Launch: BallastHalo 4 Sat 13/2/10 15:00
James Coxon
Preparations are going well for launch on Saturday - thanks for
everyone who has offered to help out either at the launch site,
listening into the radio transmissions or following online.
Currently the plan is to get to the launch site (EARS, Cambridgeshire,
UK) at ~13.30UTC which gives some time to setup before launching at
15:00UTC. The balloon will be a 1.5kg latex balloon, in its neck will
be a pvc pipe with a small 1.5mm vent (this will help the balloon to
float), as we want a slow ascent rate (1.5 - 2 m/s) it'll require
careful calculation and measuring of free lift. The current forecast
flight path has the balloon travelling SW, skipping around London and
then S crossing into the channel above Portsmouth and onto France.
During the preparations I'll be online but probably not be active so
please be patient, if we have enough people helping will assign
someone the job of taking pictures and perhaps some to keep everyone
updated on IRC
Still looking for listeners , the more the better and if you think you
are outside the range have a go - who knows you might set a Rx record!
Some more details:
Launch Site: EARS, Cambridge, UK 52.2511 -0.0927
Launch Date: 15/2/10
Launch Time: 15:00UTC
Downlink (1) : RTTY 434.075Mhz 50baud 350shift ASCII-8 no parity
1.5stop - or just use dl-fldigi (http://code.google.com/p/dl-fldigi/)
Downlink (2) : CW Beacon, 434.070Mhz - 3 strings 1 minute apart every 15 minutes
**Yes there is a risk of a clash but temperature drift should avoid this**
Online Map: http://spacenear.us/tracker/
Listener Map: http://maps.google.com/?q=http://www.robertharrison.org/listen/receivers.php&t=p
(Requires dl-fldigi operator lat/lon to be in decimal degrees)
Raw Data: http://www.robertharrison.org/listen/view.php
IRC Channel: #highaltitude irc.freenode.net
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jamescoxon
Finally could all those planning to come along to the launch email me
indvidually - I've managed in the mess of emails to lose track of who
is or isn't coming along.
James
M6JCX
http://www.pegasushabproject.org.uk