Recap of EOSS-54

photo by KC0JHQ's 35mm camera system, altitude ~ 99K feet.

LAUNCH DATE: Feb 23, 2002
LAUNCH TIME: 09:09 MST, 16:09 UTC
LAUNCH SITE: Meadow Lake Airport (directions and map here)

Flight Map

Red W5VSI-11 is actual track.
Black N0KKZ-3 is predicted track

Balloon Track Predict vs. Actual data

Balloon Track for Windows                                Version 1.7.5
__________________________________________________________________________
Flight Recap
Saturday, February 23, 2002        EOSS-54          DNR_02_02_23_1200Z.dat
11:25:46 AM                    Meadow Lake Air                wbaltrak.ini
__________________________________________________________________________
Launch Site - Meadow Lake Air
-----------------------
Launch Point: 38.9525� lat.   -104.5753� long.
Ascent Rate: 1000 feet per minute
Descent Rate: 1230 feet per minute
Altitude: 6874 feet
VOR Station - Hugo
-----------------------
Latitude: 38.815� lat.
Longitude: -103.626� long.
Magnetic Offset: -12.0� from True Degrees
Predicted Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 38.481� lat.  -103.5531� long.
Altitude: 4776 feet
Flight Time: 118 Minutes
Bearing: 120.3� True
Range: 64.0 Mi.
Actual Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 38.7877� lat.  -103.6071� long.
Bearing: 102.0� True
Range: 53.3 Mi.
Difference from Predicted to Actual Landing Site
--------------------------------------------------
Bearing: 352.2� True
Range: 21.4 Mi.

 

Post Burst Predictions

Winds DataFile
-----------------------
Station: W5VSI-11
Date: 1028L 23 Feb 02
DataFile Status: From GPS Data File
Intact Records: 64
Corrupt Records: 0
Burst
-----------------------
Burst Point: 38.8296� lat.   -104.107� long.
Ascent Rate: 1300 feet per minute
Descent Rate: 1230 feet per minute
Burst Altitude: 97,716 feet
Distance to LOS: 407.3 Mi.
Predicted Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 38.7785� lat.  -103.7811� long.
Altitude: 4776 feet
Flight Time: 30 Minutes
Bearing: 101.3� True
Range: 17.9 Mi.
Actual Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 38.7877� lat.  -103.6071� long.
Bearing: 96.0� True
Range: 27.1 Mi.
Difference from Predicted to Actual Landing Site
--------------------------------------------------
Bearing: 86.1� True
Range: 9.4 Mi.

Frequencies:

  • HF Net during Flight
    • 7240 KHz this net was highly frequency agile. It started on 7235, moved down to 7228 ran into a clear air but a net so moved up to the final freq listed.
  • Cross Band Repeater (RMRL) Removed from Flight Train
  • Beacon
    • 145.990 MHz International Space Station uplink and beacon
      • Callsign KC�JHQ-11
  • APRS
    • 144.340 MHz (Payload APRS Beacon)
      • DIGI OPEN see notes below
      • Callsign W5VSI-11
  • ATV
    • 426.250 MHz
  • Tracking and Recovery Operations
    • 448.450 MHz (100 Hz tone required) PPFMA Repeater
    • 146.550 MHz simplex (same simplex for field and launch ops)
  • Simplex at Launch Site
    • 146.550 MHz (same simplex for field and launch ops)

RECAP BELOW

Grid Position

The locations for the Tracking and Recovery Grid were:

  • Punkin Center 40,40
  • Intersection of 287 and 40 (1 mile east of Kit Carson) 90,35
  • Haswell 69.8,13.1

Punkin Center was used as the Grid Calculator reference point. The lat/long pair for that location is:

  • X,Y = 40,40
  • 38.85208� decimal degrees or 38� 51.125' degrees and decimal minutes North Latitude
  • 103.70053� decimal degrees or 103� 42.032' degrees and decimal minutes West Longitude

Digipeating Welcome

EOSS-54 had an open digipeater on board. Individuals were welcome to use it to make brief contacts and digi APRS positions.

IDs:

  • w5vsi-11 - payload (aprs packets)
  • balnod - node
  • eoss54 - digi

Only one actual connect was made ... I think, I'll have to review again but I think only W5VSI-1 (ground station) and N6LEE used the node. I may have missed digi contacts

Multiple Digi may be possible

Arizona Near Space Research did fly a balloon with a digi at the same time we flew our system. Unfortunately we never heard their payload. We will definitely have to try this again in the future.

Here is a map showing the combined footprints of both balloons.

ANSR-5 Flight Announcement

As a reference, I'll leave this announcement as it appeared prior to flight.

Arizona Near Space Research Web Site

Arizona Near Space Research (ANSR) is proud to announce the upcoming flight of ANSR-5. This is the fifth in a series of checkout and qualification flights designed to develop standard techniques and processes for scientific and educational high altitude balloon flights.

The purpose of this flight is to demonstrate:

(1) Reliable command, telemetry and crossband repeater links from the flight computer module including commandable cutdown capability.

