes fine during a flight.

Experimental Systems

We're flying two experiments

EOSS-122 - NOAA AirCore™ Atmospheric Sampler

Recovery Crews - There is a valve at the end of this tube with a lever. If the lever is aligned or parallel with the tube, it is open. If it is perpendicular or crosswise to the tube it is closed. The first recovery crew person to approach the AirCore should immediately close the valve sealing the air sample inside.  Immediately report that you have sealed the experiment to station ALPHA, net control. This is valuable data for the experiment.

14 lbs of AirCore™ from a previous flight

 

If you are interested visit:

• http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/index.php - for a global overview of the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA.

• http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/ccgg/index.html - for the overview of Carbon Cycle in the atmosphere and ...

• http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/ - for current trends.

NOAA, updates detailing any changes to the experiment are most welcome as are links to NOAA pages covering this elegant device.

See our previous flight announcement for additional details about this system.

EOSS-123 - Atmospheric Bacteriological Sampler

No detailed information at this time

note: customers are welcome to submit detailed synopses of their flights or web links to their own web sites.