Recap of EOSS-79a/79b

LAUNCH DATE: June 19, 2004

• EOSS-79A LAUNCH TIME: 07:30 am MDT (13:30 UTC)
• EOSS-79B LAUNCH TIME: 08:29 am MDT (14:29 UTC)

LAUNCH SITE: Windsor, Co (Directions)

EOSS-79A Track

Maps made with MapPoint
Prediction made with Balloon Track

Launch Site - Windsor
-----------------------
Launch Point: 40.4737� lat.   -104.9623� long.
Ascent Rate: 1000 feet per minute
Descent Rate: 910 feet per minute
Altitude: 4931 feet
Predicted Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 40.8433� lat.  -103.9362� long.
Altitude: 4501 feet
Flight Time: 131 Minutes
Bearing: 64.3� True
Range: 59.5 Mi.
Actual Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 40.7385� lat.  -104.0665� long.
Bearing: 68.4� True
Range: 50.4 Mi.
Difference from Predicted to Actual Landing Site
--------------------------------------------------
Bearing: 223.3� True
Range: 9.9 Mi.

EOSS-79B Track

Maps made with MapPoint
Prediction made with Balloon Track

Launch Site - Windsor
-----------------------
Launch Point: 40.4737� lat.   -104.9623� long.
Ascent Rate: 1000 feet per minute
Descent Rate: 910 feet per minute
Altitude: 4931 feet
Predicted Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 40.8433� lat.  -103.9362� long.
Altitude: 4501 feet
Flight Time: 131 Minutes
Bearing: 64.3� True
Range: 59.5 Mi.
Actual Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 40.7723� lat.  -103.8169� long.
Bearing: 70.7� True
Range: 63.5 Mi.
Difference from Predicted to Actual Landing Site
--------------------------------------------------
Bearing: 128.1� True
Range: 7.9 Mi.

EOSS Frequencies:

Global Frequencies

• Preflight Net:
  • 147.225 MHz 8 pm MDT preceding Friday night
    • 145.160 MHz simulcast in the Springs
  • 146.640 MHz will serve as a backup frequency
• Tracking and Recovery Operations
  • 449.450 MHz RMRL Repeater (103.5 Hz tone)
  • 146.550 MHz simplex (same simplex for field and launch ops)
  • Repeater Coverage Spreadsheet - Benjie has created this spreadsheet that shows many of the repeaters in the expected recovery area.
  • There may be FRS operations see THIS PAGE for a list of channel numbers and their associated UHF Frequencies.
  • 7.228 MHz HF

EOSS-79 A (Primary EOSS system)

• Beacon
  • 147.555 MHz
    • ID: W5VSI in CW
• APRS
  • 144.340 MHz
    • ID: W5VSI-11
  • 144.390 MHz
    • ID: AC0AK-11

EOSS-79 B (Montana State University)

• APRS
  • 145.600 MHz (Kenwood D7)
    • ID: KD7NPX-11
  • 445.975 MHz (TinyTrack3)
    • ID: KD7NPX-10

Flight Systems:

EOSS-79A

EOSS-79B

Payload Configuration:

• Payload_Plan_79AB_Rev2.pdf

EOSS Grid:

Tactical Callsigns:

Internet Gateway Stations:

as seen on Findu.Com

For W5VSI-11

• K0YG-7 - Mark Patton
• KI0KN - James Cizek

For KD7NPX-11

• K0YG-7 - Mark Patton
• K0UT-3 - Bill Beach

EOSS wishes to express our sincere appreciation to those stations above who iGated the balloon APRS telemetry onto the internet.

We are relying heavily on real time position information available on the net to allow the FAA controllers to have up to the minute location data to assist them in air traffic control.

The redundant stations for the balloon provide excellent coverage. If you go to findu.eoss.org and enter in the callsigns of any of EOSS's APRS payload systems to retrieve the raw position data you will note that many of these stations contribute to the flow of information. In the event of a station dropping out momentarily, the others pick up the slack quite nicely.

Thanks again guys! The FAA (and EOSS) are very grateful for your assistance in this endeavor.

Just to give credit where credit is due:

• Findu.com Log of W5VSI-11
• Findu.com Log of KD7NPX-11

Open these files and see how each i-gate station contributed to the FAA reporting for EOSS-76. The i-Gate is the last call sign before the actual packet APRS data.