(2) GPS/APRS tracking beacons on 70CM bands. APRS packets will be digipeated on standard 144.390 MHz via ground based Gateway.

(3) The acquisition and maintenance of high quality video from the ATV payload package.

(4) Digital communications relay capability utilizing balloon borne packet digipeaters over wide area. In this case, attempt Earth-Balloon-Balloon-Earth (EBBE) communications with Colorado based EOSS-54 during simultaneous flight.

Flight Specifications:

  • Launch date and time: Saturday, February 23, 2002 at 0900 MST
  • Launch site: Near Casa Grande/Maricopa, AZ (TBR).
  • Balloon: 1200 gram latex
  • Fill gas: Helium
  • Payload Frequencies:

(1) KD7LMO-11, Flight controller telemetry and Crossband FM repeater; input: 145.560 MHz , output: 445.525 MHz, 1 or 5 W (selectable). This package will be put in APRS mode if required.

(2) KD7LMO-11, Minibeacon APRS 445.950 MHz 300mW

(3) W7ATN, ATV 434.00 MHz AM 3W PEP

(4) AA0P-11, ANSR (Digi), AZNOD (K-node); EBBE Digipeater 144.34 MHz 1 W

HF Coordination Frequency with EOSS: 7235 KHz -QRM. (Cell phone backup)

UHF Tracking coordination frequency 447.725 MHz, -5.0 MHz offset, 100 Hz tone

Local AZ Pre-flight coordination Nets: 2/18/02 and 2/22/02, Frequencies and times to be announced.

EOSS-54 has set a new ascent rate record at the Amateur High Altitude Ballooning Mission Records page

Here are the current top 5 records

  1. EOSS-54 23Feb02 1584.9ft/min
  2. EOSS-52 20Oct01 1445.4ft/min
  3. HABET-L21 (ISGC/ISU) 10Oct98 1435.4ft/min
  4. NSTAR-01A (N9XTN) 14Apr01 1384.5ft/min
  5. NSTAR-02A (N9XTN) 23Feb02 1380.0ft/min

Be sure to go to the records page as this data will probably soon become outdated.

Tracking and Recovery

Pictures

Telemetry Graphs

Telemetry Files

Ascii

Spreadsheets

APRS+SA (packet program)

Street Atlas Mapdoc

  • Street Atlas V 9 Map of predicted path and actual path map at top of page, only you can zoom in on interesting events.

Ken Thompson N�ITL

Ken received a few packets in Wichita, KS. Since there are so few, I'll just post them here. However, normally I'd just archive them for the group's reference.

---begin---

W5VSI-11>APRS,ANSR <UI>:
$GPGGA,171243,3850.3151,N,10406.3306,W,1,07,1.12,28576.8,M,-22.4,M,,*45
BALNOD>K0ANI-14 <UA R F>
K0ANI-14>KI6MP-7,BALNOD* <C C P>
K0ANI-14>KI6MP-7,BALNOD* <C C P>
N6LEE>ID,W5VSI-11* <UI>:
N6LEE/R N6LEE-3/G N6LEE-1/B N6LEE-7/N
BALNOD>N6LEE <I C S1 R0>:
OSS Balloon beacon K-Node
ENTER COMMAND: B,C,J,N, or Help ?
K0ANI-14>KI6MP-7,BALNOD* <C C P>
N6LEE-15>AZNOD <C C P>
K0ANI-14>KI6MP-7,BALNOD* <C C P>
N6LEE-15>AZNOD <C C P>
W5VSI-11>BEACON <UI>:
EOSS-54 Balloon, Falcon CO; EOSS54/D EOSNOD/N; Crossband rpt 147.555 down.
W5VSI-11>BEACON <UI>:
T#028,082,126,038,133,130,00111010
W5VSI-11>APRS,ANSR <UI>:
$GPRMC,171441,A,3849.8790,N,10406.3895,W,2.697,193.9,230202,9.9,E*6F
W5VSI-11>APRS,ANSR <UI>:
$GPGGA,171443,3849.8758,N,10406.3910,W,1,07,1.11,29393.4,M,-22.4,M,,*41
W5VSI-11>EOSS <UI>:
$GPGSA,A,3,27,28,04,11,07,08,26,,,,,,1.93,1.11,1.58*04
N6LEE-15>AZNOD <C C P>
N6LEE-15>AZNOD <C C P>
BALNOD>N6LEE <RR R F R1>
BALNOD>N6LEE <I C S3 R3>:
N0KIC      02/18/02 16:30:53
N0LP       02/18/02 16:36:33
N0LNE-
BALNOD>N6LEE <RR R F R5>
BALNOD>N6LEE <D C P>
W5VSI-1>AA0P-11,EOSS54* <C C P>
N0ITL-1>GPS03,EOSS54,ANSR
$GPGGA,171655.00,3744.833,N,09715.342,W,1,06,1.2,398.4,M,-27.0,M,,*57

---end---