Balloon Group Minutes 08/29/95

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EOSS net - 29 August 1995 - 147.225 repeater

Net called by W5VSI (Mike Manes)

Person passing traffic is listed first, then the traffic.

W5VSI - Norm Kjome called from DIA. He's going to Brazil to help with some balloon launches meant to collect particulates over the rainforests during burns. The next regular EOSS meeting will be Tuesday, September 12 at 7:30 pm. We are not sure if the cutdown mechanism worked during the last flight.

Bob Ragain (WB4ETT) is attaching a stainless steel, vertical dipole antenna to the outside of the cutdown mechanism box. Greg Burnett (K0ELM) is supposed to get the mechanism next to test it for desense.

K0ELM - There was a special meeting of the tracking and recovery team. Its purpose was to get proposals for a new balloon foxhunting procedure. The old procedure has worked well, but people are getting a little bored with it. The suggested new schemes will be summarized at the next regular meeting.

N0RQV (Ted Cline) - There was balloon news out of Texas and Manitoba. The news was via a balloon mailing list on the Internet. The North Texas Balloon Group scrubbed a launch scheduled for August 19 at 11:30 am because of trouble when switching from ground station batteries to flight batteries. When the flight batteries were connected, the payload computer would unpredictably reset. A balloon launch from Manitoba, Canada on August 20th was partly successful. The balloon carried an HF beacon, VHF packet mailbox, GPS receiver, and a payload from Environment Canada. High winds during the launch caused the payload to bang around and damage the GPS receiver and HF beacon. The balloon was launched before the launch crew discovered that the HF beacon and GPS receiver were not working. Later, somewhere over Winnipeg, the Environment Canada package went dead, and they lost contact with the balloon. They are still looking for the payload. Ted says he is impressed by EOSS's track record and the work of the tracking and recovery team and the engineering team.

W5VSI - We had similar problems when doing our battery switch over before.

K0YUK (Merle McCaslin) - Merle thinks the Stratosphere is in the process of being mailed. There is some sad news, a silent key report. The following is a message from Jeff Ryan of the Pikes Peak Region.

It is with great sadness that I report a silent Key in the Pikes Peak region. Malcolm Benton, KE9S, passed away on Thursday, August 17th after a long illness. A very active member of the local amateur radio community, Malcolm served on the boards of the PPRAA and the PPFMA. An ARRL member and an Official Observer, Malcolm was an elmer to just about every radio amateur in the area - young and old alike. He will be greatly missed. Jeff.

Merle adds:

Malcolm was a charter member of EOSS. He was active in EOSS and donated two 1200 gram balloons to EOSS when we were getting started. He was always interested in our activities and worked on various EOSS projects. After he became ill he still reported weather south of the Palmer divide when we were planning a flight in that area. He also monitored our flights and recovery activities. We will miss him.

K0YUK - Can Ted Give us the email address to get on that balloon mail list?

N0RQV - I can get that info for whoever wants it after the net. [The info is given in the minutes of the Sept. 5 net. ed.].

W5VSI - Norm Kjome says the new FAR part 101 regulations are out. In part, the document covers rockets.

K0YUK - OK, look into getting that.

Net closed.

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