From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Jan 13 14:47:43 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:47:43 -0600 Subject: [BLT] BLT January Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - 5:30 PM References: Message-ID: BLT Team! Last month we checked out Charlie's (K5ENG) plots of velocity vs. time, based on GPS data from BLT-24. We also discussed progress on the BLT-24 DVD by Tom K5SAF. BLT-25? How about a primary date of August 22nd with a back-up date of August 29th? Are you interested and ready? We have a lot to talk about this month! BLT January Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - 5:30PM Chili's - 1040 West Belt North, Houston, TX 77043 NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8 C U There! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Thu Jan 15 13:14:16 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:14:16 -0600 Subject: [BLT] FW: Swapfest this Saturday!! Message-ID: FYI--------- ________________________________ From: Friesenhahn, Randy [mailto:randy.friesenhahn at ips.invensys.com] Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 1:11 PM To: MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU]; craig281 at earthlink.net; clavus83627 at mypacks.net Cc: bj at bejay.org; HL at HP.com Subject: RE: Swapfest this Saturday!! ... or is it HQRP weekend??? QST QST net message to follow Priority, high Andy and the Group!! Okay I have confirmed the following information Hourly drawing prizes to be given away by HARS and ICOM Additional small prizes such as hats and shirt to be added Small Prizes Quantity =4 ICOM V8 Sport hand held 2 M transceivers Runner UP Prize Quantity = 1 ICOM IC91AD hand held dual band D-Star transceiver Grand Prize Quantity = 1 ICOM ID-800H mobile dual band D-Star transceiver. 15 to 20 tail-gater sellers are expected this year Andy most important!!!! Gourmet HOT DOGS!! From George and Magnolia fine Meats Not the cheap franks these are the good ones. With this information I will be there early to check the place out and see what going on. Hope to see you guys there! Please pass this message on to the group 73 KA5IIA Randy ________________________________ From: Friesenhahn, Randy [mailto:randy.friesenhahn at ips.invensys.com] Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:04 AM Subject: Swapfest this Saturday!! ... or is it HQRP weekend??? HI guys: Well guess what its this Saturday! I am just passing this one on to the group for the FYI files. Randy >From the Texas hams reflector, thanks to Brian KA5BKG: Hi, everyone: This Saturday, January 17, Houston Amateur Radio Supply will host its annual swapfest in the parking lot where it's been held in the past. Also, there will be representatives from ICOM, and there will probably be drawings for hourly prizes and a grand prize (I don't know what it will be). There will be free hot dogs, chips, and sodas. When I talked to Charley at HARS, he said that ICOM's advertising budget had been slashed and so there won't be any post cards announcing this event, and he asked me to help put the word out about this swapfest. HARS can be reached: (281)355-7373 (800)471-7373 http://www.texasparadise.com/hars/ From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Wed Jan 28 16:24:27 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:24:27 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Anyone successfully using the Elcom USB uTNT V3.0 TNC-GPS?? Message-ID: During the Houston AMSAT Net last night, KC9MFQ brought up some questions about the Elcom USB uTNT V3.0 combo TNC-GPS unit with Bluetooth and USB connectivity. This is a very small and rather interesting unit from Greece ( http://www.elcomresearch.com ), but it seems a bit cryptic to use. Have any of you successfully operated one of these? Thanks, Andy W5ACM From rhiller at sdicgm.com Tue Feb 3 09:33:37 2009 From: rhiller at sdicgm.com (Rick Hiller) Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 09:33:37 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Again -- 2009 Greater Houston Hamfest March 7th, 2009 Message-ID: <008201c98614$c8c918e0$5a5b4aa0$@com> The presentations schedule web link got cut off on the first try, sorry....Rick ======================================== Hello, all, FYI, for those in the Houston and surrounding areas. Should be a good time with over 700 folks attending. Note that 4 of the speakers are from within the local Houston area AMSAT and QRP groups. Andy W5ACM, Ken KD2KW, Ken N5VHO and Rick W5RH. Schedule is at: http://users.hal-pc.org/~bvarc/2009%20GHH%20Speaker%20Schedule%202009.01.27. pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- GREATER HOUSTON HAMFEST www.houstonhamfest.org Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009 Time: 8AM to 2PM -- registration begins at 7 AM Location: Ft. Bend County Fairgrounds, Rosenberg, TX About 30 miles S/W of downtown Houston Food: Light breakfast and lunch will be available. Admission: $5, Children under 14 free. Each paid admission receives 1 free raffle ticket* Over 120 tables will be available for fleamarket-type tables. Pre-registration for sellers allows choice of tables ahead of time and free power (500W) if requested at time of pre-registration. Tailgating: This year free tailgating is introduced. There is plenty of room at the fairgrounds for this. Buyers will have early access to tailgate sellers before main hall opens at 8 A.M. (Sorry, only service animals allowed.) Raffle (2009): Grand Prize - Yaesu FT-450-AT Drawings for other prizes approximately every 15 minutes. Winning numbers of prizes will be posted until the Grand Prize drawing at which time the unclaimed numbers will be redrawn. VE (Ham radio) Testing - Registration for testing will begin at 8AM. Actual testing will commence at 9AM with another session beginning at 10:30. Other testing will be scheduled as demand warrants. ARRL AREC certification testing will be at 11:00. You will need a photo ID, a copy of your existing Amateur Radio License (if upgrading) and $15. Testing is on-site in the Sheriff Department Training Classroom just inside the front gate. For more information contact John Moore, kk5nu, jwm at hal-pc.org (713-481-4107). Programs and Featured Presentations (2009): Featured Speaker: David Woolweaver, Director of ARRL Southwest Division Various technical, operational and other informative lectures are scheduled. The final schedule is available at www.houstonhamfest.org From rhiller at sdicgm.com Tue Feb 3 09:03:00 2009 From: rhiller at sdicgm.com (Rick Hiller) Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 09:03:00 -0600 Subject: [BLT] 2009 Greater Houston Hamfest March 7th, 2009 Message-ID: <006c01c98610$816490a0$842db1e0$@com> Hello, all, FYI, for those in the Houston and surrounding areas. Should be a good time with over 700 folks attending. Note that 4 of the speakers are from within the local Houston area AMSAT and QRP groups. Andy W5ACM, Ken KD2KW, Ken N5VHO and Rick W5RH. Schedule is at http://users.hal-pc.org/~bvarc/2009%20GHH%20Speaker%20Schedule%202009.01.27. pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- GREATER HOUSTON HAMFEST www.houstonhamfest.org Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009 Time: 8AM to 2PM -- registration begins at 7 AM Location: Ft. Bend County Fairgrounds, Rosenberg, TX About 30 miles S/W of downtown Houston Food: Light breakfast and lunch will be available. Admission: $5, Children under 14 free. Each paid admission receives 1 free raffle ticket* Over 120 tables will be available for fleamarket-type tables. Pre-registration for sellers allows choice of tables ahead of time and free power (500W) if requested at time of pre-registration. Tailgating: This year free tailgating is introduced. There is plenty of room at the fairgrounds for this. Buyers will have early access to tailgate sellers before main hall opens at 8 A.M. (Sorry, only service animals allowed.) Raffle (2009): Grand Prize - Yaesu FT-450-AT Drawings for other prizes approximately every 15 minutes. Winning numbers of prizes will be posted until the Grand Prize drawing at which time the unclaimed numbers will be redrawn. VE (Ham radio) Testing - Registration for testing will begin at 8AM. Actual testing will commence at 9AM with another session beginning at 10:30. Other testing will be scheduled as demand warrants. ARRL AREC certification testing will be at 11:00. You will need a photo ID, a copy of your existing Amateur Radio License (if upgrading) and $15. Testing is on-site in the Sheriff Department Training Classroom just inside the front gate. For more information contact John Moore, kk5nu, jwm at hal-pc.org (713-481-4107). Programs and Featured Presentations (2009): Featured Speaker: David Woolweaver, Director of ARRL Southwest Division Various technical, operational and other informative lectures are scheduled. The final schedule is available at www.houstonhamfest.org From w5acm at swbell.net Fri Feb 6 00:04:11 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 00:04:11 -0600 Subject: [BLT] BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 21, 2009 - 5:30 PM Message-ID: [BLT] BLT November Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, November 12,2008 - 5:30 PMBLT Team! Last month we discussed plans for BLT-25 and the upcoming BSA balloon launch from Navasota. We have some schedule conflicts this month (Guess What - Valentine's Day!), and will be moving the BLT Dinner from the second Wednesday of the month to the THIRD Wednesday. Be sure to mark your calendars and get ready! BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 21, 2008 - 5:30PM Chili's - 1040 West Belt North, Houston, TX 77043 NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8 C U There! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From w5acm at swbell.net Fri Feb 6 00:09:49 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 00:09:49 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Correction - BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 21, 2009 - 5:30 PM Message-ID: <9D3C0B7E7A104BA09F04D2236F306B8E@w5acmathlon> BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 21, 2009 - 5:30 PM BLT Team! Last month we discussed plans for BLT-25 and the upcoming BSA balloon launch from Navasota. We have some schedule conflicts this month (Guess What - Valentine's Day!), and will be moving the BLT Dinner from the second Wednesday of the month to the THIRD Wednesday. Be sure to mark your calendars and get ready! BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 21, 2008 - 5:30PM Chili's - 1040 West Belt North, Houston, TX 77043 NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8 C U There! