EOSS-358 & 359 EPIC Littleton & Colorado Space Grant Consortium Flight - Recap

Summary: Two balloons were launched on Saturday, May 4 from Deer Trail Colorado.

  • The first balloon, EOSS-358 was an Exempt Payload string under a 1500g balloon carrying Student-built DemoSats from Colorado Space Grant Consortium schools. It reached an altitude of 89,485 feet and landed at 39.819, -102.984, 13.5 miles northeast of Anton, Colorado.
  • The second balloon, EOSS-359, was a Non-exempt payload string under a 3000g balloon carrying BalloonSats built by Littleton EPIC program students. It reached an altitude of 101,911 feet and landed at 39.78063, -103.16237, 4.0 miles northeast of Anton, Colorado.

More summary information to follow.

Link for EOSS mileage reimbursement  https://forms.gle/qJjy47iTHF5ywDPJ6

Original Announcement: 
  • 05-02-2024Payload Plans Rev D uploaded to this website
  • 04-28-2024Payload Plans Rev C uploaded to this website
  • 04-27-2024Payload Plans Rev B uploaded to this website
  • 03-05-2024Payload Plans Rev A uploaded to this website

Flight Predictions are available at: https://www.eoss.org/predict/

This is one 1500g balloon and one 3000g balloon or three 1500g balloons carrying student-built payloads from Littleton's EPIC Aerospace program and Colorado Space Grant Consortium from the flight that was canceled because of weather on April 20/21.

In case of clouds, the Heavy payload string will be split into two Lite balloons as follows:

Event Date: 
Saturday, May 4, 2024 - 00:00 to 23:45
Flight Coordinator: 
KCØRPS
Launch Site: 
Flights: 

EOSS-359 Heavy

This is a 3000g balloon carrying student-built payloads for the Littleton EPIC Aeorspace program.

Balloon Type: 
Totes 3000g Latex
Parachute: 
12 ft Rocketman with Remote Release Baker
Beacons: 
Beacons
FrequencyCallsignTypeNotes
144.905 MHzKC0D-1DF Beacon/Remote ReleaseSecondary Beacon
144.340 MHzAE0SS-3APRS/Digipeater Alias = "AEØSS-3"Primary Beacon, time slotted at 0:01 & 0:31
Payload Plan: 

EOSS-358

This is a 1500g balloon carrying four Colorado Space Grant Consortium student-built payloads and possibly an imaging payload from COSGC.This is an Exempt (Lite) payload string.

Balloon Type: 
Totex 1500g Latex
Parachute: 
12 ft Rocketman with Remote Release Charlie
Beacons: 
Beacons
FrequencyCallsignTypeNotes
146.710 MHzKCØD-3Remote Release/DFSecondary Beacon
144.340 MHzAEØSS-4APRS/Digi Alias = "VOYA"Primary Beacon Timeslotted 0:21 & 0:51
Payload Plan: 
FrequencyList: 

EOSS Preflight Net @ 7 PM Mountain Time the preceding night:

 

The preflight net is hosted on the Fun Machine linked system https://www.we0fun.com/  

EchoLink *CANONCTY* conference and on the TGIF DMR Network Node: 1997 Talkgroup 815

Denver area Frequencies: 

    • 449.225 MHz (-5 MHz Offset, 141.3 Hz CTCSS) Mt Thorodin
    • 448.150 MHz (-5 MHz Offset, 141.3 Hz CTCSS) DIA
    • 449.975 Mhz (-5 MHz Offset, 100 Hz CTCSS) Westcreek
    • 447.525 MHz (-5 MHz Offset, 146.2 Hz CTCSS) Devils Head   

Back up Pre Flight Net Frequincies

        • 146.940 MHz (-600 KHz Offset, 103.5 Hz CTCSS) Rocky Mountain Radio League (RMRL) Repeater if the RMHAM machine is down
        • 146.640 MHz (-600 KHz Offset, 100.0 Hz CTCSS) Denver Radio League (DRL) Repeater will serve as a backup to the backup repeater 

Flight Day:
Launch Site:
        • 446.050 MHz Simplex  
        (Note that some radios assume these are repeater frequencies and attempt to put a 5 MHz offset in the transmit frequency automatically)

Track & Recovery Operations:
        Repeaters:
        • 449.450 MHz (-5 MHz Offset, 103.5 Hz Tone) RMRL repeater

        Simplex Frequencies:
        • 446.100 MHz Balloon #1 Field Simplex 
        • 446.150 MHz Balloon #2 Field Simplex
        • 446.200 MHz Balloon #3 Field Simplex
        • 446.275 MHz Car to Car drive out Simplex
        (Note that some radios assume these are repeater frequencies and attempt to put a 5 MHz offset in the transmit frequency automatically)

Digital Mobile Radio (DMR):

The decision as to which talkgroup use will be made by the EOSS RF Coordinator on a per flight basis.

  • Rocky Mountain Wide Network – Talk Group 700 - Rocky Mountain Ham Radio has approval to the use "Wide" for flight operations.
  • Central Colorado Regional Network – Talk Group 720 - On occasion, EOSS may use the Central Colorado Regional Network (Talk Group 720).

        Legacy 2M Simplex Frequency (not generally used due to desense/interference issues with the 2M APRS packets)
        • 146.550 MHz Simplex

2M Direction Finding Frequencies:

  • 144.340
  • 144.360
  • 144.905
  • 145.535
  • 145.645
  • 145.710
  • 145.765

 

Tactical Calls: 
TacticalCall SignNameNotes
AlphaWAØGEH, KFØPCWMarty, Doug
BravoN6BAJeff D
CharlieKCØRPSJimFlight Coordinator
DeltaKØSCC, KØBRASephen, Doug GPost Launch
EchoKØNKK,KLØNLQ,Nancy,Anne,Post Launch
KiloKLØNLQ, KE0UWCGlennPost Launch
GolfNØNDMLarryPost Launch
Ground StationN2XGLJeff S, Randy
YankeeKEØYALBrad
Hotel
ZuluCU
Kilo
LimaKB0YRZChris, JenSaturday Only
MikeKE0GKIBernadette (CU)
NovemberKD0NKEKatie Rae (EPIC)
TR Breakfast: 
Limon I-HOP, 0600, Optional