Announcement of EOSS-32

note: The original announcement for this flight was lost. This is a recreation compiled on 18-March-2005. the recreation was prompted by the recent submission by Marty Griffin, WA0GEH, of documents pertaining to the flight.

LAUNCH DATE: Decemmber 6th, 1997
LAUNCH TIME: 15:00 UTC - 08:00MST
LAUNCH SITE:

  • Pikes Peak Radio Control Club Airport (directions)
  • Located East of Falcon Colorado on US 24 (9 or 10 miles east of Colorado Springs on US 24). 4 miles east of Falcon take Judge Orr road east. Follow this road 4.2 miles to Pikes Peak Radio Control Club Airport. Use the simplex frequency at the launch site for talkin.

LAUNCH SITE COORDINATES:

  • 38deg 57' 17.65" North Latitude
  • 104deg 30' 04.43 West Longitude

EXPECTED TRACK:

  • Between 45 degrees and 145 degrees azimuth

FLIGHT EXPERIMENT:

  • Gas Capture Experiment and In flight Ozone Experiment

PROJECT INTEGRATOR:

  • University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS)

FREQUENCIES:

  • 147.225 MHz Colorado Repeater Association
    • Preflight Foxhunter Net 8:00PM the preceding night

Launch Site:

  • Simplex 146.550 MHz

Telemetry:

  • 144.340 MHz FM (1 Watt output)
    • The Packet telemetry stream is in ax.25 format at 1200 baud and is readable in plain English for the most part. Included in each telemetry frame is an APRS position string (APRS users see note below). Every few minutes a CW ID is transmitted on this frequency.

APRS Dedicated Payload:

  • Input - 145.790 MHz
  • Output - 145.790 MHz

ATV:

  • 426.250 MHz AM (1 Watt output) - NTSC video
  • EOSS Shuttle Video

Foxhunters:

  • 448.450 MHz Pikes Peak FM Association Repeater
  • 146.58 MHz Simplex Field Frequency

HF Net:

  • 7.235 MHz no net control set as of this writing

notes:

Shuttle Generated Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS):

EOSS Shuttle controllers now beacon on the packet telemetry frequency with an APRS position string. If you are running APRS you should be able to graphically track the progress of the flight on the "CODENVER.MAP" map file. The Shuttle is not a TNC equipped packet station. It only reads data from various sensors and experiments and formats and transmits that data in AX.25. Therefore, beacons from other APRS stations will NOT be retransmitted (digi). So, in order to minimize possible interference with hams in your area, we request you turn off the position beacons at your APRS station. Thanks!

Dedicated APRS System:

The dedicated APRS system is a KPC-3 flying with a DeLorme Tripmate GPS and a two meter transceiver. It is a separate payload. You can digi your position by setting your unproto to "aprs via eoss". Keep your position beacons to a minimum (once every 30 minutes for stationary folks, and mobiles not directly involved in recovery, once every 5 minutes). The recovery team, will be using this capability to keep track of each other and need the bandwidth for much more frequent beacons.

ATV:

The Amateur Video Signals from the payload may be picked up by a cable ready TV set on channel 58. However, you need to be very close to the balloon, and have a directional antenna to do this as cable receivers do not have much sensitivity (why should they?). If you don't have a cable ready set, try tuning DOWN from UHF channel 14. Some sets can receive the signal there too.

Who Can Hear It:

Almost all our transmitters are on VHF or above frequencies. Therefore, you need to be line of site to the payload to hear/see it. Since the payload rises to an altitude of over 90,000 feet on most missions, reception is usually possible for folks in most of Kansas, most of Nebraska, most of Wyoming, extreme south eastern Idaho, eastern Utah, north eastern Arizona, most of New Mexico, northern Texas, and western Oklahoma. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED by the apparent low power of our signals. I usually monitor the Beacon with an HT from the ground station throughout the flight. The signal is strong even at 130 miles and I only lose it when the balloon descends below my horizon.

Marty's Email

I include this email as it is the original preface to the above announcement as it was distributed to various news groups, and email lists.

-----Original Message-----
From: Marty Griffin
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 1997 1:49 PM
To: 'eoss@centosystems.com'
Subject: EOSS 32 Rescheduled

Larry announced that the Edge of Space Sciences (EOSS) flight scheduled for November 15 has been postponed to December 6. This is due to a need for additional testing of the payload by UCCS and the EOSS Shuttle.

Greg Burnett:

You will need to "re-coordinate" with the repeater owners for the appropriate permissions. Thanks

Middle Schools and High Schools:

This delay gives your schools time to participate on December 6th. Any teacher interested in making this flight a class project should contact Marty Griffin. Anyone who might know of a school or teacher, please forward this information to that person. Education is why we fly!

- Marty Griffin, WA0GEH

The revised announcement follows:

webmaster note:The announcement above cut and moved from this location

-----Original Message-----
From: Marty Griffin
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 1997 2:49 PM
To: 'eoss@centosystems.com'
Subject: EOSS 32, Net Tonight, Tracking Folks


Edge of Space Sciences List Server
__________________________________
Hello Folks,

We have Edge of Space Sciences (EOSS) flight EOSS #32 scheduled for this
Saturday. Details follow.

Tracking and recovery members, please advise Marty 303-470-5471 or Greg
Burnett of your ability to help track and recover on that date. If you have
already confirmed, disregard.

Schools, where are you? Let us know if you want to help.

There is a action-packed net tonight on 147.225, 8:00. Hope to hear you all
check in.

- Marty