[TNham] UTARC Balloon payload UX-7 recovered

[Greg Williams]

Last Saturday Travis, N4TJM, and a non-ham (close to getting his ticket) 
hiked back up "Devil's Looking Glass" outside of Erwin, TN and, armed 
with a sense of purpose, an eye for determination, and a pretty big 
potato gun, shot down UX-7 from it's perch on high to bring an end to 
the UX-7 story.  UX-7 was launched February 25, 2006 from Cookeville, TN 
and travelled 170 miles due west to its final destination.

The video of the recovery "shot heard round the world" can be seen at 
http://balloon.utarc.org/ux7recovery.wmv

The video is 72 megs in length, so a broadband connection is needed to 
retrieve the video.

The potato gun went through the container and out the top.  It dislodged 
the contatiner from the plastic holder and then fell down a hill several 
yards.  Upon arrival to the payload, the recovery team found that none 
of the electronics appeared to be damaged by the gun.  The gun actually 
missed hitting the ballast container by fractions of an inch.

All of the payload has been recovered (except for the parachute) and 
plans to launch UX-8 are in the works.  No final date has been set.  A 
launch date of April 8 was initially planned but due to efforts building 
the circuit boards for the mission, UTARC is looking no sooner than 
Saturday, April 15.  Data recovered from UX-7 will greatly assist with 
the mission efforts for UX-8 and beyond.  Plans for mission UX-8 include 
better ballast control and sustaining of the payload at a set altitude 
of about 70,000 feet before returning to terra firma.

For more on UX-7, and missions past, present, and future, please visit 
http://balloon.utarc.org.

Greg Williams, K4HSM