[MOham] Fw: [ORB] balloon launch set

[Ray Brown]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lloyd Colston" <lloyd at colston.com>
To: <oklahoma_research_balloons at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 3:21 PM
Subject: [ORB] balloon launch set


http://www.southgatearc.org/news/april2007/arbonet.htm

Members of the ARBONET (Amateur Radio Balloons Over NorthEast Texas)
organization are making final preparations for the April 28th launch
of ARBONET-2.

The second in an on-going series of high altitude balloon flights
carrying Amateur Radio, ARBONET-2 is being dedicated to the memory of
Kim R. Miles, N9IS SK, a long time contributor to the central Indiana
Windtrax Amateur Radio High Altitude Balloon team who passed away
March 27th at the age of 51.

ARBONET-2 will be launched from the JD Trissell Airport in
Clarksville, TX which is located in the northeast corner of the Lone
Star State. Launch time is scheduled for 9:00 AM CDT on Saturday
April 28th.

Current winds aloft forecasts indicate the ground track of the flight
will carry the amateur payloads into the southwest corner of the
state of Arkansas. If ARBONET-2 reaches its expected altitude of
96,000 ft, radio amateurs in parts of as many as seven states should
be able to monitor the beacons and communicate through the cross band
repeater onboard the near space vehicle.

The compliment of payloads aboard ARBONET-2 include:

A plain language homing beacon that will transmit navigation data to
the ground on 146.560 MHz in plain English thus allowing anyone with
a scanner or 2 meter hand-held in the coverage zone to follow the
progress of the flight without the need for additional equipment to
process the data.

An APRS beacon operating on 144.390 MHz to report vehicle location
data throughout the duration of the flight and to aid in the recovery
of the packages following descent.

A 70 cm Up / 2 meter Down Cross band FM repeater (445.800MHz Up -
147.560 MHz Down) will support two way communications during the
duration of the ARBONET-2 flight.

A 10 meter CW beacon experiment produced by the Richardson Wireless
Klub, K5RWK will transmit a 500 milliwatt signal on 28.061 MHZ.

In addition, ARBONET-2 will carry a number of secondary payloads that
will perform remote data collection functions for analysis once the
payloads are recovered. These payloads include a 4 mega pixel digital
camera configured to capture images every 30 seconds through the
duration of the flight, a self contained balloon burst video system
designed to capture images of the balloon burst event, a three axis
accelerometer and other environmental data loggers.

Operators are encouraged to submit reception reports from the ARBONET-
2 flight to team members via the ARBONET web site:
http://www.arbonet.net. A special commemorative QSL card will be made
available to everyone who submits reception reports to the ARBONET
team.

An ARBONET Launch Information HF net will be held on 7.260 MHz ( ± 10
KHz) beginning at 8:30 AM CDT to report the progress of flight
preparations and to provide real time coverage of the expected 2 and
a half hour flight.

The ARBONET team encourages radio amateurs throughout the flight's
coverage zone to make use of the payloads aboard ARBONET-2.

Additional updates will be posted to the ARBONET web site in the days
leading up to the mission. In the event weather conditions cause a
postponement of the launch, the next launch attempt is scheduled for
the following Saturday, May 5th.