[GCARC] Saturday Clubhouse plans

[Jon Pearce]

At this point we're still optimistic for a large balloon launch on Saturday around noontime but we may need to move it earlier depending on the weather. We'll be filling the balloon and doing final assembly starting around 9 and will make the weather call when it's all set up. If it looks like weather will deteriorate we'll launch earlier. Sorry to be so indefinite but we need optimal conditions or we might lose the balloon. We'll try to get status updates out on the repeater when we start knowing the schedule.

Assuming that the launch is successful we'll be monitoring the WSPR telemetry to try to track it, and hopefully this one will continue to rise until it reaches an equilibrium point where the helium lift is balanced with the lighter weight of the atmosphere. Depending on the prevailing winds (which now appear to be moving eastward but can change at any time) we may see it starting a trip across the Atlantic. If that happens we'll send out links to the tracking and telemetry sites for that balloon.

Otherwise, there are several satellite passes on Saturday that we might try to work. There are ISS passes starting at 11:55, 1:33 and again at 3:12 - the 11:55 is a relatively high pass (63 degrees elevation) and can probably be heard on an HT on 437.80 mhz FM. There's also a Greencube pass starting at 1:59 with some opportunities for working European stations.

We'll send an update tomorrow on the launch if there's any new information.

73 de Jon WB2MNF