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From w5acm at swbell.net Sun Feb 8 00:43:29 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 00:43:29 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Further Correction - BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 18th Message-ID: <498DAAF659E8410C8B22E310A2A5BA2D@w5acmathlon> It really helps to refer to the correct calendar when making schedules... As one reader noted, "Feb 21 2009 is a saturday." THEREFORE, MY APOLOGIES FOR THE CONFUSION, AND WE'LL TRY THIS AGAIN! BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 5:30 PM BLT Team! Last month we discussed plans for BLT-25 and the upcoming BSA balloon launch from Navasota. We have some schedule conflicts this month , and will be moving the BLT Dinner from the second Wednesday of the month to the THIRD Wednesday. Be sure to mark your calendars and get ready! BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 18, 2008 - 5:30PM Chili's - 1040 West Belt North, Houston, TX 77043 NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8 C U There! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Feb 17 16:03:32 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:03:32 -0600 Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner-Meeting Reminder Message-ID: BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 5:30 PM BLT Team! Last month we discussed plans for BLT-25 and the upcoming BSA balloon launch from Navasota (on hold for now). We have some schedule conflicts this month, and will be moving the BLT Dinner from the second Wednesday of the month to the THIRD Wednesday. Be sure to mark your calendars and get ready! BLT February Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, February 18, 2008 - 5:30PM Chili's - 1040 West Belt North, Houston, TX 77043 NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8 C U There! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Mar 10 14:20:18 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:20:18 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT March Dinner-Meeting Message-ID: BLT March Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 5:30 PM BLT Team! Last month we discussed the BLT-24 results and plans for BLT-25. Pete KD5ELH is evaluating the BLT-24 video from Tom K5SAF. Pete will be processing the video for a final DVD for distribution. We also discussed payload stability methods for BLT-25 and a possible 2M up and 10M down repeater. Interest was also shown for a BLT-25 T-Shirt. Ron KE5WAM has provided us with an update on the UT satellite program. We flew the engineering model of BEVO-1 last year. We may have an opportunity to fly some BEVO-2 experiments on BLT-25: ----------------------------------------------- Andy, We delivered BEVO-1 to JSC on March 2, and it is now at Kennedy Space Center awaiting installation in the Endeavour orbiter sometime this week. We are still waiting for the completion of the battery testing and the approval of the Payload Safety Review Panel, which has to happen before installation. Currently STS-127 is scheduled to launch June 13, and BEVO-1 and AggieSat2 will be ejected the on the next-to-last day of the flight. If the Hubble repair mission is postponed or canceled, our launch date would move up to May 15. We ended up using the radio we used for BLT-24 for the flight vehicle. Our long-promised simplex radio could not receive from our ground station due to a hardware incompatibility, so we found a VHF PCB antenna to use with our flight-tested KatySat duplex radio. The PCB antenna was built by Kent Britain; we don't know if it will work in orbit, so we also added an autonomous mode to our flight software that uses position and velocity vectors from the GPS receiver to calculate when it will be over a ground station. Then it will just start transmitting the mission data. It will also listen at the same time, and execute any commands it receives. We may try to enlist HAM operator help to collect data packets; anyone in the lower 48 states (as well as parts of Canada and Mexico) should be able to hear the data coming down. We will try to have something to fly on BLT-25, but we may be too busy with BEVO-1 operations. It sure would be fun to do a flight with you guys this summer! All the best, Ron ----------------------------------------------- BLT March Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 5:30PM Chili's - 1040 West Belt North, Houston, TX 77043 NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8 C U There! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Thu Apr 2 15:59:57 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2009 15:59:57 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: ARBONET Balloon Launch April 11 Message-ID: NE Texas Balloon! This Saturday. http://www.arbonet.net/ From kg5ai at comcast.net Sat Apr 4 11:51:44 2009 From: kg5ai at comcast.net (Myles Barkman) Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2009 11:51:44 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: ARBONET Balloon Launch April 11 References: Message-ID: <871E75371239454083DE9EE01DA90738@Office> Unfortunately, looks like the site has been hacked. The main page is gone but the info on the 4/11 launch can be viewed on this page: http://www.arbonet.net/blog/ Myles KG5AI ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 3:59 PM Subject: [BLT] FW: ARBONET Balloon Launch April 11 > NE Texas Balloon! > > > > This Saturday. > > > > http://www.arbonet.net/ > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Mon Apr 6 10:04:23 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 10:04:23 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: FW: ARBONET Balloon Launch April 11 Message-ID: True! ARBONET: Amateur Radio Balloons Over North East Texas New Launch Date will be: April 11, 2009 -----Original Message----- From: richard allen Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 6:52 PM To: MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU] Subject: Re: [BLT] FW: ARBONET Balloon Launch April 11 Next Saturday, I believe ... W5SXD wrote: (04/02/2009 15:59) >NE Texas Balloon! > >http://www.arbonet.net/ > From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Mon Apr 6 22:27:36 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 22:27:36 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT April Dinner-Meeting Message-ID: BLT April Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - 5:30PM Chili's - 1040 West Belt North, Houston, TX 77043 NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8 This will be your opportunity to define what flies on BLT-25. We will begin regular BLT "working" meetings at the Secret Sugar Land BLT Lab in May. A complete schedule will be available soon! C U There! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Wed Apr 8 15:26:53 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 15:26:53 -0500 Subject: [BLT] ARBONET-III Launch Scrubbed! Message-ID: The Easter weekend caused too many conflicts, so the ARBONET group will reschedule Launch: April 11th Launch Scrubbed * Forecast Weather indicates T-storms and IFR conditions for Eastern Texas for Saturday as the jet steam once again snakes its way east from the west coast with?associated low pressure, likely?bringing more wind and rain to the flight area * The Easter Holiday made several key resources unavailable * New Launch date TBD, but likey mid May early June. Stay tuned to this web site and the Yahoo! ARBONET groups for?future updates and scheduling http://www.arbonet.net From charles.keng at universalensco.com Wed Apr 8 15:33:33 2009 From: charles.keng at universalensco.com (Charles Keng) Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 15:33:33 -0500 Subject: [BLT] ARBONET-III Launch Scrubbed! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: surprise ... SURPRISE . . . SURPRISE -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 3:27 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] ARBONET-III Launch Scrubbed! The Easter weekend caused too many conflicts, so the ARBONET group will reschedule Launch: April 11th Launch Scrubbed * Forecast Weather indicates T-storms and IFR conditions for Eastern Texas for Saturday as the jet steam once again snakes its way east from the west coast with?associated low pressure, likely?bringing more wind and rain to the flight area * The Easter Holiday made several key resources unavailable * New Launch date TBD, but likey mid May early June. Stay tuned to this web site and the Yahoo! ARBONET groups for?future updates and scheduling http://www.arbonet.net _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From benw at cvctx.com Wed Apr 8 16:07:12 2009 From: benw at cvctx.com (Ben Worrell) Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:07:12 -0400 Subject: [BLT] Fwd: Re: ARBONET-III Launch Scrubbed! Message-ID: <20090408170712.ytal9qcaed8gs88g@mail.cvctx.com> I was surprised they scheduled it for the Easter Weekend, but I was looking forward to it, since I would of had the opportunity to introduce an area of amateur radio that I believe would appeal to my nephews (ages 13 and 18). Maybe we'll have some good ISS passes and get to talk or type to an Astronaught or at least download a SSTV picture from the ISS.... 73 Ben - ne5B Quoting Charles Keng : > surprise ... SURPRISE . . . SURPRISE > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of > Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com > Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 3:27 PM > To: blt at stevens.com > Subject: [BLT] ARBONET-III Launch Scrubbed! > > The Easter weekend caused too many conflicts, so the ARBONET group will > reschedule Launch: > > April 11th Launch Scrubbed > * Forecast Weather indicates T-storms and IFR conditions for Eastern > Texas for > Saturday as the jet steam once again snakes its way east from the west coast > with?associated low pressure, likely?bringing more wind and rain to > the flight > area > * The Easter Holiday made several key resources unavailable > * New Launch date TBD, but likey mid May early June. Stay tuned to > this web site > and the Yahoo! ARBONET groups for?future updates and scheduling > > http://www.arbonet.net > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > ----- End forwarded message ----- From michael.yoyo at gmail.com Sat Apr 11 22:21:32 2009 From: michael.yoyo at gmail.com (Michael B) Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:21:32 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Spirit of Knoxville Message-ID: <47b832440904112021m7cd15272re3d2448c6cb0e68d@mail.gmail.com> In case you haven't seen http://www.spiritofknoxville.com/index.html Well... it almost worked. -- W2CVZ, Michael From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Apr 14 10:12:02 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:12:02 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: payloads launched and recovered - with extra bonus!! Message-ID: VERY Cool! -----Original Message----- From: clavus83627 at mypacks.net [mailto:clavus83627 at mypacks.net] Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2009 2:44 AM To: MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU] Subject: Fw: payloads launched and recovered - with extra bonus!! Andy, have you seen this report from wb8elk? their recent balloon fligh landed near the same landing site of a balloon they launched last year. Last years payload was apparently stuck up in a tree so wasn't recovered but must have blown out of the tree sometime over the last several months so they picked it up as well craig wd5bdx -----Forwarded Message----- >From: wb8elk at aol.com >Sent: Apr 4, 2009 10:04 PM >Subject: [Balloon_Sked] UAH and AAMU payloads launched and recovered - with extra bonus!! > >There were 2 flights today, but 3 payloads recovered (more on that later in >this email) - the third UAH team wasn't ready so will fly next Saturday >morning after 9:30 am CDT....streaming video of that launch as before. > >Today's flights have been recovered at the following coordinates: > >Balloon 1 (UAH) - cutdown - landed at: 34.5827 84.9013 (located in a large >field just east of Resaca, GA > >Balloon 2 (AAMU) - flight to peak altitude - landed at: 34d 34.24m 84d >52.42m (also in a large field) - no tree climbing this weekend. > >Even though both flights had a large ascent difference, thanks to the >cutdown of the slow ascent flight, both landed very close to each other. >------------------------------------------- > >As an interesting bonus - I landed a payload last May 2008 (30m HF RTTY >experiment) about 2000 feet south of where Balloon 2 landed today. Eddie WD4JEM >found it back in May but couldn't retrieve it from its perch 70 feet up in the >tree and it has been there ever since. Today, Kenny K4KR and Shane N4XWC >continued on to my payload's location after recovering the university payloads. >They found and recovered my HF payload sitting on the ground in plain sight >underneath the tree where it had landed 11 months ago. > >Considering this is nearly 100 miles downrange, what are the odds? > >73s de Bill WB8ELK From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Apr 14 10:31:39 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:31:39 -0500 Subject: [BLT] QCWA Convention/Cruise Oct 24-31,2009 Message-ID: Here's the URL to check: http://www.qcwa.org/2009-convention.pdf We were thinking about going on the St. Arnolds cruise, but THIS one could be even better! Did you get your first license 25+ years ago? Are you currently licensed? Are you a member of QCWA? If your license has expired - Renew it. If you are not a member of QCWA - Join. If you didn't get your license 25+ years ago - Stay home... or come along anyway! You (and a lot of other folks on board) are not associated with the QCWA Convention! Can you imagine a cruise where they ENCOURAGE ham activity??? How about a HF long wire antenna hoisted by a balloon off the back of the ship??? How about a ham-style tour of the dish at Arecibo??? Andy W5ACM From ka5cvh at gmail.com Sat Apr 25 22:37:25 2009 From: ka5cvh at gmail.com (Mike (KA5CVH) Urich) Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:37:25 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Rocket launch Message-ID: <15b2c6c70904252037nee237cek8fd7df404d106386@mail.gmail.com> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj4lj6YSwzg -- Mike Urich, KA5CVH http://ka5cvh.com Recession is when your neighbor loses their job. Depression is when you lose yours. Recovery will begin when our current congress & president lose theirs. From michael.yoyo at gmail.com Sat Apr 25 22:53:31 2009 From: michael.yoyo at gmail.com (Michael B) Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:53:31 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Rocket launch In-Reply-To: <15b2c6c70904252037nee237cek8fd7df404d106386@mail.gmail.com> References: <15b2c6c70904252037nee237cek8fd7df404d106386@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <47b832440904252053r2477a112h159a12bf30b40205@mail.gmail.com> Sure, that will carry the balloon to a height, and then release it. On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 10:37 PM, Mike (KA5CVH) Urich wrote: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj4lj6YSwzg > > -- > Mike Urich, KA5CVH > http://ka5cvh.com > > Recession is when your neighbor loses their job. > Depression is when you lose yours. > Recovery will begin when our current congress & president lose theirs. > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > -- W2CVZ, Michael From johnk at hal-pc.org Sun Apr 26 04:41:53 2009 From: johnk at hal-pc.org (johnk at hal-pc.org) Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:41:53 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Fwd: Rocket launch Message-ID: Students from Texas A & M will launch a rocket from Galvestion sometime from may 1 thru may 5. --- the forwarded message follows --- From Forrestw2 at aol.com Sun Apr 26 08:03:06 2009 From: Forrestw2 at aol.com (Forrestw2 at aol.com) Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:03:06 EDT Subject: [BLT] (no subject) Message-ID: WHERE DID THE SATURN V LAUNCH TAKE PLACE FORRESTW2 at aol.com **************Access 350+ FREE radio stations anytime from anywhere on the web. Get the Radio Toolbar! (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolradio/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000003) From Cboone at earthlink.net Sun Apr 26 11:44:56 2009 From: Cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:44:56 -0500 Subject: [BLT] (no subject) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <005201c9c68e$5535ba90$ffa12fb0$@net> AHHH Last time a Saturn V took off, it was Cape Kennedy in Florida (Apollo 17).......now name changed back to Cape Canaveral....... -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Forrestw2 at aol.com Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 8:03 AM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] (no subject) WHERE DID THE SATURN V LAUNCH TAKE PLACE FORRESTW2 at aol.com **************Access 350+ FREE radio stations anytime from anywhere on the web. Get the Radio Toolbar! (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolradio/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000003) _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From Cboone at earthlink.net Sun Apr 26 11:52:47 2009 From: Cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:52:47 -0500 Subject: [BLT] (no subject) In-Reply-To: <005201c9c68e$5535ba90$ffa12fb0$@net> References: <005201c9c68e$5535ba90$ffa12fb0$@net> Message-ID: <005301c9c68f$6e3c7a50$4ab56ef0$@net> OH you meant the model..... Steve Eves' record-setting 1/10th scale Saturn V launched on 4/25/09 at Higgs Farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Chris Boone Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 11:45 AM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] (no subject) AHHH Last time a Saturn V took off, it was Cape Kennedy in Florida (Apollo 17).......now name changed back to Cape Canaveral....... -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Forrestw2 at aol.com Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 8:03 AM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] (no subject) WHERE DID THE SATURN V LAUNCH TAKE PLACE FORRESTW2 at aol.com **************Access 350+ FREE radio stations anytime from anywhere on the web. Get the Radio Toolbar! (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolradio/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000003) _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From ka5cvh at gmail.com Sun Apr 26 14:31:57 2009 From: ka5cvh at gmail.com (Mike (KA5CVH) Urich) Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:31:57 -0500 Subject: [BLT] (no subject) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <15b2c6c70904261231h43fdaef8jd586fc7a0999d0e4@mail.gmail.com> On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 8:03 AM, wrote: > WHERE DID THE SATURN V LAUNCH TAKE PLACE ? ? ? FORRESTW2 at aol.com Mike wrote First please don't shout (turn off the cap lock) Second google is a mighty tool. I searched on "model saturn v 5 rocket" and got tens of thousands (actually about 244,000 total but not all were about Steve) of hits. -- Mike Urich, KA5CVH http://ka5cvh.com Recession is when your neighbor loses their job. Depression is when you lose yours. Recovery will begin when our current congress & president lose theirs. From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Mon May 11 21:25:28 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 21:25:28 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Wednesday Dinner Meeting and BLT-25 Schedule Modifications Message-ID: BLT Team, It's time for dinner at Chili's this Wednesday, May 13th at 5:30 PM. Chili's is in the NE quadrant of the intersection of I-10W and Beltway 8. I will post some notes on findings and discussions from the last meeting prior to the event. The BLT-25 launch date has moved to August 29th, with the back-up date one week later. The first work meeting at the Secret BLT Lab (310 Lombardy in Sugar Land) will occur at 8 PM on THURSDAY, May 21st. The talk-in frequency is 147.435 MHz simplex. More schedule and project details will follow. To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Wed May 20 16:12:26 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 16:12:26 -0500 Subject: [BLT] First BLT Lab Meeting - Thursday - May 21st - 8 PM Message-ID: BLT, The first BLT-25 Lab meeting is Thursday, May 21st at 8 PM - 310 Lombardy - Sugar Land. Talk in on 147.435 simplex. We will be checking out current systems, taking