Flight Announcement for EOSS-194/195

Flight Coordinator: Rob Wright

LAUNCH DATE: April 12th, 2014 (wx delay +1 day)
LAUNCH TIME EOSS-194: 06:50 am MDT (12:50 UTC)
LAUNCH TIME EOSS-195: 07:10 am MDT (13:10 UTC)
LAUNCH SITE: Eaton, CO (Driving Directions to Windsor Launch 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 
  • 449.450 MHz RMRL (103.5 Hz Tone)  Primary
  • 145.295 MHz (100.0 Hz Tone)  Sterling Repeater 1st Backup
  • 145.400 MHz (123.0 Hz Tone) Colorado Connection 2nd Backup
  • 145.310 MHz (123.0 Hz Tone) Colorado Connection Front Range connection link near launch site
• Field Simplex Frequencies   
  • 446.100 MHz simplex for field recovery operations of EOSS-194
  • 446.150 MHz simplex for field recovery operations of EOSS-195
  • 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
  • AE0SS-2 voice callsign
    • 146.550 MHz
• HF - Possible ops
  • 7.235 LSB

EOSS-194 Balloon Payload Frequencies

• Beacons
  • 147.555 MHz
    • CW ID: W5VSI

• 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

• 445.975 MHz

• ID N0IX-11

EOSS-195 Balloon Payload Frequncies

• Beacons

• 147.420 MHz

• ID: K0SCC-11

• APRS

• 144.340 MHz

• ID: KC0UUO-11
• DIGI: EOSS
• 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

• 147.420

• ID: K0SCC-11

Flight Systems:   

EOSS-194

EOSS-195

Payload Configuration:

• EOSS-194_Payload_Plan_Draft_B.pdf
• EOSS-195_Payload_Plan_Draft_B.pdf

Payload Experiment Designer

CU 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 

Breakfast:

At McDonalds in Ft Morgan, CO at 05:45 MDT

Tracking and Recovery Grid 

Please make sure if you are running TrackPoint that you have �Eaton� as the launch site. If you need the information The format for this is   

Eaton,N,40,31.617,W,104,43.396,4835

 (no spaces) you should be able to copy and paste into note pad window in the launch site tab.  

Tactical Call Signs