Photos:

Launch Site

• Photos by Nick Hanks, N�LP
• Photos by Mike Harrod, N8BHP

Landing Sites

• Photos by Jim Zimmerman, K�JLZ and Richard Beggs, K�AEM
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
• Photos by Marty Griffin, WA�GEH
• Photos by Jim Langsted, KC�RPS
  • EOSS-79a
  • EOSS-79b

Video:

• EOSS79_ac0ak_landing.mpg

Audio:

• Pre-flight (4 MBytes)
• Launch of EOSS-79A (5.3 MBytes) - starts just prior to 79A launch
• Launch of EOSS-79B (3.7 MBytes) - starts just prior to 79B launch
• Touchdown of EOSS-79A (7.1 MBytes) - starts just prior to 79A landing
• Touchdown of EOSS-79B (1.1 MBytes) - starts just prior to 79B landing
• Recovery Operations (4 MBytes) - Recovery of both balloons

Data:

Plain Text Logs

These log files contain a concatenation of multiple log files from multiple sources.

The log for eoss-79b is taken strictly from Findu.com as it adds the timestamp missing in a Kenwood D7 packet. This time stamp is based on the time of packet arrival at Findu.com, not the GPS time the position data was taken. So, accuracy is degraded. But, the time stamp is still a good indication to base time intervals between packets used in determining various rates between packets.

Ground Station Log (contains both 79A and 79B)

• EOSS79_GndStaLog.txt

EOSS-79A

• eoss79a_vsi_gps_only.txt - File used to generate flight spread sheet below.
• eoss79a_n0kkz_base_packet_2004_06_19.log - Full received telemetry at N0KKZ, all data in chronological order including telemetry packets.
• eoss79a_findu_ac0ak-11.txt - As relayed from 144.390 MHz, this is interesting as you will note iGates from surrounding states.

EOSS-79B

• eoss79b_findu_KD7NPX-11.txt

Comma Delimited Spread Sheet Files

There are two versions of the data for EOSS-79B. The first is the more complete record as obtained from all our iGate stations via Findu.com. The second, while less complete is the data captured at my home QTH (N�KKZ). The time stamps might be slightly more accurate as they are generated immediately upon packet arrival via RF. Findu packets are time stamped by the arrival of packets to the APRS servers on the internet (a slight delay). My computers update their internal clocks every 10 minutes from NIST and the timestamps are created by the computers, not the APRS system within the balloon borne Kenwood D7.

EOSS-79A

• eoss79a_vsi_gps_only.csv - Position Data
• eoss79a_Telem_Data_2004_06_19.csv - Telemetry Data

EOSS-79B

• eoss79b_findu_KD7NPX-11.csv - Position data on findu
• eoss79B_KD7NPX-11_direct.csv - direct at N�KKZ

Recaps:

Marty's letter to the Land Owners!

Benjie Campbell's recap

The webmaster's and flight trajectory forecaster's recap. - Two hats, one guy.

Notes:

Our Customers

EOSS-79 supports the NASA Space Grant BalloonSat Workshop, an event sponsored by Colorado Space Grant annually since 2002, where faculty from other NASA Space Grant colleges all over the US come to learn how to set up and teach a course like CU's one-semester undergrad "Gateway to Space". Attendees are teamed up to design and build BalloonSats from kits, not unlike the ones that the Gateway students do.

BalloonSats are typically 10 cm cubes weighing up to 600 gm (1.32#) each with vertical thru-tube flight string attachments. Each carries a still camera with a shutter timer and another experiment that gets logged by an on-board Hobo.

This year, Chris had some 43 attendees sign up in January. There have been a few last-minute cancellations, however. So until I hear further from Chris, we're planning on flying a total of 8 BalloonSats on EOSS-79 -- 4 on each of two strings.

EOSS-79A will be operated by EOSS, while EOSS-79B will be managed by Mt. State U. EOSS will handle FAA reporting for both, and will help out on tracking and recovery as required.

In order to minimize logistics issues with getting students from launch to recovery, Chris Koehler would prefer to launch both balloons simultaneously. But the FAA says that's OK only if we get 'em both on the deck by 0930; any later than that, we'll have to space the lauches by 40 minutes to avoid having two balloons in heavy arrival airspace at the same time.
 

HF Radio

Usually starts 30 minutes, frequency posted above