measurements, etc. BLT-25 Launch Date is August 29, 2009. Andy http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Thu May 28 13:17:40 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 13:17:40 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Message-ID: http://www.w5acm.net/b2459530.htm This Saturday at 8 PM. From w5acm at swbell.net Sat May 30 20:36:00 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (w5acm at swbell.net) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 20:36:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Message-ID: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Launch @ 8:11 PM 28.636 and 50.350 From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 21:02:58 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:02:58 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: 0130-0200 utc - I am copying the 10m beacon quite well from my house. Allen N5AFV At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 21:10:28 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:10:28 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: Unable to copy the 6m beacon - I do not have a 6m antenna and I hear nothing on 50.350 when I try my various antennas including a 75m horizontal loop with an antenna tuner. I'n back on 28.636 - Interesting to me that the beats get longer as the BPM slows......... Allen N5AFV At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From Cboone at earthlink.net Sat May 30 21:14:21 2009 From: Cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:14:21 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: <02c901c9e195$835544f0$89ffced0$@net> RATS, I was outside when this message came in at 8:37...just forwarded it to the local ham list (SETXHAM on yahoogroups) but I suspect the package is probably already on its way down by now...(or is it?) I will run out and check six meters.... Chris WB5ITT -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of w5acm at swbell.net Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 8:36 PM To: Blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Launch @ 8:11 PM 28.636 and 50.350 From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 21:15:56 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:15:56 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: I count 14 BPM at 0215 utc - approx 30,000 ft At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From Cboone at earthlink.net Sat May 30 21:17:44 2009 From: Cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:17:44 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <200905302210.1maAvq5Af3Nl34h0@mx-mastin.atl.sa.earthlink.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> <200905302210.1maAvq5Af3Nl34h0@mx-mastin.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <02ca01c9e195$fc62f450$f528dcf0$@net> An FYI....2m 5/8wave antennas works on 6m as a base loaded 1/4wave..NMO150s are best for that (outperforms a NMO47 or 50! Go figure ;)....MOST other 5/8wave also work but some do not due to their unique matching network, whatever it is. Chris WB5ITT -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Allen F. Mattis Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 9:10 PM To: w5acm at swbell.net; Blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Unable to copy the 6m beacon - I do not have a 6m antenna and I hear nothing on 50.350 when I try my various antennas including a 75m horizontal loop with an antenna tuner. I'n back on 28.636 - Interesting to me that the beats get longer as the BPM slows......... Allen N5AFV From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 21:26:01 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:26:01 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: When I began listening for the 10m beacon with my Icom IC-735 I found that I had what sounded like a birdie on 28.6362. I switched to my Yaesu FT-817 and still had the same?birdie? ? maybe it?s real signal. As the balloon got higher the beacon frequency shifted downward so it didn?t matter. 0225 utc ? I count 6 BPM Allen N5AFV At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From michael.yoyo at gmail.com Sat May 30 21:27:30 2009 From: michael.yoyo at gmail.com (Michael B) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:27:30 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <4a21eac4.0913c00a.51ac.ffff9c51SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> <4a21eac4.0913c00a.51ac.ffff9c51SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> Message-ID: <47b832440905301927r166c3809vb670432044759132@mail.gmail.com> Same thing here On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 9:26 PM, Allen F. Mattis wrote: > > When I began listening for the 10m beacon with my > Icom IC-735 I found that I had what sounded like > a birdie on 28.6362. I switched to my Yaesu > FT-817 and still had the same?birdie? ? maybe > it?s real signal. As the balloon got higher the > beacon frequency shifted downward so it didn?t matter. > > 0225 utc ? I count 6 BPM > > Allen N5AFV > > > > > > > > > > At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: > >Launch @ 8:11 PM > >28.636 and 50.350 > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >BLT mailing list > >BLT at stevens.com > >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > -- W2CVZ, Michael From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 21:35:44 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:35:44 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: 0234 utc - Copy rough on 10m - still 6 BPM - Back on Icom IC-7356 listening 28.6347 USB. Allen N5AFV At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 21:45:58 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 21:45:58 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: 0245 utc - I count 4.5 BPM - 10m signal weak At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 22:01:49 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 22:01:49 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: 0301 utc - 10m beacon weak but still readable - 3 BPM At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 22:15:26 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 22:15:26 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: 0314 utc - I count 6 BPM - 10m beacon very weak PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From Cboone at earthlink.net Sat May 30 22:23:06 2009 From: Cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 22:23:06 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <200905302227.1maAM636W3Nl36L0@mx-taint.atl.sa.earthlink.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> <200905302210.1maAvq5Af3Nl34h0@mx-mastin.atl.sa.earthlink.net> <02ca01c9e195$fc62f450$f528dcf0$@net> <200905302227.1maAM636W3Nl36L0@mx-taint.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <02d501c9e19f$1de1d980$59a58c80$@net> Couldn't hear anything on 50.35MHz...nor 28MHz freq....Drat! :( Andy, what kind of antenna was the 6m side using? Next time I hope to be prepared Chris WB5ITT T-13 days and counting to the END of Highpower ANALOG over the air TV! (except KPRC-2, and others across the country, WILL be on for 30 more days in "NightLight" service....running PSAs about the DTV switch and breaking in with any weather emergencies...then July 12, it's bye bye to Analog 2TV forever. YES folks it IS happening though it should have in Feb!) -----Original Message----- From: Allen F. Mattis [mailto:afmattis at hal-pc.org] Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 9:28 PM To: Chris Boone Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Tnx - I don't have a 5/8wave 2m antenna hooked up in my house. 10m beacon still copyable at 0227 utc. Allen N5AFV From w5acm at swbell.net Sat May 30 22:28:00 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (w5acm at swbell.net) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 22:28:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Message-ID: <923B3356AC11422AAF920ED5C0D16300.MAI@k5wh.net> the lowest we got was 3 @ 9:58. The counts are speeding up as we continue rising above the thermocline... Very nice! Andy -----Original Message----- From: "Allen F. Mattis" Subj: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Date: Sat May 30, 2009 10:15 pm Size: 264 bytes To: ; Blt at stevens.com 0314 utc - I count 6 BPM - 10m beacon very weak PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From w5acm at swbell.net Sat May 30 22:30:00 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (w5acm at swbell.net) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 22:30:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Message-ID: Vertical dipole with xmtr in the center -----Original Message----- From: "Chris Boone" Subj: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Date: Sat May 30, 2009 10:23 pm Size: 943 bytes To: Couldn't hear anything on 50.35MHz...nor 28MHz freq....Drat! :( Andy, what kind of antenna was the 6m side using? Next time I hope to be prepared Chris WB5ITT T-13 days and counting to the END of Highpower ANALOG over the air TV! (except KPRC-2, and others across the country, WILL be on for 30 more days in "NightLight" service....running PSAs about the DTV switch and breaking in with any weather emergencies...then July 12, it's bye bye to Analog 2TV forever. YES folks it IS happening though it should have in Feb!) -----Original Message----- From: Allen F. Mattis [mailto:afmattis at hal-pc.org] Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 9:28 PM To: Chris Boone Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Tnx - I don't have a 5/8wave 2m antenna hooked up in my house. 10m beacon still copyable at 0227 utc. Allen N5AFV _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From Cboone at earthlink.net Sat May 30 22:32:39 2009 From: Cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 22:32:39 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <02dc01c9e1a0$733d8b80$59b8a280$@net> Will keep listening for it! Has anyone copied the 6m beacon? -----Original Message----- From: w5acm at swbell.net [mailto:w5acm at swbell.net] Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 10:30 PM To: Chris Boone; Blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Vertical dipole with xmtr in the center -----Original Message----- From: "Chris Boone" Subj: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Date: Sat May 30, 2009 10:23 pm Size: 943 bytes To: Couldn't hear anything on 50.35MHz...nor 28MHz freq....Drat! :( Andy, what kind of antenna was the 6m side using? Next time I hope to be prepared Chris WB5ITT T-13 days and counting to the END of Highpower ANALOG over the air TV! (except KPRC-2, and others across the country, WILL be on for 30 more days in "NightLight" service....running PSAs about the DTV switch and breaking in with any weather emergencies...then July 12, it's bye bye to Analog 2TV forever. YES folks it IS happening though it should have in Feb!) -----Original Message----- From: Allen F. Mattis [mailto:afmattis at hal-pc.org] Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 9:28 PM To: Chris Boone Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Tnx - I don't have a 5/8wave 2m antenna hooked up in my house. 