[SBhams] Satellite Fun

[R]

Hi Everyone:

 

Well three of us braved the heat for Saturday morning for  Oklahoma's
balloon launch. Floyd (N5FH), Robert (K5REF) and me (K5AI). We had three
Arrow antennas setup and AA2TX Tony Monteiro's 2 meter EZ-Lindenblad
antenna. I had my radio and Arrow antenna setup to monitor the CW ID from
the balloon and Robert had the Ez_Lindenblad setup to monitor the CW ID from
the balloon so that we could hear when the balloon was within reach. Balloon
launch was at 8:37 a.m. by 9:30 the balloon had reached an altitude of about
60,000 feet, but we also had 2 satellites flying over at the same time.
Since we would have about an hour for the balloon we tried to get on the
satellites AO-51 and SO-50. All three of us made contacts on both
satellites. Robert setup the EZ-Lindenblad to try and transmit on the second
pass of SO-50 and receive on my radio. We had very good success with the
Ez-Lindenblad. Great thing about this antenna you do not have to point it to
the satellite. It is real good for low passes of satellites. Floyd made his
first contact with AO-51 and made plenty more. After the satellites had
passed by we still could not here the balloon so I checked the internet for
APRS location of the balloon and it had falling to 34,000 feet. Email from
John Robbins (flight director) had confirmed the balloon had burst at about
67,000 feet. Also the CW ID beacon was very weak, so we may not have been
able to here it. Payload package was recovered and they have no idea why the
balloon had burst. They will attempt  breaking the record at a latter date.
No balloon contact for us but we help Floyd make his first contact and
tested out Robert's antenna so it was a good day. I found out there will be
a balloon launch from Houston on 25 Aug. not much details yet but I will
find out and post it on my web site.

 

 

73's

 

K5AI Ron