NSL-90 & 91 attempt Sunday

[Paul Lowell]

Tim and I are going to attempt a couple of flights tomorrow. 

One is a Pico balloon long duration flight with a 10g WSPR (20m HAM band) solar powered tracker.

The other is a typical HAB flight testing out some gear.  It is expected to land down by Kinston/Greenville.   This second one should be visible on Habhub and APRS.   All refer to the callsign KD4BFP.

 

[Paul Lowell]

The pico balloon is on hold until we can work out some Ham radio authorizations (special WSPR callsigns).

The typical HAB flight flew and is now as an initial write-up at http://www.ncnearspace.org/missions/nsl-90

Tim saved the day again with his cool bow and arrow payload recovery trick!

[Jim Conrad]

Hi Paul,

Hope all is well. Any launches in the near future?

Thanks,

Jim

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Jim Conrad - oceanv...@gmail.com
 757-560-5970 - 757-512-5710 Fax
  Amateur Radio Callsign N4WFP

[Paul Lowell]

I don't have anything for the next couple of weeks, but I am considering a flight to film the Antares NG-16 launch in early August.  Perhaps even flying it in the Delmarva area.

[Jim Conrad]

Hi Paul,

Any planned flights upcoming?

..Jim

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[Paul Lowell]

It has been VERY quiet lately.  There were a few folks that were interested in flights, but I think that everyone is (rightfully) laying low with the staggering number of breakthrough Delta cases.

I have plenty of balloons, gear, and a full tank of Hydrogen -- Just looking for an excuse for a safe flight.

I had prepped to film the Starlink L29 launch, but I think that was cancelled and replaced with a launch of spiffy/new/laser-equipped Starlinks from Vandenburg on the West Coast.

There are no hurricanes around to take photos of.

Maybe the upcoming SpaceX Inspiration4 flight would be cool to video from 100,000ft.  They could fly that Tuesday night, but storms may delay it (the Atlantic may be too rough for emergency landings).

Anyone have any ideas?

[Christopher Gorski]

... I have an idea that we're a year and a half into a global pandemic
and we have all squandered the opportunity to invest in our own space
suits with our own oxygen supplies. ( :

Definitely trying to lay low on account of plague--anecdotes about
outdoor transmission of delta make me uneasy though in reality
"outdoors in an open space with a little distance" is probably not
high risk, as long as I'm not then sharing a car ride.

Though I'm also still willing to be PAO and/or Mission Control if
anybody's flying/chasing when I am not.


Equinox is midweek otherwise maybe it'd be a good excuse to fly (an
occasion for a why-not flight). This Inspiration4 thing could be neat
to film but I hadn't been watching the wx on that... they have the
same block of time for their window for a few nights in a row, no?
Can't think of anything else launching on the east coast this week.
Pretty okay with not much to report from either NHC or SPC.

"Why not" flights are fun too... throw the cheapest hardware under a
cell and see where you get... y'know... before that jet stream has too
many plans for us...


73 de kj4cqq

>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ncnearspace/00df59f9-c69b-4cea-b24e-986e9b676007n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
>>>>> .

>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Jim Conrad - oceanv...@gmail.com
>>>> 757-560-5970 - 757-512-5710 Fax
>>>> Amateur Radio Callsign N4WFP

>>>> <http://www.oceanviewcom.com/>

>>>>
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[Paul Lowell]

At this point it seems that the Inspiration4 launch is still at 70% 'go' for tonight.  The booster is set to land off of Charleston, which is line of sight from 80kft.

I still have a payload ready to try to image thunderstorm sprites, so I could send that up for a test of everything.  If I launch from my front yard, it would land in the woods north of Zebulon.  But if I launch it from, say the WRAL transmitter site in Garner, then it would land in the farm fields just west of Wilson.

I would have to launch by 7pm to get it in position.  I've had several flights where the rocket launch was scrubbed after I launched.  We'll see...

Definitely another ham-radio-distant event and not a group outing.

[Christopher Gorski]

Copy that... tnx

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[Paul Lowell]

Tim was able to get the payload out of the tree on the first shot with his bow and arrow!    Thank you Tim!

Tons of video on board from the flight.   It will take me a while to comb through it all, but here are some samples:

Still from the NSL-91 low-light color camera showing the Inspiration4 sunset launch right around staging.   About 65ft over Raleigh with clouds below.

And here are some stills from the other low-light BW camera:

[Jim Conrad]

Hey Paul,

Haven't seen much activity from NCNEARSPACE in a while. I know weather has likely been challenging. Any long range plans on the chart?

Thanks,

Jim

On Sat, May 1, 2021 at 3:50 PM Paul Lowell <pa...@lowell.to> wrote:

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[Paul Lowell]

It HAS been strangely quiet.  Tim and I are working on around-the-world flights, but I haven't heard much from anyone else.  Even our friends in England haven't flown much.