10m beacon still copyable at 0227 utc. Allen N5AFV _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From w5acm at swbell.net Sat May 30 22:45:00 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (w5acm at swbell.net) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 22:45:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Burst? Message-ID: <1C0A2F7E7095483A84A0DE0C5AEF47F1.MAI@k5wh.net> Sig is wobbling starting at 10:45... From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 22:50:35 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 22:50:35 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: 0322 utc 8 BPM 0328 utc 8.5 BPM 0330 utc 9 BPM 0333 utc 10 BPM 0335 utc 10 BPM 0336 utc 10 BPM 0337 utc 10 BPM 0338 utc 10.5 BPM 0339 utc 10.5 BPM 0340 utc 11 BPM 0341 utc 11.5 BPM 0342 utc 11.5 BPM 0343 utc 11 BPM 0344 utc Lost 10m beacon - Did balloon burst? Allen N5AFV At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From afmattis at hal-pc.org Sat May 30 23:01:58 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 23:01:58 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! In-Reply-To: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> References: <12DFB5D4F77B4FEDA92AF4DBB5DCDE67.MAI@k5wh.net> Message-ID: 0400 utc - Unable to re-acquire 10m beacon since loss of signal at 0344 utc Allen N5AFV At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From w5acm at swbell.net Sat May 30 23:02:00 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (w5acm at swbell.net) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 23:02:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Message-ID: <5E3AD0CC1B1D4DBA8BA2B14D90A7523F.MAI@k5wh.net> We are still hearing it now that burst has happened. Did I mention the 5' diameter parachute? It will be a while coming down... Andy -----Original Message----- From: "Allen F. Mattis" Subj: Re: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Has Launched! Date: Sat May 30, 2009 10:50 pm Size: 498 bytes To: ; Blt at stevens.com 0322 utc 8 BPM 0328 utc 8.5 BPM 0330 utc 9 BPM 0333 utc 10 BPM 0335 utc 10 BPM 0336 utc 10 BPM 0337 utc 10 BPM 0338 utc 10.5 BPM 0339 utc 10.5 BPM 0340 utc 11 BPM 0341 utc 11.5 BPM 0342 utc 11.5 BPM 0343 utc 11 BPM 0344 utc Lost 10m beacon - Did balloon burst? Allen N5AFV At 08:36 PM 5/30/2009, w5acm at swbell.net wrote: >Launch @ 8:11 PM >28.636 and 50.350 > > > >_______________________________________________ >BLT mailing list >BLT at stevens.com >http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From w5acm at swbell.net Sat May 30 23:53:00 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (w5acm at swbell.net) Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 23:53:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Super flight! Message-ID: <9B2512CADF774C90BDA680468B68ADB6.MAI@k5wh.net> Our last reception was at 23:37. We were getting 200 cpm which would have been down at 2000 feet or less. The total flight time was 3 hours 29 minutes, i.e. Launch at 20:11 and landing at 23:40. The beacon may last for 6 days. If you want to hunt it, DF on the 5th harmonic. Landing should be 32 miles from the coordinates on the web page at 120 degrees... Thanks to all! To the Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Wed Jun 3 16:09:48 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:09:48 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-24.5 Went to 84,770 ft! Message-ID: BLT, Thanks to observations from N5AFV, KQ5U, K5ENG and other beep counters, we have approximated the top altitude for BLT-24.5 at 84,770 ft. Launch at 2011 Hrs Lowest beep rate at 2200 Hrs Time to get to Thermocline (~60K ft) = 109 minutes Rise rate = 550.459 ft/min Burst at 2245 Hrs Therefore 60,000 + (550.459 x 45) = 84,770 ft Excellent! Andy W5ACM From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Mon Jun 8 00:09:12 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 00:09:12 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 Updated Info Message-ID: Greetings! Check out the updates at http://www.w5acm.net/b25.html 73 de Andy W5ACM From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Jun 9 10:47:38 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 10:47:38 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Wednesday BLT-25 Dinner Meeting Message-ID: BLT Team, It's time for dinner at Chili's this Wednesday, June 10th at 5:30 PM. Chili's is in the NE quadrant of the intersection of I-10W and Beltway 8. Reminders: The BLT-25 launch date is August 29th, with the back-up date one week later. The next work meeting at the Secret BLT Lab (310 Lombardy in Sugar Land) will occur at 8 PM on THURSDAY, June 18th. The talk-in frequency is 147.435 MHz simplex. More schedule and project details will follow. To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From w5acm at swbell.net Sat Jun 13 11:17:00 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (w5acm at swbell.net) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:17:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] ARBONET-3 Update Message-ID: Going after an altitude record with a primary launch date of July 11th from the Clarksville airport in NE Texas. From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Jun 16 08:16:00 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:16:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 T-Shirts Coming! Message-ID: South Texas Balloon Launch Team, We are taking "pre-orders" for BLT-25 T-Shirts. Please let me know sizes and quantities you would like so that an order can be placed ASAP. Prior to placing the order, I will announce the final price (yes, it will be based on "pre-order" quantity). The BLT shirts are fun to wear at amateur-radio functions, and a few dollars "profit" per shirt helps with the cost of balloons, helium, batteries, and other expendables. To The Edge Of Space! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Jun 16 11:31:14 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:31:14 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: balloon burst at 95,000 feet Message-ID: Have you guys seen this live video of a ham radio balloon burst? Craig wd5bdx ------ original message ------- From: wb8elk at aol.com Sent: Jun 15, 2009 12:17 PM I put the Flip Ultra digital camcorder unit on this pointing up at the balloon for our Spaceport Camp student flight. We had video cameras pointing up, down and at the horizon as well as Canon still cameras. In the past, I've used the RCA SmallWonder units but they tend to freeze up after about 25,000 feet unless you have them in a heated environment....the most I've been able to get out of them was about 60 minutes worth. So I went in search of a better camcorder and found the Flip Ultra on sale for $129. It has 4 Gb of internal memory and claimed 120 minutes of record time....although there is no room for expansion, the plus is that it runs on 2 AA batteries. It worked flawlessly in a tough environment (pointing up at the balloon with the lens explosed to the elements and no other heat sources)....recording the entire 120 minutes with life to spare on the 2 AA lithium batteries....the quality of the video is amazing and the stereo sounds makes it feel like you are going along for the ride...even with the YouTube compression I think you'll see the video and audio quality of this camera. I plan to fly a couple of these at GPSL this July. The payload you see above the camera are the Eggsperiments with Peeponauts inside (and an earthworm and roly poly bugs - they didn't survive)...also two small snack-sized potato chip bags are on either side of it....they did not pop but puffed out like pillows...the potato chip bags both flew off on the descent at about 45,000 feet. http://www.spaceportindiana.com YouTube of the burst at nearly 95,000 feet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsQb-oWq6d4 - Bill WB8ELK From tcm10 at comcast.net Tue Jun 16 19:49:32 2009 From: tcm10 at comcast.net (Tom Matthews) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:49:32 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: balloon burst at 95,000 feet In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8DC68211BD4042EB9C4617A60FEF82B8@TCMPC> Gotta love the quality of the video - not live, but something to consider for our next flight - Tom K5SAF -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 11:31 AM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] FW: balloon burst at 95,000 feet Have you guys seen this live video of a ham radio balloon burst? Craig wd5bdx ------ original message ------- From: wb8elk at aol.com Sent: Jun 15, 2009 12:17 PM I put the Flip Ultra digital camcorder unit on this pointing up at the balloon for our Spaceport Camp student flight. We had video cameras pointing up, down and at the horizon as well as Canon still cameras. In the past, I've used the RCA SmallWonder units but they tend to freeze up after about 25,000 feet unless you have them in a heated environment....the most I've been able to get out of them was about 60 minutes worth. So I went in search of a better camcorder and found the Flip Ultra on sale for $129. It has 4 Gb of internal memory and claimed 120 minutes of record time....although there is no room for expansion, the plus is that it runs on 2 AA batteries. It worked flawlessly in a tough environment (pointing up at the balloon with the lens explosed to the elements and no other heat sources)....recording the entire 120 minutes with life to spare on the 2 AA lithium batteries....the quality of the video is amazing and the stereo sounds makes it feel like you are going along for the ride...even with