[HoustonHam] FW: [BLT] U of H Balloon Flight - FW: BTS-1 May 8 10AM

[Chris Boone]

APRS balloon Flight from U of H campus - May 8th - Sometime after 10 AM!

________________________________
From: blake at bearsonpatrol.org<mailto:blake at bearsonpatrol.org>
To: N5MT at aol.com<mailto:N5MT at aol.com>
Sent: 4/23/2011 5:56:43 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Re: BTS-1 May 8

Hi Mike,

Thanks for contacting me. We'll be meeting at 10 AM at the downtown campus
for the launch. The inflating and preparation of the balloon will be handled
by a team of people who do the launches from there, so I'm sure they'll be
careful in handling it.

We will be live streaming the launch from the ground, and also will have
GoPro cameras onboard, but we won't have a live video feed from the balloon.
The only radio transmissions from the balloon will be APRS (N4BWR-11) on
144.390.

On 4/23/2011 11:46 AM, N5MT at aol.com<mailto:N5MT at aol.com> wrote:
Blake,

There are several of us in Houston that do a yearly balloon launch abt 50
miles SW of Houston from Wharton airport.
We use two GPS beacons on two UHF freq.  Backup is sometimes needed.
Also, does your GPS work above 60,000 ft?  Some of the older ones do not.

I am a hunter so I will be interested in chasing.  I video recorded our last
landing with a friend driving.  Think there will be others interested in
hunting it.

Launching from downtown UH should be ok, you just need to find a quiet place
so when you inflate nothing touches the skin else it will.....pop.  Downtown
Houston is breezy at times.
For our launches, we use a hanger at the airport,etc.
If the people inflating the balloon use rubber gloves and talc you might be
ok.
The weather guys sometime use an inclosure that is soft around the balloon ,
it has a quick release gaget that opens the inclosure to let the balloon out
quickly,

so how do you expect to inflate/launch BTS-1?

Will there be video From the balloon or just still camera for later viewing
after recovery?

If video what frequency will it be on?
How many freq will you be using for everything coming from the package?

I live southwest of  Rice Univ which is abt 3 mi south of downtown near the
Medical Ctr.

Please advise as many of the people interested, esp
W5ACM Andy may have asked similar questions.

Happy Easter.   73 Mike  N5MT