STRATOSPHERE ONLINE

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Contents

EOSS-24

On Sunday July 30th 1995 EOSS launched its 24th balloon flight since its beginning in 1991. This flight was sponsored by the Central States VHF Society. They were holding a conference in Colorado Springs starting Friday the 28th. The VHF conference was over by Sunday morning and many of them were able participate in the flight activities. The launch was from the Navsys corporation site just south of Monument CO. Navsys has let us use their facility for several launches and it is a great location with a large outdoor gazebo which has power for our ground station and also open space for launch activities.

As many of you know our present configuration is called Shuttle II. On board it has a two-meter-band command radio, amateur television, GPS, and a home-brew controller which also puts together packets to be transmitted to our ground station. Shuttle II's packet data includes GPS information, inside and outside temperatures, battery voltage, and experiment data. We have been flying GPS for about four flights with some drop outs of data. This time GPS worked 100% thanks to Jack Crabtree AA0P who has been the project lead on GPS as well as Shuttle II (see related article on GPS improvements). A new item on this flight was a Canon Snapy /LX 35 mm camera. We have flow a 35 mm camera several flights ago but that camera died and we have been looking for a replacement. One of our members Bob W6ORE remembered an article by Ken Pergola that he had used this camera with tethered balloons. Ken had a great article with all of the detail worked out and we were able to modify it in one evening. This camera has an electronic switch and it allowed us to interface it with our controller and command the camera from the ground station. The camera worked very well. Some of the pictures are smeared due to the payload spinning but we think this can be solved with faster film. We also had the Rocky Mountain Radio Leagues cross band repeater on the flight. This is a 70 cm in and 2 mtr. out repeater. I don't know the exact count but a lot of contacts were made in state and several out of state. It was a very popular activity.

The upper winds did not look good the night prior to launch. They were blowing from the east and the prediction was our package would land to the west of us back in the Rocky Mountains. The Sunday morning winds were better but still had an easterly component. The prediction indicated that it would land north of the launch site but not in the mountains so the decision was made to go ahead and fly. The surface winds were blowing from the west then the east prior to launch at 9:00 AM they were very calm and the balloon lifted almost straight up.

The upper level predictions were right and the balloon was blown back to the west above 60,000 feet. It landed a couple of miles east of Castle Rock CO. in the foothills area, and the package landed on some scrub oak and keep on working. Bob W60RE was able to copy the packet from Westminster some 30 miles away for a long time after it was on the ground. The bearing from the launch site was xx degrees and xx miles from the launch site. Two problems on the flight were, we lost the ATV antenna and the new command cut down device also lost its antenna. This gives us some challenges to work on for the next flight. The folks from the VHF Society seemed to enjoy the whole operation. Some stayed at the launch site and were able to see the balloon burst. Others went on the recovery activities and helped bring the payload back. We were happy with the operation of the GPS and the 35 mm camera. Over all it was a nice short distance flight with a calm launch, and a quick recovery with little damage to the hardware.

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EOSS flies Two Shuttle Packages early Sunday Morning May 21st! EOSS-22 & -23

USAF Academy Cadets launched a 250,000 cubic foot balloon at 6:16 A.M. and EOSS launched a 19,000 cubic foot balloon at 7:43 A.M. from the USAF Academy Parade Field.

EOSS had been trying to get a flight off since early in the year for the (UCCS) University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Also, Gil Moore (a Professor from the Academy) asked EOSS to support a flight he had planned for his a senior class of students at the Academy. He asked EOSS to provide ATV as well as help from the EOSS recovery team in finding and bringing the payloads back.

The UCCS flight had been delayed for several weeks for technical problems and semester was coming to an end for both the students at UCCS and the cadets. We discussed this with Gil Moore and made a decision to fly both on the same day from the Academy. A launch date of April 29th was set. All of the equipment was set up at the Academy in a large tent but rain and overcast would not permit a launch. We all showed up at the Academy again on Saturday but the weather still would not cooperate. We finally got good weather on Sat. May 21st and were able to get both balloons in the air on that morning. This was fortunate because we had another stretch of rainy weather for a few more weeks.

This flight for UCCS was our 22nd flight. This was a heavier pay load than we normally have and it required a larger balloon. We used a Raven 19,000 cubic foot balloon. This balloon is not made of rubber like the weather balloons we have been flying. It is made of a .035 mil plastic and does not stretch. This is the third plastic balloon that EOSS has flown and the most successful. A good part of this success was due to training and support by Norm Kjome from the Univ. of Wyoming in Laramie. Norm launches an average of a balloon a month from Laramie. He has been helping EOSS for several years. Three of us also took part in a class Norm had for Gil Moore's students at the Air Force Academy a few months ago. The experiment for EOSS-22 was built by the graduate aerospace students at UCCS. The UCCS package consisted of two experiments. The first experiment is a gas capture experiment which takes an evacuated bottle to a set altitude and opens the valve to suck in the air at that altitude. The second experiment is an ozone experiment which is an instrument that pulls in air with a small pump motor and then uses a chemical mixture to measure how much ozone is in the air. Also on board was our Shuttle II with GPS, packet, a controller board and a 2 meter command radio, also a separate package containing the two meter beacon.