the YouTube compression I think you'll see the video and audio quality of this camera. I plan to fly a couple of these at GPSL this July. The payload you see above the camera are the Eggsperiments with Peeponauts inside (and an earthworm and roly poly bugs - they didn't survive)...also two small snack-sized potato chip bags are on either side of it....they did not pop but puffed out like pillows...the potato chip bags both flew off on the descent at about 45,000 feet. http://www.spaceportindiana.com YouTube of the burst at nearly 95,000 feet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsQb-oWq6d4 - Bill WB8ELK _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From michael.yoyo at gmail.com Tue Jun 16 19:51:05 2009 From: michael.yoyo at gmail.com (Michael B) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:51:05 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: balloon burst at 95,000 feet In-Reply-To: <8DC68211BD4042EB9C4617A60FEF82B8@TCMPC> References: <8DC68211BD4042EB9C4617A60FEF82B8@TCMPC> Message-ID: <47b832440906161751v5ec2296t2c9baa4f5a74c96f@mail.gmail.com> Definitely On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 7:49 PM, Tom Matthews wrote: > Gotta love the quality of the video - not live, but something to consider > for our next flight - > > Tom K5SAF > > -----Original Message----- > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf > Of > Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com > Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 11:31 AM > To: blt at stevens.com > Subject: [BLT] FW: balloon burst at 95,000 feet > > > > Have you guys seen this live video of a ham radio balloon burst? > > Craig > wd5bdx > > ------ original message ------- > > From: wb8elk at aol.com > Sent: Jun 15, 2009 12:17 PM > > I put the Flip Ultra digital camcorder unit on this pointing up at the > balloon for our Spaceport Camp student flight. We had video cameras > pointing > up, down and at the horizon as well as Canon still cameras. In the past, > I've used the RCA SmallWonder units but they tend to freeze up after about > 25,000 feet unless you have them in a heated environment....the most I've > been able to get out of them was about 60 minutes worth. So I went in > search of a better camcorder and found the Flip Ultra on sale for $129. It > has 4 Gb of internal memory and claimed 120 minutes of record > time....although there is no room for expansion, the plus is that it runs > on 2 AA batteries. > > It worked flawlessly in a tough environment (pointing up at the balloon > > with the lens explosed to the elements and no other heat > sources)....recording the entire 120 minutes with life to spare on the 2 AA > lithium batteries....the quality of the video is amazing and the stereo > sounds makes it feel like you are going along for the ride...even with the > YouTube compression I think you'll see the video and audio quality of this > camera. I plan to fly a couple of these at GPSL this July. > > The payload you see above the camera are the Eggsperiments with Peeponauts > inside (and an earthworm and roly poly bugs - they didn't survive)...also > two small snack-sized potato chip bags are on either side of it....they > did > not pop but puffed out like pillows...the potato chip bags both flew off > on > the descent at about 45,000 feet. > > http://www.spaceportindiana.com > > YouTube of the burst at nearly 95,000 feet: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsQb-oWq6d4 > > - Bill WB8ELK > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > -- W2CVZ, Michael From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Fri Jun 19 10:23:12 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:23:12 -0500 Subject: [BLT] University of Texas at Austin 'Picosatellite' To Be Launched from Space Shuttle To Begin Milestone Small-Satellite Mission Message-ID: As seen during BLT-24 last year! Looking forward to the July flight of BEVO-1 and AggieSAT-2! http://www.utexas.edu/news/2009/06/09/picosatellite/ From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sun Jun 21 00:41:22 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:41:22 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 Shirts Coming SOON! Message-ID: South Texas Balloon Launch Team, We are taking "pre-orders" for BLT-25 T-Shirts. Please let me know sizes and quantities you would like so that an order can be placed ASAP. Prior to placing the order, I will announce the final price (yes, it will be based on "pre-order" quantity). The BLT shirts are fun to wear at amateur-radio functions, and a few dollars "profit" per shirt helps with the cost of balloons, helium, batteries, and other expendables. A few informational comments from Threads-Master KD5ELH: The shirt is white. It is a "basic" T-Shirt, i.e. we will not have a version with a pocket. The graphics look GREAT! ALL sizes are available with no surcharge for XXL and up. We hope to have a first run ready for Field Day at the Sparks Ranch in Brookshire, so get your requests in ASAP! The cost will be no greater than $20 each (double-sided printing). To The Edge Of Space! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From w5acm at swbell.net Mon Jun 22 23:49:46 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:49:46 -0500 Subject: [BLT] MAP to Field Day 2009! Message-ID: <1BE4925A25164BFCAB9A7E2A35C37A67@w5acmathlon> HQRP Field Day 2009 - http://home.swbell.net/s4us/FD2009.GIF Begin set up no earlier than 9 AM. Field Day ops begin at 1 PM. The more rigs, the better! Come and experiment with your favorite radios and antennas! We will be operating QRP (5W or less) via shortwave and satellites. Call-in and event ops coordination on 147.435 MHz. C U @ The Sparks Ranch! Ron advises that Inez has the pool ready to go... Andy W5ACM From w5acm at swbell.net Tue Jul 7 23:37:10 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 23:37:10 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Wednesday BLT-25 Dinner Meeting Message-ID: BLT Team, It's time for dinner at Chili's this Wednesday, July 8th at 5:30 PM. Chili's is in the NE quadrant of the intersection of I-10W and Beltway 8. Reminders: The BLT-25 launch date is August 29th, with the back-up date one week later. The next work meeting at the Secret BLT Lab (310 Lombardy in Sugar Land) will occur at 8 PM on THURSDAY, July 15th. The talk-in frequency is 147.435 MHz simplex. More schedule and project details will follow. To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Thu Jul 9 15:55:19 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 15:55:19 -0500 Subject: [BLT] ARBONET 3 Delayed! Message-ID: Check it out at http://www.arbonet.net . It looks like we wait, again... From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Fri Jul 10 23:40:30 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:40:30 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 Shirts are HERE! Message-ID: South Texas Balloon Launch Team Supporters, I will have the NEW BLT-25 T-Shirts with me at the Texas City Hamfest tomorrow and the HQRP meeting on the 18th. Pete WD5ELH did a super job getting these blue on white (printed on both sides) shirts made in record time. He has also donated most of the production costs to the group, and has only asked that shirt donations be $20 each. We have sizes S, M, L and XL at this time. Come and get them!! Andy W5ACM From w5acm at swbell.net Wed Jul 15 15:56:35 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:56:35 -0500 Subject: [BLT] The Next BLT-25 Work Meeting is Thursday! Message-ID: <671BD1769BE146988AAAA3EBAFCF07D2@w5acmathlon> BLT Team, The next work meeting at the Secret BLT Lab (310 Lombardy in Sugar Land) will occur at 8 PM on THURSDAY, July 16th. The talk-in frequency is 147.435 MHz simplex. More schedule and project details will follow. To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Wed Jul 15 17:17:10 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:17:10 -0500 Subject: [BLT] 2XL Shirts Have Arrived! - BLT-25 Shirts are HERE! References: Message-ID: Pete KD5ELH will have 2XL BLT-25 Shirts at the BLT-25 work meeting on Thursday, July 16th - 8 PM, at the Secret BLT Lab in Sugar Land (310 Lombardy). We also have a few 3XL shirts left. We might even have some RC boat action starting at 7:30 PM. For those of you that cannot get shirts in person, you can pay via PayPal. The price is the same, i.e. $20. I will pay the postage for First Class. The PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Andy W5ACM ________________________________ From: hats-bounces at stevens.com on behalf of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Fri 7/10/2009 11:40 PM To: blt at stevens.com; hqrp at stevens.com; hats at stevens.com; hqrp at yahoogroups.com Subject: [HATS] BLT-25 Shirts are HERE! South Texas Balloon Launch Team Supporters, I will have the NEW BLT-25 T-Shirts with me at the Texas City Hamfest tomorrow and the HQRP meeting on the 18th. Pete WD5ELH did a super job getting these blue on white (printed on both sides) shirts made in record time. He has also donated most of the production costs to the group, and has only asked that shirt donations be $20 each. We have sizes S, M, L and XL at this time. Come and get them!! Andy W5ACM From TxLawMan at aol.com Fri Jul 17 07:17:32 2009 From: TxLawMan at aol.com (TxLawMan at aol.com) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:17:32 EDT Subject: [BLT] Fwd: FW: LSU Ballooners Returning to Palestine TX Message-ID: Hello all, I had told a couple of the guys I would forward this info about the LSU launch coming up soon, so here it is. I was going to take off to go, but they scheduled a committee meeting that I have to attend for that same morning. Darn job keeps getting in the way of the important stuff !!! Again, I appreciate you guys allowing me to peek over your shoulders and see how its all put together. I look forward tot he launch. Brian KC5YSM ____________________________________ From: m_anderson at cox.net To: txlawman at aol.com Sent: 7/11/2009 11:05:39 A.M. Central Daylight Time Subj: FW: LSU Ballooners Returning to Palestine TX I finally received the info on the balloon flight. I normally drive over on Monday and they usually launch around 8 AM on Tuesday. The chase is typically 50 miles or less and we almost always done by lunch. Matt Anderson 225-806-2524 -----Original Message----- The gang from LSU, with folks from Albany State U. (GA) and Central State U (OH) will be leving Baton Rouge for Palestine on July 26, with the flight of ACES-14 set for July 28 at 7:30 am CDT. Russ, Jeremy, Chris, and others... anny of y'all planning to come along this time? Larry (N8JT) is planning on making the trip, as is Dana (AD5VC) Ronda - missed you on the May trip. Gloria did not come then, but she will be along this time. Maybe we can finally get another chance to visit. 