ARLA/CLUSTER: Hoje, às 21H00 UTC, equipa recordista de Radio-Balões volta aos lançamentos

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Aimed for China: Ham operators to launch balloon Saturday

A group of amateur radio operators aim to establish a world record for
distance by flying an unmanned, helium-filled balloon from Katy,
Texas, across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean then on to Nanjing,
China.

During the trans-Atlantic crossing, when out of range of shore based
stations, the balloon’s APRS beacon will operate on the International
Space Station (ISS) packet digipeater frequency of 145.825 MHz.

The South Texas Balloon Launch Team will release the balloon at 3 p.m.
CST (2100 UT) Saturday, February 11.

The balloon payload package weighs only about 150 grams and contains a
high altitude GPS tracking system and a 144 MHz FM APRS amateur radio
transmitter. To conserve weight and battery life, no camera equipment
will be on board. The maximum altitude is expected to be above 30 km,
with horizontal speeds between 160 and 240 km per hour. The balloon
size will increase from about 1.5 metres to about 11.8 metres at
maximum elevation. Recovery of the payload package is not expected.

Individuals may follow the balloon’s progress on the Internet by
logging onto the APRS tracking site, filling in the “Track callsign:”
field with “kt5tk-11“, and changing the “Show last:” field to 24
hours.

The APRS telemetry transmitter is frequency agile to cope with
different APRS standards across the globe. The frequencies used will
be
USA = 144.390 MHz FM
mid-Atlantic = 145.825 MHz (International Space Station packet
digipeater frequency)
Europe = 144.800 MHz FM

APRS tracking site http://aprs.fi/

Read the Katy Times story at
http://katytimes.com/news/article_b2683a60-527e-11e1-bca4-001871e3ce6c.html

BLT-28 The Flight of the Orient Express
http://www.w5acm.net/b28.html

South Texas Balloon Launch Team
http://www.w5acm.net/

QRP APRS to the ISS
http://www.uk.amsat.org/3838

Qtmm soundcard modem for decoding AFSK1200 can be used to decode
packet radio, APRS and telemetry from amateur radio satellites
http://www.uk.amsat.org/4313

Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS)
http://www.aprs.org/

Link to UZ7HO Soundmodem 1200 bps packet and other APRS software
http://wa8lmf.net/miscinfo/