[LeArc] WB8ELK Oz-12 balloon has landed HiBall-11 delayed until Feb. 2nd

[Mark A Garrett]

Launch of Oz-12 was at 1:09 pm CST from the NSSTC building in Huntsville, AL...the payload was dangling below the weekly ozonesonde balloon. 
  
Experiment: 10 milliwatt 28.175 MHz RTTY module (test of the synthesized HF exciter to be used in my upcoming trans-Atlantic flights). 
  
Landing was around 3:20 pm CST and was estimated to be near the Gainesville, GA area. 
  
For those living NE of Atlanta along the I-85 corridor, you might hear it from 15 to 20 miles out...since it only draws 28 mA, it'll probably run for 40 hours or more. 
  
The transmitter was very stable...didn't drift at all in frequency.....several of us (N4TXI, N4MSJ and WB5RMG) in the Huntsville AL area had perfect copy throughout most of the flight (S4 or better) and I could see it in the waterfall display even when it was too weak to even hear the tones...not bad for 130 miles out and 10 milliwatts into a 10m vertical dipole....good copy reports also came in from N4XWC near Birmingham and WB4VHF on Wilson Mtn. The 10m band opened up during the flight to Texas but so far no reports of reception. 
  
This was also a test of my lightweight minimalist payload design....one layer of black electrical tape around the electronics surrounded by 4 layers of small-cell bubblewrap (the idea is for the black tape to absorb solar radiation and the bubble wrap to keep it in)...total payload weight including 9-volt lithium battery and antenna - 3 ounces....the internal temperature stayed between 80 and 90 deg F throughout the flight ... even during the descent. 
  
Since this flight exceeded my expectations, I am delaying tomorrow 's flight (Jan.27th) until next Saturday ,  February 2nd at 1:00 pm CST.... 
  
HiBall-11 will launch from the NSSTC building as a separate balloon after the ozonesonde goes up. I will try to achieve an overnight float with this one on a latex balloon. 
  
Payloads: 
  
1 watt RTTY on 10.142 MHz 
APRS on 144.39: WB8ELK-11 
  
- Bill WB8ELK 
  
  
  
  




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