73, Jim, N5IB ____________________________________________________________ **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221823307x1201398715/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62&bcd= JulystepsfooterNO62) From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sun Jul 19 22:29:17 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:29:17 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: University of Texas at Austin 'Picosatellite' To Be Launched from Space Shuttle To Begin Milestone Small-Satellite Mission References: <26e582ae0907191901i701f92bdm699963f14d656b68@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Get ready to check out BEVO-1 later this week! Various items in BEVO-1 flew to the edge of space last year on BLT-24. 73 de Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net ________________________________ Sent: Sun 7/19/2009 9:01 PM To: MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU] Subject: Re: [BLT] University of Texas at Austin 'Picosatellite' To Be Launched from Space Shuttle To Begin Milestone Small-Satellite Mission Hi Andy, Thanks for the publicity on your lists. I have a website set up at http://paradigm.ae.utexas.edu/ops where amateur radio stations can send what they hear. Deployment from Shuttle Endeavor will occur tentatively at 7:27 AM CDT, July 30th. ~Jahshan On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:23 AM, wrote: > As seen during BLT-24 last year! > > Looking forward to the July flight of BEVO-1 and AggieSAT-2! > > http://www.utexas.edu/news/2009/06/09/picosatellite/ > From w5acm at swbell.net Thu Jul 23 22:28:48 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:28:48 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Fw: [ans-editor] UT Austin's BEVO1 Launched on-board STS-127 Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: "JoAnne Maenpaa" To: "'Jahshan Bhatti'" Cc: Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 8:32 PM Subject: RE: [ans-editor] UT Austin's BEVO1 Launched on-board STS-127 > Hi Jahshan, > > Thank you for the BEVO1 information. The AMSAT News Service transmits a > series of amateur radio satellite news items each week. Below is a draft > copy of the BEVO1 item for your review and comment. > > -- > 73 de JoAnne K9JKM > k9jkm at amsat.org > Editor, AMSAT News Service > Copy Editor, AMSAT Journal > > > SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-207.03 > STS-127 To Deploy Dual Picosats on July 30 > > AMSAT News Service Bulletin 207.03 > From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. > July 26, 2009 > To All RADIO AMATEURS > BID: $ANS-207.03 > > The University of Texas at Austin announced this week they will > deploy a satellite in space on July 30, 2009 at 7:27 AM CDT via > the STS-127 Space Shuttle Picosatellite Launcher (SSPL). > > BEVO1 is a 12.5 cm cube and 3 kg in mass. The purpose of the > mission is to collect data from NASA's DRAGON GPS receiver. > > BEVO1 has two modes, data and beacon. The data mode is on > over most parts of the United States, and the rest of the time, > the satellite is in beacon mode. Also, anyone tracking BEVO1 > can record what they hear at http://paradigm.ae.utexas.edu/ops. > The University of Texas also has additional information at: > http://www.utexas.edu/news/2009/06/09/picosatellite/ > > BEVO1 Downlink Information: > > Beacon Mode > Downlink Freq: 437.325 MHz > Modulation: FM, 200mW > Morse Code, ~20 WPM > > Data Mode > Downlink Freq: 437.325 MHz > Modulation: FM, 1W > GMSK, 9600 baud, AX.25 (High-speed) > Bell 202, AX.25 (Low-speed) > > NASA describes DRAGONSat as an anticipated eight-year program with > a launch of the satellites approximately every two years. The first > three missions will test individual components and subsystems while > the final mission will culminate with the successful docking of two > satellites. Refer to http://tinyurl.com/m2blyc for additional mission > information. > > The University of Texas at Austin has developed BEVO1 and Texas A&M > University has developed AggieSat-2 for this mission. Both satellites > will perform the initial data acquition testing of the DRAGONSat pro- > gram. > > [ANS thanks Jahshan Bhatti at the University of Texas at Austin and > Andy, W5ACM for the above information] > > /EX > > From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Mon Jul 27 17:24:38 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:24:38 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Minor Schedule Change for next meeting in Sugar Land Message-ID: BLT Team, We originally scheduled the next Sugar Land meeting for Thursday, August 20th. We are moving that to WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19th at 8 PM! Please mark your calendars appropriately! Andy W5ACM Note that this does not affect the August 12th dinner meeting at Chili's. From ab5ss at swbell.net Thu Jul 30 07:42:16 2009 From: ab5ss at swbell.net (John Maca) Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:42:16 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: University of Texas at Austin 'Picosatellite' To Be Launched from Space Shuttle To Begin Milestone Small-Satellite Mission In-Reply-To: References: <26e582ae0907191901i701f92bdm699963f14d656b68@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <12F011FE-08B0-4104-8A74-9B72D1C436BA@swbell.net> I believe AggieSAT and UT's PARADIGM CubeSAT were released from the Shuttle payload bay at 7:25am this morning! Whooop! John On Jul 19, 2009, at 10:29 PM, wrote: > Get ready to check out BEVO-1 later this week! > Various items in BEVO-1 flew to the edge of space last year on BLT-24. > 73 de Andy W5ACM > http://www.w5acm.net > > ________________________________ > > > Sent: Sun 7/19/2009 9:01 PM > To: MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU] > Subject: Re: [BLT] University of Texas at Austin 'Picosatellite' To > Be Launched from Space Shuttle To Begin Milestone Small-Satellite > Mission > > Hi Andy, > > Thanks for the publicity on your lists. I have a website set up at > http://paradigm.ae.utexas.edu/ops where amateur radio stations can > send what they hear. Deployment from Shuttle Endeavor will occur > tentatively at 7:27 AM CDT, July 30th. > > ~Jahshan > > On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:23 AM, > wrote: >> As seen during BLT-24 last year! >> >> Looking forward to the July flight of BEVO-1 and AggieSAT-2! >> >> http://www.utexas.edu/news/2009/06/09/picosatellite/ >> > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From tcm10 at comcast.net Fri Jul 31 20:19:20 2009 From: tcm10 at comcast.net (Tom Matthews) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:19:20 -0500 Subject: [BLT] DRAGONSat / bevo-1 / Aggie Sat Message-ID: <5E777992D0E9442490219CA69CE22542@TCMPC> http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/dragonst.htm Link to good info on both microsats - Tom, K5SAF From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Wed Aug 5 08:47:27 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 08:47:27 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - On Target for AUGUST 29th! Message-ID: BLT Team, Don't miss BLT-25 on August 29th! We will be operating on the south side of the Wharton Regional Airport again this year. Thanks to the Wharton folks and especially Fredrick Scheffel of SkyTrails. Fredrick has advised that space is very limited inside the Hanger, but sees no problem finding enough room for inflating our balloon. Check out the SkyTrails websites: www.SkyTrailsLSA.com and www.Powerchutes.com . BLT-25 T-Shirts are still available for $20 each. I will have them at all typical ham activities, including the Austin Summerfest this weekend. Next BLT Events: BLT Dinner @ Chili's (I-10W & Beltway 8) - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 - 5:30 PM BLT Final Integration and Test Meeting (Sugar Land) - Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - 8PM BLT Final Final Pre-Flight Test (Sugar Land) - Thursday, August 28, 2009 - 8 PM The Flight of BLT-25 at the Wharton Regional Airport - Saturday, August 29, 2009 - 10 AM To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net Also, don't miss the North Texas Balloon Project - http://www.ntexbp.org . They are scheduled to fly #17 at 8:30 AM THIS Saturday! From w5acm at swbell.net Thu Aug 6 23:00:57 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 23:00:57 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - On Target for AUGUST 29th! Message-ID: <9E55F1CA323B4C74BCB14A27A3945977@w5acmathlon> BLT Team, Don't miss BLT-25 on August 29th! We will be operating on the south side of the Wharton Regional Airport again this year. Thanks to the Wharton folks and especially Fredrick Scheffel of SkyTrails. Fredrick has advised that space is very limited inside the Hanger, but sees no problem finding enough room for inflating our balloon. Check out the SkyTrails websites: www.SkyTrailsLSA.com and www.Powerchutes.com . BLT-25 T-Shirts are still available for $20 each. I will have them at all typical ham activities, including the Austin Summerfest this weekend. Next BLT Events: BLT Dinner @ Chili's (I-10W & Beltway 8) - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 - 5:30 PM BLT Final Integration and Test Meeting (Sugar Land) - Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - 8PM BLT Final Final Pre-Flight Test (Sugar Land) - Friday, August 28, 2009 - 8 PM The Flight of BLT-25 at the Wharton Regional Airport - Saturday, August 29, 2009 - 10 AM To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net Also, don't miss the North Texas Balloon Project - http://www.ntexbp.org . They are scheduled to fly #17 at 8:30 AM THIS Saturday! From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Mon Aug 10 22:52:05 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:52:05 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 Dinner Meeting and More... Message-ID: BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at the Chili's located in the NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8. Join us, and be sure to check out the pictures of our last BLT meeting at http://www.w5acm.net/b25_9716.html . We are GO for Launch at 10 AM on Saturday, August 29th from the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From w5ezmtx at gmail.com Tue Aug 11 09:47:46 2009 From: w5ezmtx at gmail.com (A.C. SPRAGGINS) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:47:46 +0000 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 Dinner Meeting and More... