Flight Announcement for EOSS-168-169-170

Flight Announcement for EOSS-168/169/170

Flight Coordinator: Russ Chadwick

LAUNCH DATE: Sept. 10th, 2011 (wx delay +7 day)
LAUNCH TIMES:

• EOSS-168 06:50 am MST (12:50 UTC)
• EOSS-169 07:10 am MST (13:10 UTC)
• EOSS-170 07:30 am MST (13:30 UTC)

LAUNCH SITE: Genoa, CO (Click Here for directions)

EOSS Flight Day Frequencies:

Tracking and Recovery Frequencies

• Preflight Net:
  • 147.225 MHz 8 pm MDT preceding night
  • 146.640 MHz will serve as a backup frequency
• Tracking and Recovery Operations
  • 449.450 MHz (100 Hz Tone) RMRL Machine
  • 147.060 MHz (103.5 Hz Tone) Genoa Repeater 
  • Field Simplex Frequencies
    • 446.050 MHz simplex for field recovery operations EOSS-168/169
    • 446.100 MHz simplex forfield recovery operations EOSS-170
      • Note: Some radios insist on incorrectly placing a negative 5 MHz offset when selecting frequencies from the simplex portion of the 70 CM band. Check your radio and if this is the case. Consider programming in this simplex frequency to a memory channel as some radios have demonstrated the annoying habit of re-inserting the offset if you momentarily shift to a repeater then return to the simplex freq. Check the operation of your radio on this simplex freq to be ready for however your radio behaves.
  • Repeater Coverage Pages - Listings of all repeaters available in the expected flight areas.
  • There may be FRS operations see THIS PAGE for a list of channel numbers and their associated UHF Frequencies.
• Launch Site Simplex
  • 146.550 MHz

 

EOSS-168 Balloon Payload Frequencies

• Beacons
  • 147.555 MHz
    • CW ID: AE0SS
• APRS
  • 144.340 MHz
    • ID: AE�SS-11
    • DIGI: EOSS
    • Node: BALNOD
    • APRS Time Slotted Every 30 seconds at 0:00 and 0:30
      • power up at 58 seconds past the GPS minute to properly slot telemetry
    • Telemetry once a minute
    • Sample Data

EOSS-169 Balloon Payload Frequencies

• Beacons
  • 145.600 MHz
    • CW ID: W5VSI
• 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

EOSS-170 Balloon Payload Frequencies

• Beacons
  • 147.420 MHz
    • 30 second beacon 30 second off with APRS burst
    • ID:K0SCC in CW
  • 445.975 MHz
    • ID: N0IX in CW
    • 30 seconds on every 2 minutes
• APRS
  • 147.420 MHz
    • ID: K0SCC-11

 

Video Might Be available, check http://www.eoss.tv

Various Online Live Tracking Pages

Flight Systems:

EOSS-168

EOSS-169

EOSS-170

Payload Configuration: 

• Payload_Plan_168_RevC.pdf
• Payload_Plan_169_RevB.pdf
• Payload_Plan_170_RevA.pdf

Payload Experiment Designer

NOAA AirCores (heavy and "lite")

Experimenters are welcome to submit websites for linking or overviews which I will post on a page on the EOSS website.

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.

Tracking and Recovery  

Breakfast

• McDonalds in Limon Colorado
• 5:30 am to 6 am - If you want breakfast, trackers will meet at McDonald's Limon between 05:30 and 06:00. Plan to leave for the recovery at 6:00 for a 6:50 first launch. This is a weird flight, 30 miles to the WEST!. Trackers should meet at breakfast site or in the predicted landing area. Mark and I may bypass breakfast and go directly to the predicted landing area.

Alpha News

EOSS 168, and 169 be heavy 3000 gm balloons. EOSS 170 will be a 2000 gm balloon and will launch last (thus the number scheme!) at about 7:30. Bring food and water as well as cash for gas!

We welcome back WG0E, Colin who offered to "Zulu" the EOSS 170 flight (Zulu, last flight, get it?). He will be sharing the main freqs with the other flights, but will use 446.100 for simplex to recover EOSS 170.

Nice group for these flights! Thanks for coming out on this nice weekend. NOAA really appreciates this effort.

Grid   

Location	Grid X	Grid Y
Punkin Center Rd (SR 94 and SR 71)	40	10
Test Coordinates   39.25� N  x  -103.25� W	64	37.4

   

 

Tactical Call Signs

Tactical	Callsign	Name	Notes
Alpha	WA0GEH, KC0D	Marty, Mark	Tracking and Recovery Coordinator
Bravo	K0SCC	Steve, Parker	Trackers
Charlie	W9CN, KD4JIT	Mike and Miles	Trackers
Delta	KC0RPS	Jim	Trackers
Echo	KC0ZIE, KG6HXM	Darren Sam and Annie	Trackers
Foxtrot	WB0DKT, KB6OKA	Glenn and Edna	Trackers
Golf	N0NDM	Larry	Launch Coord and Tracker
Hotel	KB0YRZ	Chris +1	Trackers
India	KB0UBZ	Ben	Tracker
Juliet	KC0UUO, N0IX	Rob, Doug	President and minion
Zulu	WG0E	Colin +1	Tracking and Recovery Coordinator for EOSS-170