Google is migrating their Google Sites and we are currently stuck in limbo in their process.  So I can't post new content at ncnearspace.org until this is fixed.

Astronomy Days at the NC Museum of Nat Sci is going virtual again this year.  If there is any interest, perhaps we can conduct a live talk and launch or something to help contribute.  I have plenty of gear, balloons, and gas (hehe) for some flights.  But the jet stream would land them in the ocean.  (Actually if I launched from my house tomorrow it would land in Norfolk).

[Jim Conrad]

Paul,

Any idea on the time tomorrow?

I now work at Fort Meade for the Army (Transferred from the Air Force in Massachusetts) so I will be in the area most weekends now. Tomorrow I have to drive back up to Fort Meade, I have an apartment on the installation for the week when I am up there. Like to leave mid-afternoon so I get to bed at a reasonable hour for work the next morning.

Also like many I was sitting at home today and noticed during the WRAL live shots from inside one of the vehicles there was an old style touch telephone hanging on the rack behind Aimee. Just curious, does WRAL use a VoIP system to dial-in and out of the vehicle?

Thanks,

Jim

On Sat, May 1, 2021 at 3:50 PM Paul Lowell <pa...@lowell.to> wrote:

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[Jim Conrad]

Disregard my time question. Email thread was out of chronology so the question involved an event in May. Sorry.

[Paul Lowell]

Working wall-to-wall coverage like that has always been fun for me.   Although we can fix 99% of the tech issues remotely, one of us still camps out at the TV station for those 1% outages (hardware failures etc).  I've been doing that since 1994, so I have a cot and supplies in my office and such.

Our microwave/satellite trucks have analog-to-cell devices on-board.  We can also tie into fixed phone and Internet lines if needed (sporting events, State Fairs, etc).   That phone is mostly used in those cases.

These days a lot of our signal is carried via cell in one way or another.   Most photogs use backpack units that mux 6 different cell phone signals together to transmit the high-def signal back to the station.  It uses several cell providers to allow for signal diversity.  These backpacks can also receive 'live' data back that we can use for studio video, teleprompter, or data (Ever since the Superbowl wardrobe malfunction, we have added a video delay for the public.  So it is important that our field crews see the actual studio signal and not the delayed 'over the air' signal.  So even with encoding and sending the video, it is still only a second or so delayed -- much better than the old satellite delay.)

The 'dash cam' video that you see on snow days are using these backpacks as well.  With them, we can go pretty much anywhere we have cell coverage.

Since the reporters don't necessarily want to be cabled (or bluetooth'd) to the camera, they use their company cellphone for their IFB (talkback) in their ear.  They have their coiled earbud run down their clothes and it's jacked into their cellphone.  They then speed-dial a special number at the TV station and are patched directly into the producers intercom system.

[Jim Conrad]

Paul,

Thanks for the info. Amazing what technology can do these days. 

When I was in middle school in the 70's (yep I'm dated) we had a video production school as part of our middle school (7th/8th grade). Used Sony B&W Cameras with a Sony SEG that could do basic wipes and fades. Recorded to a 3/4 cassette/cartridge VTR.  We did dance, sports and news shows and recorded the local City Council meetings. Once a week my Dad would drive me up to the Cable TV headend where the local cable TV company had an injection site in a lawn shed with a 3/4" VTR monitor and a VHF (channel 8 I think) modulator. Would broadcast about 4 hour of programming from there once a week. Company was Storer Cable TV that was eventually bought by Cox. This was in Southern California. The headend was literally in a lawn shed down in someone's backyard about a mile down the hill from the Cable TV receive site on a small mountain. I was the technical director, I was never interested in being in front of the camera. I thought I might have ended up in broadcast engineering but the military took me in another direction.

You must have a very enjoyable job most of the time, I'm sure when there is a failure in the middle of a broadcast perhaps not so much.

As a ham I was always interested in Ham ATV but unless you are located in a very populated area (LA, NY etc) there are no ATV repeaters. Like so many other projects it's on the list. I did pick up a small Ham UHF ATV transmitter at Dayton years ago that transmits on Cable Channel 59 (433.25 Mhz). Powered by 9v battery. Analog, perhaps I'll build a payload with that and an APRS tracker for a balloon launch one day. It's slightly bigger than a AAA battery and sealed so doesn't weigh that much. I'm sure with a 9v li battery I could get an hour or so out of it. Nice small micro analog camera to go with it and a hanging wire antenna.

Thanks again for the info. I'll keep my eye out for NCNEARSPACE balloon launches since I will be down at my Lillington place most weekends now that I work at Fort Meade and can come home most weekends. I drive back up middle of the afternoon the day before, typically Sunday but this week it will be today.

73's - Jim

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