Flight Announcement for EOSS-18 7

Flight Coordinator: None

LAUNCH DATE: June 8th, 2013 (wx delay +1 day)
LAUNCH TIME EOSS-187: 7:10 am MDT (13:10 UTC)
LAUNCH SITE: Deer Trail, CO (driving directions to Deer TrailLaunch Site)

EOSS Flight Day Frequencies:

Tracking and Recovery Frequencies

Preflight Net:

• 147.225 MHz (107.2 HZ Tone) CRA Repeater, 8 pm MDT preceding night 
• 146.940 MHz (103.5 HZ Tone) RMRL Repeater if the CRA machine is down
• 146.640 MHz will serve as a backup frequency

Tracking and Recovery Operations  

• Front Range and out east 
  • 448.450 MHz PPFMA (100 Hz Tone)
• Field Simplex Frequencies   
  • 446.100 MHz simplex for field recovery operations for EOSS-187
  • 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.
  • 146.550 MHz Backup field simplex
• 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.

Ground Stations Frequencies

• Launch Site Simplex
  • 146.550 MHz
• HF - Possible ops
  • 7.235 LSB

EOSS-187 Balloon Payload Frequencies  

Beacons

• 147.420 MHz
  • CW ID: K0SCC-11

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

• 147.420 MHz 

• ID: K0SCC-11
• slotted 15 and 45 after the minute

Flight Systems: 

EOSS-187

Payload Configuration: 

• EOSS-187_Payload_Plan_REV_G.doc

Payload Experiment Designer

Space Grant Consortium Demosats

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 Operations

The T&R Coordinator's Notes:

Hello Trackers!

Thanks to everyone for stepping up to this annual SHOT adventure. We will be flying only one, very heavy 3000 gram balloon.

We once again have a great crew and I am sure we will be successful. For this flight we will be joined by an aircraft from the EDGE group in Monument (David Patterson). The aircraft is deployed to take some interesting pictures and video and can be called upon for tracking assistance if needed. It will be designated �Air One�. Wasn�t there a movie? � never mind. Thanks to EDGE for this fun.

As per our new protocol, tactical Bravo is the backup Alpha for this flight. I will not be able to make the flight on Sunday, so Chris, KB0YRZ has agreed to run any required Sunday flight as Alpha. Thanks Chris!

Some trackers will advance to the launch site where there will be some breakfast bagels. At this time, there is no plan for a breakfast meeting place. Mark and I will be traveling from the Denver area directly to the predicted landing site. We will hook up with trackers in the field. The predictions are trending to about 15 miles WSW of Punkin Center. We have been here before and it is a road less world for 15 mile stretches. Be sure to fill up with gas Friday night, bring water and munchies.

The pre-flight net will again be hosted by John, KC0L at 8:00 on Friday. He did a great job last flight and is joining us again, traveling up from Texas. Thanks to John for running the net. Let�s all give him our support.

The net will be on the 147.225 machine as usual.

Operations: We have permission to use the PPFMA 448.450 machine, PL 100.0 for this tracking and recovery effort. (Thanks Don, WA9WWS) This machine should carry us to the east as far as we need to go.

Tracking and Recovery Grid

Tactical Call Signs