The second flight was the Air Force Academy cadets. They used a 250,000 cubic ft. zero pressure balloon and its main payload was a prototype satellite built by the cadets. EOSS had two packages on this flight our Shuttle I package with ATV, packet, Loran C and a two meter command radio and the RMRL's cross band repeater. The cross band repeater was a great success with approximately 60 contacts in 8 states. This balloon was a vented balloon and it stayed at around 100,000 feet for over six hours.

Both payloads were recovered and returned to the owners. Also both groups reported that they had lots of data to analyze.

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Presidents Corner

by Merle McCaslin

Sorry about this news-letter being late. It is strictly due to lack of articles. How about some help from local members and you folks out there in other states and countries let us know about your activities!!!!!!

EOSS flies Two Shuttle Packages early Sunday Morning May 21st! USAF Academy Cadets launched a 250,000 cubic foot balloon at 6:16 A.M. and EOSS launched a 19,000 cubic foot balloon at 7:43 A.M. from the USAF Academy Parade Field.

EOSS had been trying to get a flight off since early in the year for the (UCCS) University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Also, Gil Moore (a Professor from the Academy) asked EOSS to support a flight he had planned for his students at the Academy. He asked EOSS to provide ATV as well as help from the EOSS recovery team in finding and bringing the payloads back.

The UCCS flight had been delayed for several weeks for technical problems and semester was coming to an end for both the students at UCCS and the cadets. We discussed this with Gil Moore and made a decision to fly both on the same day from the Academy. A launch date of April 29th was set. All of the equipment was set up at the Academy in a large tent but rain and overcast would not permit a launch. We all showed up at the Academy again on Saturday but the weather still would not cooperate. We finally got good weather on Sat. May 21st and were able to get both balloons in the air on that morning. This was fortunate because we had another stretch of rainy weather for a few more weeks.

This flight for UCCS was our 22nd flight. This was a heavier pay load than we normally have and it required a larger balloon. We used a Raven 19,000 cubic foot balloon. This balloon is not made of rubber like the weather balloons we have been flying. It is made of a .035 mil plastic and does not stretch. This is the third plastic balloon that EOSS has flown and the most successful one. A good part of this success was due to training and support by Norm Kjome from the Univ. of Wyoming in Laramie. Norm launches an average of a balloon a month from Laramie. He has been helping EOSS for several years. Three of us also took part in a class Norm had for Gil Moore's students at the Air Force Academy a few months ago. The experiment for EOSS-22 was built by the graduate aerospace students at UCCS. The UCCS package consisted of two experiments. The first experiment is a gas capture experiment which takes an evacuated bottle to a set altitude and opens the valve to suck in the air at that altitude. The second experiment is an ozone experiment which is an instrument that pulls in air with a small pump motor and then uses a chemical mixture to measure how much ozone is in the air. Also on board was our Shuttle II with GPS, packet, a controller board and a 2 meter command radio, and also separate package containing the two meter beacon.

The second flight was the Air Force Academy cadets. They used a 250,000 cubic ft. balloon and its main payload was a prototype satellite built by the cadets. EOSS had two packages on this flight our Shuttle I package with ATV, packet, Loran C and a two meter command radio and a cross band repeater. The cross band repeater was a great success with xxx contacts in several states. See related article for the details of these flights.

Our next flight is scheduled for Sunday 7-30-1995 from the NAVSYS corporation south of Monument Co. This is conjunction with the Central States VHF Society Convention in Colorado Spring that week.

I received a nice letter from one of our members in East Peoria, Il. Mark Kupferschmid WB9NKP of the Central Illinois Balloon Association (CIBA). The following is excerpts from his letter.

Well, last Saturday, July 1, 1995 we CIBA launched our first high- altitude balloon. Although some interference to the GPS receiver from the Uhf Beacon transmitter caused a one hour and 40 minute delay from the scheduled launch time it proved successful!

I don't have all of the specific data here in front of me at the moment, but I will tell you that the GPS indicated the balloon reached an altitude of 88,944 feet using a 1200 gram Totex balloon. Approximate straight-line distance traveled was 45 miles. All worked well and three of the DF teams actually witnessed the gentle landing in a corn field about 150 to 200 yards from the country road they were on. Corn stalk height was three feet tall, plus.

