[HIham] Fwd: UX-5 balloon now probably over the Atlantic off the coast of Cape Hatteras NC

[Ron Hashiro]

Fwd: UT Knoxville AA4UT balloon in the air at 2:31 pm EST Dec  31 on 
14.325 MHz CW

The UX-5 balloon lifted off from Knoxville, TN at 2:31 pm EST (1931z) 
and is ascending around 200 ft/min or so....please listen to 14.325.5 
for the CW message....The callsign repeats every 15 seconds and the 
telemetry sequence is sent out a minute after a 8 callsign 
intervals...but could take as long as 10 minutes if the GPS isn't locking.
 
Signal reports are already coming in from OH, NY, NJ, OK, WI, CO and MA.
 
This is a long duration flight that should go out over the Atlantic and 
could fly all night like the one I did 2 weeks ago.
 
Please post signal reports to:  http://www.utarc.org
 
 
- Bill WB8ELK

 From 1/1/2006, 5:22 am HST

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The GPS stopped giving good reports after 2318z....at the time it was 
near I-95 east of Rahleigh, NC heading east at 35,700 feet.
 
The last reception I had on it was via a remote receiver 
(www.dxtuners.com <http://www.dxtuners.com>) from Tidewater, VA which is 
near Virginia Beach and about 80 miles from the balloon at the 
time....tough copy since they are using a PCR-100 with no CW or USB mode 
(with a discone no less)...I copied the telemetry by listening to the 
noise change via AM mode...reminded me of Aurora buzz mode CW.
 
Last copiable report was 00:44z...nothing since then....Battery was 
10.4V and temp was -39C but the lat/lon hasn't changed since 2318z.
 
I estimate that if they hold altitude around 35,700 feet all night, 
they'll go out to sea and veer northeast towards Nova Scotia and 
Newfoundland...It is more likely that it is coming down slowly which 
would have it splashing down soon about 100 miles east of the NC 
coastline....they have designed it to be waterproof and to float with 
the antenna sticking up (nice seawater groundplane)....so please listen 
in on 14.325.5 tomorrow morning and during the day since it will 
probably take off again at sunrise even if it's floating on the Gulf 
Stream instead of the Jet Stream.
 
73s de Bill WB8ELK