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Directions to Calhan Launch Site
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Directions from Colorado Springs:
Take US 24 Northeast (East) to Calhan Colorado.
At Calhan take Calhan Highway south 1/2 mile to the fairgrounds.
Talk in should be available on 146.550 MHz simplex and/or 448.450 MHz on the Pikes Peak FM repeater.
Launch Coordinates:
- 39� 01.711' N Latitude
- -105� 17.656' W Longitude
Here is a hand drawn (sloppy) view of the fair grounds.The south side of the football field (upper right) is approximately 1/4th of a mile south of 24 on Calhan Highway.
I did a site survey of Calhan today. Mike, W5VSI, and Jerry, N0MYY, were on frequency back in the Denver Metro area to assist.
The link into various repeaters (all using 45 watts, a 5/8th wave (on 2) dual band antenna.
- 448.450 MHz full quieting, but Jerry reported my signal as a little noisy.
- 146.640 MHz S6 to S9 receive a little scratchy.
- 147.120 MHz as 146.640 above perhaps a little better
- 146.880 MHz NO SIGNAL at fair grounds
- 449.600 MHz NO SIGNAL at fair grounds
After investigating the fair grounds Mike had me driving all over the place. We found one possible site where a digi might be able to link back to the DRLBBS packet station on Warren Mtn (145.050 MHz). That was on Soapweed road approximately 1 mile west of Calhan on 24. Take this road south approximately 1 mile and you climb onto a high spot where there are some microwave and possibly 800 MHz trunk link antennas set up just to the east of Soapweed Rd. From that location I could hit 146.880 MHz quite reliably. However there was quite a bit of noise on the signal. Don't know what would happen with a packet station there. If someone intends to act as a digi from this location I strongly recommend they use a gain antenna (yagi/quad) with a minimum of 6dB of gain to kill off some of the received noise. The fair grounds are only approximately 1.41 miles to the northeast of this location and I believe a packet station on the fair grounds should be able to enter a digi off their side lobe of a Yagi without any problem.
The fair grounds start immediately south of 10th street. So if you have Street Atlas or some other mapping program you can see more exactly where our launch site is located.
For ground station folks this might be helpful ... But maybe not. The structure labeled "barn" in the upper left (just below the school) seems to be the most likely candidate for electricity and heat (inside). Most of the other buildings at the fair grounds seemed to be 1 story barns used to house livestock while presenting them at a county fair.
I could NOT get onto the grounds. Everything was locked. So, I think it likely that last minute adjustments to setup plans based on this sketch should be seriously considered.