EOSS-291 Ball Aerospace BIRST Program - Recap

EOSS-291 with three  payloads from the Ball Intern Remote Sensing Team (BIRST) from Ball Aerospace in Boulder, CO weighting 11.9 pounds, two GPS-equipped radio beacons, and a 12 foot(ft) Rocketman parachute were launched on a 3000 gram balloon from the Genoa, CO launch site (N40° 13.48', W104° 4.63') at an elevation of 5,587 feet at 7:44 AM MDT on July 14, 2019.  The launch site was located a few hundred yards north of the large grain silos in the middle of the softball field.  The last packet received before balloon burst was at 9:09 AM at an altitude of 102,867 ft. after an ascent averaging 1141 ft./min.  The the maximum recorded balloon speed of 47 mph was at 9:24 AM at an altitude of 42,036 ft. on descent.    The parachute and flight string touched down at 9:51 AM at N39° 14.30', W103° 38.52' and were recovered at an elevation of 5303 ft. after a flight lasting 2 hr. and 10 min. and covering 8 miles.  The horizontal touchdown speed was 13 mph and the vertical speed was 334 ft./min.  The touchdown point was about 3.4 miles SE of the town of Limon, CO (N40° 15.33', W103° 37.39).  The payload string and parachute were retrived in a pasture about 200 yards off a ranch road.

Notes:
1) Usually for the flight summary packets from only one beacon are used for the writeup.  However, on this flight there were excellent packet files for both beacons so data was used from both beacons. 

2) For this flight a website was setup that used the software from the EOSS SDR and a live packet feed from the balloon to generate a map with a track on it and a readout of balloon flight parameters such as altitude, speed, course, a flight path prediction.  The site garnered a reasonable amount of attention with user IP addresses from:  Aspen, CO 1;  Broomfield, CO 4; Castle Rock, CO  1; Chicago  1; Colorado Springs  1; Dallas  1; Denver  11; Englewood, CO  1; Erie, CO  1; Flower Mound(Think Dallas/Ft. Worth area), TX  1: Fort Morgan  1; Fort Worth  2; Milwaukee  1; Plano, TX  3; Riverside, CA  2;  St. Louis 1, Wichita, KS, 1

NØLP

 

EOSS members use this link for mileage reimbursement: https://goo.gl/forms/V7r4DKZyEpod5auj1 Please submit reimbursement request within seven days of the flight. If longer, please notify the club treasurer that an additional request has been submitted.

Original Announcement: 

UPDATE 7/12/19 1100:  Posted Rev B to all payload plans.  Removed one payload and adjusted weights.  Please note the net frequency below.

Update 7/12/19 1600:  Grid Test modified.  MJG

One 3000g balloon with BIRST payloads, or two 1500g lite balloons if cloud cover prevents a single heavy balloon launch.

*NEW* Live tracking of the balloon is available here.  Instructions on how to use the tracker can be found here.

Launch location will be a the Genoa RV park.

Predictions are updating and are shown here.

 

Event Date: 
Saturday, July 13, 2019 - 00:00
Flight Coordinator: 
KE7KCK
Launch Site: 
Grid: 
Last Chance X 50 Y 70, Test: N 39.000 • W 104.000 X 28.2 Y 19.4
Flights: 

EOSS-291 Heavy

Balloon Type: 
3000g latex
Parachute: 
12 ft Rocketman Orange/Green
Beacons: 
FrequencyCallsignTypeNotes
144.905KC0D-1APRS/Release/DFTop of record
144.340AE0SS-12APRS/DigiSlotted 10/40

EOSS-291 Lite

Balloon Type: 
1500g latex
Parachute: 
12 ft Rocketman Orange/Green
Beacons: 
FrequencyCallsignTypeNotes
145.710KC0D-15APRS/Release/DFTop of record; Release Adam
144.340AE0SS-13APRS/DigiSlotted 25/55

EOSS-292 Lite

Balloon Type: 
1500g latex
Parachute: 
12 ft Rocketman Orange/Green
Beacons: 
FrequencyCallsignTypeNotes
144.905KC0D-1APRS/Release/DFTop of record; Release Baker
144.340AE0SS-13APRS/DigiSlotted 25/55
FrequencyList: 

EOSS Preflight Net @ 8 PM MDT preceding night:
        • 448.225 MHz (-5 MHz Offset, 141.3 Hz Tone )  RMHAM Repeater  Note frequency change!!!
        • 146.940 MHz (-600 KHz Offset, 103.5 Hz Tone) RMRL Repeater if the RMHAM machine is down
        • 146.640 MHz (-600 KHz Offset, 100.0 Hz Tone) DRL Repeater will serve as a backup to the backup repeater 

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 (Assuming we are flying out of Windsor).
        • 448.450 MHz (-5 MHz Offset, 100.0 Hz Tone) PPFMA repeater (Assuming we are flying out of Deer Trail or Genoa).

        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)

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

DMR Via the RMHAM DMR System:   https://www.rmham.org/wordpress/dmr-radio-site-information/

                 • DMR “Wide” for drive out coordination.

                 • DMR “Central” for T&R communications between Alpha and Ground.

2M Direction Finding Frequencies:

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

 

Tactical Calls: 
TacticalCall SignNameNotes
AlphaWA0GEH=9, KC0D-9Marty, MarkTracker Coordinators
BravoW9CN, N6BA-6Mike, JeffTrackers, Alpha Backup
CharlieKE7KCKTomFC, Tracker
DeltaK0SCC, KE0BMV, KE0BMUStephen, Parker, WhitneyLaunch, Trackers
EchoKC0RPS, W0NFWJim, GeorgeLaunch, Tracker
FoxtrotKD0SEMDaveLaunch, Tracker
TexasKC0L-9JohnTracker from Texas
HotelWG0EColinTracker (Sat Only)
KiloN0NDM, W0CBHLarry, BenjieLaunch, Track
LimaK0JWB, K0NKKJohn, NancyTrackers
Ground StationN2XGL-12, KB0TVJJeff, Russ
TR Breakfast: 
Jeff and Mike will chow down at Limon's IHOP (Flying J) before the flight. Probably around 5:30. All others can attend or else go to the launch site in Genoa to help with the students and launch. This will be a short flight and should enable folks to attend the launch and recovery.