[TNham] UX-3 Balloon flight a success

[Greg Williams]

At approximately 8:17 this morning, the Univ. of TN amateur radio club
successfully launched its UX-3 balloon into the skies over East Tennessee.

Two balloons were used to accomplish the primary objective of higher
altitude.  Among the other objectives were to use different methods of
photography and measurement, as well as a new payload device.  The old
Styrofoam bucket was retired in favor of a modified lunchbox providing
better insulation from the outer elements.

Much of the payload performed to its expectations.  The GPS/APRS packet unit
performed flawlessly on the backup of 145.600MHz, under the APRS call of
K4T-11.  K4T was assigned to the club for use on the flight.  

There were reports of problems receiving the packet telemetry on 144.390.
Also the voice readback of the telemetry stopped functioning around 90,000
feet.  As the post-flight team reviews the information, they will have a
better understanding of the failure, but initial indications are that one of
the cameras went into a mode it shouldn't have because of the 2-meter
transceiver, and it may have caused the camera's flash to activate and
trigger a discharge, causing the audio voice playback to stop responding.
Not only did it cause the audio to stop, but the telemetry recordings also
ceased at that point as well.  

Only the packet APRS data was able to continue right until touchdown,
guiding the recovery team to its resting spot.  It landed in the most
desirable area, as it came down northeast of Watauga Lake in upper east
Tennessee, surrounded by mountains, and landing in the middle of an open
fieldnext to the highway for a high-altitude "hole in one".

Overall, some stunning movies and images were recovered and are available
for now at http://sunsite.utk.edu/~mcoffey/ux-3/video/.  The file
CLIP0016.ASF is my favorite thus far, as it captures the payload right at
liftoff from Neyland Stadium.  The incredibly stable video shows the city
skyline, glimpses of the bridges crossing the Tennessee River, Thompson
Boling Arena, the UT campus, and traffic on I-40 (probably wondering what
the hell that thing up in the sky was) as it faded into the clouds about 2
minutes after launch.  All videos are unedited and large, so high-speed
internet is favorable in downloading these large files.

Oh, by the way, the recorded altitude peak was 115,935!!!  Higher than the
previous flights combined!  Screenshot of APRS packet shot of 115,935 is at:
http://www.knology.net/~k4hsm/images/UX3/UX3-115935ft.jpg.  Oddly enough, it
was achieved over an area known as "New Victory".

So far, reports are that the balloon was heard from Ohio, Lower South
Carolina, and Nashville.  

That's all for now.  Check on the post-flight progress as well as plans for
the next balloon flight at http://balloon.utarc.org.

Gregory S. Williams
k4hsm at lock-net.com