Recap of EOSS-38

note: There was no recap for this flight. This is a very late posting built with information provide by Marty Griffin and Mike Manes.

LAUNCH DATE: October 24, 1999
LAUNCH TIME: 14:06 UTC - 08:06 MDT
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 80 degrees and 145 degrees azimuth

FLIGHT EXPERIMENT: Test of New UCCS Shuttle Built by University of Colorado - Colorado Springs CROSS BAND REPEATER: The RMRL Cross Band Repeater 445.975 / 147.555 (out)

PROJECT INTEGRATOR: University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS)

FREQUENCIES

Preflight Foxhunter Net:

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

Launch Site

  • Simplex 146.550 MHz

Balloon

Telemetry:

  • 144.340 MHz FM (1 Watt output)

Cross-Band Rptr:

  • 445.975 input
  • 147.555 output

APRS Output:

  • 144.39 MHz

ATV:

  • 426.250 MHz - NTSC video

Tracking Team

  • 448.450 MHz Pikes Peak FM Association Repeater (pending approval)
  • 146.58 MHz Simplex Field Frequency

HF Net:

  • 7.235 MHz no net control set as of this writing

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike's Contribution

I (webmaster) recently put out some data on the history of EOSS's flights. Mike Manes, W5VIS noted that I was slightly light in information regarding EOSS-038, so he forwarded along this information.

I noticed that EOSS-38 showed up as a big question mark. Got the file out, and found out that it was first sked for a Walt Lund telemetry class out of Windsor on 4/24/99 but was scrubbed due to rotten weather all weekend, and Walt wasn't able to make a later date.

EOSS-38 finally DID fly, however, on 10/24/99 out of Pikes Peak RC field for UCCS with the 6 lb UCCS-1 shuttle and the maiden EOSS APRS beacon as W5VSI-11 on 144.39 under a 1200 gm latex. And it seems we also flew the cross-band repeater, which would have put us right at the 12 lb exempt limit; this was before we added the APRS mod.

EOSS-38 launched at 1406Z. Lost GPS after 1556Z, probably due to KPC-3 overload from massive digipeating. Barometric altitude peaked out at 1705Z at telemetry value of 038, which translates per later calculated data to over 90K'. This was a REAL slow ascent - took 2 hrs to climb from 12K' to 47K' or about 290 fpm, and about 3 hrs to burst. LOS was at 1807Z at 38d 22.35N, 103d 59.18W, if GPS was to be believed; LOS baro was 154, or about 7800 ft.

I've attached a zip of the ground station packet log for EOSS-38.

eoss038_log.txt

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, October 05, 1999 8:18 PM
To: eoss@eoss.org
Subject: EOSS - #38, Flight Announcement, X-Band Repeater

Hi Folks,

I'm not sure this made it out last time as I have no copy in my in basket. So if it is a repeat, sorry.

We will be DFing this flight because the data will be in a proprietary format. So tracking folks, please give George or me a call to tell us you can help.

Also, great fun, the RMRL Cross-Band repeater will be flying (thanks RMRL). So pass the word and work folks in Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Kansas on the 445.975/147.555 repeater. It will be 20 miles above sea level during this flight!

Regards,

Marty Griffin Cento Systems

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++

Hi Everyone,

Well things are heating up! Dr. Charles Fosha's group at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs (UCCS) has build a fabulous new "Shuttle Bus" and developed the control software in a wonderful Windows interface. They would like to test fly this from the Pikes Peak Radio Control Club Airport on October 16, 1999.

Congratulations to Dr. Fosha and his students as they are about to become a self-sustaining balloon group.

So plan to attend. Tracking folks let's get ready (remember how?). Schools in the area might wish to join in the fun. Please contact us at eoss@eoss.org.

Here's the scoop! (announcement data above originally followed here)

- Marty Griffin