He said the payload was in excellent condition and they plan to fly again Saturday August 5, 1995 at 9:00. I have asked Mark to send us an article about their flight. Congratulation to the CIBA.

Since this news letter is late some of these items are dated. I received a second letter from Mark thanking us for the video we sent and the handbook. He said the handbook was read from cover to cover and they found it very informative and educational. He also said some very kind words about the video. He enclosed some data on CIBA second launch on August 5th from Washington IL. using a 1200 gram Totex balloon. They are flying GPS and the flight traveled 28.9 miles at a bearing of 80 degrees. The flight time was 3 hours and 20 minutes. The GPS receiver was apparently desensed by the UHF transmitter used for the cross-band repeater. The payload was fully operational and in excellent shape upon recovery. They tentatively have the next launch scheduled for September 30, 1995. Keep up the good work CIBA.

I also received a very nice letter from Ken Pergola. I had written him and told him we used the Canon camera from his article on EOSS-24. He said "it's hard to believe that the Canon Snappy LX made it up to 18 miles". He also said "it really makes me happy that you were able to make use of my Aero-Pix APS article."

The company we buy our balloons from, Kaymont Industries, Inc notified me that they are now stocking 1500 gram balloons. We have been flying the 1200 gram. This should let us get a little more altitude. All it takes is JUST A LITTLE MORE GAS.

Silent Key

The following is a message from Jeff Ryan of the Pikes Peak Region.

 

It is with great sadness that I report a silent key in the Pikes Peak Region. Malcolm Benton, KE9S, passed away on Thursday, August 17th after a long illness. A very active member of the local amateur radio community, Malcolm served on the boards of the PPRAA and the PPFMA. An ARRL member and an Official Observer, Malcom was an elmer to just about every radio amateur in the area- young and old alike. He will be greatly missed. Jeff

We will miss him.

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Centrl States VHF Society Program

by Jack Crabtree, AA0P

In April,I was asked by Ken W0ETT if EOSS would like to present a program for the Central States VHF Society Annual Conference. I replied that we would be glad to. Our President Merle, reminded me of one of my adages, he who volunteers "us," volunteers "himself" to make it happen. So I set off to put a program together that would include a paper for the proceedings, an one hour program during the conference, and an actual balloon flight on the last day of the conference.

I started a paper but due to my extensive business travel this spring, I missed the deadline to get it published in the Proceedings but I did manage to get in an abstract. The paper was titled "The Development of EOSS Shuttle II." I finally finished the paper about a week prior to the conference. I ended up printing out the paper and bringing 50 copies to the conference, which was not enough so the Society had to make more copies.

The program I put together was a modified version of the pitch I have presented at schools and club meetings. It describes what EOSS is, what we do, how we get students and schools involved and so forth. I also showed some of N0KKZ's plots of altitude, GPS, and temperature telemetry from past flights. I followed the overhead viewgraph presentation with some "show and tell" of the Shuttle II and the RMRL Repeater.

While we were putting the details of the balloon flight together, it was originally planned that a member attending the conference would put a secondary payload together. The Society being primarily weak signal SSB types of course wanted a crossband SSB translator, but as volunteer things like this go, I planned a backup - the RMRL Crossband Repeater built by Glen, WN0ENE and Bob, WB4ETT. It was good we had a backup...we flew the RMRL Repeater.

After the show and tell, I ended with a video tape which was very well received. There were about 80 or so conference attendees present during the talk and judging from the questions, it stirred up some good interest. I think this was further verified by the size of the crowd at the launch. I think you will find additional amateur radio balloon programs at future Central States Conferences.

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EOSS-24 GPS Improvements

by Jack Crabtree, AA0P

During the flight of EOSS-22 and 23, we noticed several dropouts of GPS lock and shifts into the 2-D mode. Norm Kjome of the University of Wyoming, suggested that we modify the GPS mode that is selected during the initialization of the Magellan GPS board.

The parameter is known as PMGLS and selects at what point the receiver switches to 2-D mode and at what PDOP the receiver will look for new satellites. PDOP, or Position Dilution of Precision, is the measure of position accuracy based on the geometry of the currently used GPS satellites. It is best when the four satellites used for 3-D are widely spaced and generally low on the horizon. By putting the PMGLS parameter in OBS (for obstructed), rather than INT (for interrupted), the receiver sacrifices a bit of accuracy while allowing for more less optimum satellite geometries.

Bob Schellhorn, W6ORE made the change in the receiver initialization software and this change was flown on EOSS-24. Results: not a single dropout or mode shift during the entire flight. Considering the dynamics experienced just after balloon burst, we consider this change a permanent fix for some of our previous problems with GPS lock. Thanks again to Norm Kjome for pointing out the solution.

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