[FLham] Ham Radio Balloon 8/20

[Radioguy]

For further information contact
VETS Project Manager, Doug Loughmiller,
W5BL at w5bl at arrl.net
Bill Kosla
KE5BGU wolfhound at eaglekeeper.net
----------------------------------------------------
NTBP-12 "The SS Minner"

http://www1.nasa.gov/columbia/home/ The North Texas Balloon Project (NTBP) 
Flight 12 is planned for launch about 8:45 am CDT (between 8:30 and 9:00 
am) on Saturday, August 20, 2005. The backup launch date will be Saturday, 
September 03, 2005, at about 8:45 am CDT from the Hillsboro Municipal 
Airport, in Hillsboro, Texas, just south of Fort Worth and Dallas.  Flight 
status will be available on launch day on the 147.280 repeater in Fort 
Worth and the HF launch net frequency.

The weather balloon carrying amateur radio experiments is expected to reach 
nearly 100,000 feet in about 90 minutes and return via parachute in about 
30 minutes. Mobile recovery teams will use position reports from the 
onboard APRS on 144.390 MHz and RDF (fox hunting) to recover the payloads.

Set up will begin at prior to 7:00 am with the HF Launch Net on 7260 +/- 10 
kHz LSB starting at 8:00 am. The cross band repeater uses an uplink at 
445.800 MHz and downlink at 147.560 MHz.

The public is invited to come out to the Hillsboro Municipal Airport, 
located at Exit 3 on Interstate Highway 35W, to watch the launch, flight 
status, and downlink video. In the event of unfavorable weather or jet 
stream conditions, the launch will occur at a later date. For the latest 
information check their web page.

Handheld VHF radios and scanners can receive the downlink easily. At the 
peak altitude ham radio operators from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, 
Louisiana, and Kansas can contact each other using the cross band repeater.

The radios used normally have a range of about 25 miles, but that range 
will be extended to about 500 miles at the peak altitude.

NTBP is a group of amateur (HAM) radio operators from Fort Worth and Dallas 
and has launched balloons from Cleburne, Clifton, and Hillsboro Airports 
since 1991. This is the second launch during the last year and is funded by 
the amateur radio operators associated with the NTBP.

Please send an email to Bill Kosla –

KE5BGU for further information.

Shuttle Package Description

The shuttle package is intended to be used as a part of each NTBP mission. 
It contains an Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) and a Radio 
Direction Finding (RDF) Beacon. The APRS consists of a Motorola Oncore VP 
GPS receiver and a Pocket Tracker which will automatically report the 
position of the balloon once every minute on the standard APRS frequency of 
144.39 MHz. The RDF Beacon is a Kantronics PC-82 transmitter and a Parallax 
BASIC Stamp. The Stamp is a controller that will activate the PC-82 
transmitter 90 minutes into the flight, thus saving battery power for when 
it is needed the most. The Stamp also provides the CW identification for 
the RDF Beacon. The entire package is powered by a 12 volt Lithium battery 
pack. The battery pack is the only component that needs to be replaced 
between each mission. The Shuttle package has been miniaturized and weighs 
just over 2 pounds.

When North Texas Balloon Project Flight number twelve travels aloft in late 
August, it will carry a special secondary payload designated “VETS”, or, 
Voice Encoding Temperature Sensor. This payload was built by members of the 
Fannin County Amateur Radio Club, K5FRC, based in Bonham, Texas.

The modules the housekeeping unit will manage include an NHRC-2 low power, 
low cost repeater controller, a talking clock and talking indoor / outdoor 
thermometer. The time and temperature data from the payload will be 
“spoken” to the ground using plain language human voice messages provided 
by a Voice Zone talking indoor / outdoor thermometer and talking clock 
module. The repeater controller will pass audio between the clock and 
thermometer modules to an Alinco DJ-C1 350 milliwatt two meter FM 
transmitter that will operate on a frequency of 146.560 MHz. The controller 
will also provide watchdog timing and voice ID functions as well. The 
Alinco transceiver has been modified to accept an internal antenna and the 
VETS payload will utilize a half wave dipole antenna for the downlink 
signal to the ground.

In addition to controlling the housekeeping of the VETS payload, the 
Microchip PIC12F675 will also control a Concord 4060AF 4 megapixel digital 
camera. The micro-controller will trigger the camera to capture an image on 
two-minute intervals throughout the entire ascent and descent of the 
flight. Images will be downloaded from the camera once the package is 
recovered following the flight and posted to the K5FRC web site.

Observers are encouraged to monitor the VETS downlink signal on 145.560 MHz 
and make note of signal conditions from the payload as well as the time and 
temperature data from the payload. Individuals who forward their 
observations to the Fannin County Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 684, Bonham, 
TX 75418 will in return receive a special QSL card confirming their 
reception of data from the flight.

Anyone with questions may contact VETS Project Manager, Doug Loughmiller, 
W5BL at w5bl at arrl.net