Announcement of EOSS-130

Flight Coordinator: Marty Griffin, WA0GEH

FAA FLIGHT Certificate of Waiver or Authorization - All parties involved in flight operations please READ and be familiar with the provisions of the waiver. READ THIS to find out why.

LAUNCH DATE: July 26th, 2008 (wx +1)
LAUNCH TIME: 08:00 MDT (14:00 UTC)
LAUNCH SITE: Deer Trail, CO (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 (20:00) 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 (link may be unavailable)
  • 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 at 20:00 Local Time 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.

• Preflight Net:
  • 147.225 MHz 8 pm Local Time the evening preceding the flight
    • 145.160 MHz simulcast in the Springs
  • 146.640 MHz will serve as a backup frequency

Tracking and Recovery Team
Flight Day Breakfast

• 6:30 am MDT
• McDonalds (Google Map)
  • Airport Rd. just south of I-70

Deploy to field or launch site at 07:00 am MDT

EOSS Flight Day Frequencies:

Global Frequencies

• Tracking and Recovery Operations
  • VHF/UHF
    • North flight track: 449.450 MHz RMRL Repeater (103.5 Hz Tone) backup
    • 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.
  • HF
    • 40 meters 7.245 MHz
  • FRS Comms (tentative)
    • Channel 8
    • 467.5625 MHz

EOSS-130 Balloon Frequencies

• Beacons
  • 145.600 MHz
    • CW ID: K0ANI
• 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

• 145.600 MHz

• ID: K0ANI-11

Radio Coverage:

Green, you should be able to work the payload systems.

Red, is the border of the received signal. Red appears jittery because it is depicted topographically. Thus, the red dots on the eastern half of the map but well within the maximum distance show hilly terrain behind (east) which reception is not possible.

This is a generic 95,000 ft ASL coverage map for flights that depart from the vicinity of our launch site. Flight day coverage may vary depending on upper air winds.

Flight Systems:

EOSS-130

Payload Configuration:

• Payload_Plan_130D.pdf  

Tracking and Recovery Info: 

Grid

Tactical Callsigns

Special Note to the T&R Team

All trackers need to bring their DF equipment.  We are potentially going to be in some rough terrain and we may not see this one touch down or be close enough to get right to it.

Internet Gateway Stations:

Future I-Gaters:

EOSS is always in need of I-Gate stations. 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.