Balloon Group Minutes 05/09/95


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EOSS Regular Monthly Meeting - 9 May 1995

Ten people present.

Meeting called to order, 7:30 p.m.

Minutes of previous meeting read. Accepted with one correction (next flight is EOSS 22).

Treasurer's report

As of April 30:

Checking: $2245.80
Savings:  $1002.98
Total:    $3248.78

Note, the bank did not pay interest for April, Treasurer Chip Bisbee will look into correcting error. Income comes from 6 dues paid, one tape, and some donations.

Technical Comittee (Mike Manes, W5VSI): EOSS-22 will fly the University of Colorado Colo. Sprgs. air sampling and ozone sonde experiment.  There are three telemetry channels: one for ozone measurements, one for ozone pump temperature, and one to indicate the status of the air sampling bottles, ozone pump and heater. On the air-sampling,ozone pump,heater status channel, a one-volt increment represents the status of the gas sampling bottles, a 0.5 volt increment represents the status of the ozone air pump, and a 0.25 V increment represents the state of the heater keeping the ozone experiment warm. For example, a 1.5 V reading means no air sample has been taken and the ozone sampling pump is on. ATV on this flight will be on 439.25 MHz. The tracking beacon for EOSS-22 will be on 147.52 MHz.

EOSS-23 will carry the Air Force Academy's satellite experiment and EOSS's shuttle 1. Shuttle 1 will have two cameras, one looking directly up and one directly down (relative to shuttle 1's vertical axis). ATV will be at 426.25 MHz, but will be on sparingly to preserve battery life on what is planned to be a six to eight hour balloon flight. A cross-band repeater will also be flown on EOSS-23, along with a beacon on the gas bag.

Merle:

Does anyone have the capability to take straight ASCII strings at 1200 bps to get Norm Kjome's GPS data on EOSS-23?

Discussion on using KPC-2 to take this type of telemetry.

Larry Cerney will work on taking Norm's telemetry and piping it into a 1200 baud modem.

Ground station is ready to go except for GPS telemetry issue discussed in last item.

Merle (K0YUK): The Air Force Academy plans to fly on May 21 (a Sunday). They are asking for our support. Winds have turned (at high altitude, going East to West instead of West to east).

Marty (W0GEH): Might UCCS fly next Fall? 

Merle (K0YUK): The UCCS students want to fly ASAP because their grade are incomplete until they finish their experiment.

Marty will put together tracking teams for a pair of flights on May 21.

Marty expressed concern about the Air Force Academy Balloon drifting West into the mountains.

Merle says we can cut the balloon down at any time, but that is a concern.

Mike Doherty will get winds data for the flight on the 21st.

Tracking and recovery would like to see a history of high level winds for a few days prior to launch to see what kind of flight to expect.

Merle is thinking of spreading the launch times between EOSS-22 and EOSS-23 more.

Discussion of semi-permanently assembling the ground station components.

Set up for EOSS-22 and -23 will be at the Air Force Academy on Saturday, May 20 at 3:00 p.m. MDT.

Tentatively EOSS is go for both launches on the 21st.

Rick Von Glahn has an article promised him by the person who wrote APRS for the MacIntosh.

TWO RADIOS WERE LOST AT THE LAST LAUNCH ATTEMPT AT THE AIR FORCE ACADEMY:

Norm Kjome lost an FT-23R and Larry Cerney (N0STZ) lost an ICOM R1. Reporting these items lost to the Air Force Academy police was discussed. If you remember seeing these items somewhere, please let someone in EOSS know!!!

EOSS got letters!!!

John Copens from Argentina saw our mention in QST. The group he is involved with at the Catholic University of Cordova has tried three simple balloons. They want help with calculating ascent speeds. 

The University of Manitoba wrote to say they are planning their first launch in June.

We have a new member from Booker, Texas. He will be attending the Central U.S. VHF Conference in Colorado Springs in late July.

A student from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces wrote and talked about perhaps doing a project with them. NMSU is scheduled to have some experiments on upcoming Shuttle flights.

A group in Albeguerque listened for our May 6 launch (but heard nothing). Said they reconfigured their repeater on Mt. Taylor to listen in to the flight (which, did not fly).

Mike Manes (W5VSI) recounted the story of a recent balloon flight out of Harrington, TX. According to the Texas flight crew, after being underfilled, losing its radar reflector and getting stuck in a tree, the balloon probably didn't get above 15,000 ft. Experience is the best educator! 

ClearLake ARS is launching a balloon flight with GPS telemetry this weekend (the 13th or 14th of May). 

Meeting Adjourned.

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last edit 02 March, 2012
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