Announcement of EOSS-113

LAUNCH DATE:  November 11,2006
LAUNCH TIME: 7:30 am MST (14:30 UTC) 
LAUNCH SITE: Windsor, CO (Driving Directions)

Pre-Flight Information

On Air Nets

Check into the weekly EOSS net every Tuesday evening, except the 2nd Tuesday of the month when we hold our face to face meetings.

• Tuesdays at 8 PM Local time
  • 147.225 MHz 107.2 Hz tone CRA Repeater (Denver)
  • 145.460 MHz 107.2 Hz tone CRA Repeater (Boulder) manual link required
  • 145.160 MHz 107.2 Hz tone CRA Repeater (Colorado Springs) full time link active
  • 146.640 MHz backup DRL Repeater (Denver only)

Pre-Flight Coordination Net

The evening prior to flight we hold a coordination net to assign the grid information and tactical callsigns. Any last minute information, launch time changes, launch location changes, maybe even a cancellation will be announced on this net.

A net will be held Friday night to spread the word of a 1 day delay, the regular net will happen on Saturday night at 8:00 PM MDT.

• Preflight Net:
  • 147.225 MHz 107.2 Hz tone CRA Repeater
  • 146.640 MHz backup DRL Repeater (Denver only)

Tracking and Recovery Team
Flight Day Breakfast

• 6:30 am McDonald's in Ft Morgan south of I-76 at exit 80
  • Google Map of this spot

EOSS Flight Day Frequencies:

HF Frequencies

• 7.235 MHz + QRM
  • net control - KB0LP, Dave Galpin
  • start probably 30 minutes prior to launch

Global Frequencies

• Tracking and Recovery Operations
  • 449.450 MHz RMRL Repeater (100 Hz Tone)
  • 146.550 MHz simplex (for both field ops and the launch site)
  • Repeater Coverage Pages - Listings of all repeaters available in the expected flight areas.

Balloon Frequencies

Preliminary

• Beacon
  • 147.555 MHz
    • ID: AE0SS (CW)
• APRS
  • 144.340 MHz
    • ID: KC0YA-11
    • DIGI: EOSS
    • Node: BALND2
    • APRS Time Slotted Every 30 seconds at 0:15 and 0:45
      • power up at 13 seconds past the GPS minute to properly slot telemetry
    • Telemetry once a minute
    • Sample Data

Flight Systems:

Payload Configuration:

• Payload_Plan_113d.pdf

Tracking and Recovery Info:

(Posted the day prior to flight)

Grid

Location	X	Y
West Junct. of SR-14 and SR-71	45	35
Peetz	75	59.3
Otis	82.6	3
Roggin	8	4.5

 

Tactical Callsigns

Tactical	Callsign	Name	Notes
Alpha	N0MPM and WA0GEH	Mike and Marty	Tracking and Recovery Coordinator
Bravo	KC0SOW, W0CBH  and N0NDM	Marcia, Benjie and Larry
Charlie	KB0URZ and WG0E	Chris and Colin
Delta	KC0RPS	Jim and Darren
Echo	KC0VJE	Louis
Foxtrot	KB0QQW	Chris and Caleb
Golf	K0SCC	Steve, Daryl and Whitney
Hotel	AE0SS	Nick	Ground Station

Internet Gateway Stations:

Future I-Gaters:

Check out the EOSS I-Gate page for information on how to participate and why we need you.

Current I-Gate Station:

If you are present at your iGate during the flight try and monitor the tracking and recovery frequency. The ground station likes to check the frequency prior to launch to find out if any stations are out there ready to igate the traffic onto the net for the FAA to monitor.

The prediction program used to determine the track of the balloon prior to flight can now output a prediction for the Rise, Closest Approach, and Set of the balloon for each of your stations. I have posted a prediction page for stations that I have been able to discover geographic coordinates. See the I-Gate prediction page for an example. The page will not be updated daily, however, it will be updated the evening prior to flight for I-gate planning purposes.

I have often been asked by iGaters when they should expect to either start receiving signals (AOS) or expect to see those signals disappear (LOS). This prediction page should answer all those questions for you.

Your Log Files

Our technical committee members would also request you open a log file and record all the packets you hear and forward onto APRS-IS. Whenever there is a technical failure of a package it is always helpful to have the most complete dataset possible to attempt to determine the cause of failure and possible fixes. After a flight send your data files to me (webmaster) and I will distribute them to the appropriate payload builders. They appreciate these logs even if all goes fine during a flight.

Customer

Colorado University Gateways program

note: customers are welcome to submit detailed synopses of their flights or web links to their own web sites.