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Uh...errrrr...didn't we all agree to let our resident SWL, Mike Bee, buy our dinner at the Brick House? Where they have REAL BEER! Prosit, A.C. On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 3:52 AM, wrote: > BLT Team, > > This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, at > 5:30 PM. We will be at the Chili's located in the NE corner of I-10W and > Beltway 8. Join us, and be sure to check out the pictures of our last BLT > meeting at http://www.w5acm.net/b25_9716.html . > > We are GO for Launch at 10 AM on Saturday, August 29th from the Wharton > Intergalactic Spaceport! > > To The Edge of Space! > > Andy W5ACM > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > -- A.C. SPRAGGINS w5ezmtx at gmail.com Texas: From n5rpq at earthlink.net Tue Aug 11 20:56:31 2009 From: n5rpq at earthlink.net (Tony R. Summerville) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:56:31 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 Dinner Meeting and More... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <4AAD239CD79448309EBDB8947C99DB54@us.schneiderelectric.com> You Guys enjoy and have a good time. Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it this time. Tony N5RPQ -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 10:52 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 Dinner Meeting and More... BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at the Chili's located in the NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8. Join us, and be sure to check out the pictures of our last BLT meeting at http://www.w5acm.net/b25_9716.html . We are GO for Launch at 10 AM on Saturday, August 29th from the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From TxLawMan at aol.com Fri Aug 14 11:36:35 2009 From: TxLawMan at aol.com (TxLawMan at aol.com) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:36:35 EDT Subject: [BLT] Balloon Tracking Message-ID: Hey Guys, At the dinner meeting the other night we talked a little bit about tracking the balloon by hooking a radio/TNC (in place of a GPS) to a computer with mapping software. The idea being to show the balloon on the map in place of my location. I converted everything to 4800 baud between the TNC and computer, but the TNC obviously doesn't put out a continuous signal, so it says "no GPS detected" and stops me right there. MS Streets and Trips says in needs NMEA 0183 Version 2.0 also. Not sure what version the TNC Puts out. Any ideas? Anybody done this before? Brian KC5YSM From michael.yoyo at gmail.com Fri Aug 14 12:40:37 2009 From: michael.yoyo at gmail.com (Michael B) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:40:37 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Balloon Tracking In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <47b832440908141040s71f5129eka9cfbb875500ae3d@mail.gmail.com> I would use UI-View 32 and find a map set for it, If you want, Precision Mapping makes software that works and provides zoomable maps for the entire US. On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 11:36 AM, wrote: > Hey Guys, > > At the dinner meeting the other night we talked a little bit about tracking > the balloon by hooking a radio/TNC (in place of a GPS) to a computer with > mapping software. The idea being to show the balloon on the map in place > of my location. > > I converted everything to 4800 baud between the TNC and computer, but the > TNC obviously doesn't put out a continuous signal, so it says "no GPS > detected" and stops me right there. MS Streets and Trips says in needs > NMEA 0183 > Version 2.0 also. Not sure what version the TNC Puts out. > > Any ideas? Anybody done this before? > > Brian > KC5YSM > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > -- W2CVZ, Michael From wa5twt at comcast.net Fri Aug 14 14:13:05 2009 From: wa5twt at comcast.net (Mike Scarcella) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:13:05 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Balloon Tracking In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: set your gps setting in the mapping software to "generic NEMA" and it should work mike wa5twt -------------------------------------------------- From: Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 11:36 AM To: Subject: [BLT] Balloon Tracking > Hey Guys, > > At the dinner meeting the other night we talked a little bit about > tracking > the balloon by hooking a radio/TNC (in place of a GPS) to a computer with > mapping software. The idea being to show the balloon on the map in place > of my location. > > I converted everything to 4800 baud between the TNC and computer, but the > TNC obviously doesn't put out a continuous signal, so it says "no GPS > detected" and stops me right there. MS Streets and Trips says in needs > NMEA 0183 > Version 2.0 also. Not sure what version the TNC Puts out. > > Any ideas? Anybody done this before? > > Brian > KC5YSM > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > From n5rpq at earthlink.net Fri Aug 14 14:55:34 2009 From: n5rpq at earthlink.net (Tony R. Summerville) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:55:34 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Balloon Tracking In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <25FE4433041E464C9B30C33961D84417@us.schneiderelectric.com> Brian, I believe these are examples of the sentences that are being sent from the balloon tnc. These are NMEA 0183 sentences, but I don't know the version. Hopefully, some of the other more knowledgable guys will chime in with "how to do it" info. $GPRMC,002242,V,3900.0000,N,09500.0000,W,000.0,000.0,010105,003.8,E*7D $GPGGA,002242,3900.0000,N,09500.0000,W,0,00,,,M,,M,,*4F $GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,*1E $GPGSV,3,1,12,06,00,170,,09,43,082,,10,00,103,,11,00,324,*7A $GPGSV,3,2,12,14,43,236,31,15,81,245,,16,00,237,,18,65,042,*7F $GPGSV,3,3,12,19,17,306,,21,44,150,37,26,06,048,,28,00,000,*76 Tony N5RPQ -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of TxLawMan at aol.com Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 11:37 AM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] Balloon Tracking Hey Guys, At the dinner meeting the other night we talked a little bit about tracking the balloon by hooking a radio/TNC (in place of a GPS) to a computer with mapping software. The idea being to show the balloon on the map in place of my location. I converted everything to 4800 baud between the TNC and computer, but the TNC obviously doesn't put out a continuous signal, so it says "no GPS detected" and stops me right there. MS Streets and Trips says in needs NMEA 0183 Version 2.0 also. Not sure what version the TNC Puts out. Any ideas? Anybody done this before? Brian KC5YSM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From Cboone at earthlink.net Fri Aug 14 20:57:00 2009 From: Cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:57:00 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Balloon Tracking In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <00ce01ca1d4b$ada98080$08fc8180$@net> Yep, Generic NEMA works fine...I use that with a Garmin external GPS on my laptop into Delorme...works like a champ! Chris WB5ITT -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Mike Scarcella Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 2:13 PM To: TxLawMan at aol.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Balloon Tracking set your gps setting in the mapping software to "generic NEMA" and it should work mike wa5twt -------------------------------------------------- From: Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 11:36 AM To: Subject: [BLT] Balloon Tracking > Hey Guys, > > At the dinner meeting the other night we talked a little bit about > tracking > the balloon by hooking a radio/TNC (in place of a GPS) to a computer with > mapping software. The idea being to show the balloon on the map in place > of my location. > > I converted everything to 4800 baud between the TNC and computer, but the > TNC obviously doesn't put out a continuous signal, so it says "no GPS > detected" and stops me right there. MS Streets and Trips says in needs > NMEA 0183 > Version 2.0 also. Not sure what version the TNC Puts out. > > Any ideas? Anybody done this before? > > Brian > KC5YSM > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From w5acm at swbell.net Mon Aug 17 21:30:22 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:30:22 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Completion and Final Test - Reminder Message-ID: <40B3DEEF0BB64CE487892F22B22101D5@w5acmathlon> BLT Team, Our BLT-25 "Completion and Final Test" meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 19, 2009, at the Secret BLT Lab in Sugar Land (310 Lombardy), at 8 PM. We are down to the wire, and it's time to stuff everything into the box, and finalize this payload! All systems are GO, and we are looking forward to an exciting flight at 10 AM on August 29th from the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport. No new satellites to fly, but we have some innovations this year that promise to be a lot of fun. We'll see what's ready and what happens THIS WEDNESDAY!! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM http://www.w5acm.net ...boat races will begin at 7:30 PM. Be sure to bring your RC boat with charged batteries... ...talk-in on 147.435 MHz FM... From w5acm at swbell.net Wed Aug 26 00:44:48 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:44:48 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Did You Know? Message-ID: <27AAFDD81C5342D5B8F57E7FD285C026@w5acmathlon> We have TWO balloons scheduled for launch this Saturday? Ray N5VRT reports: I have been quite busy with the preparations of Strato-Eagle 1 and getting it ready for flight this coming Saturday. I am pleased to announce that we are ready. We will have our final integration meeting this coming Thursday when the boys (Boy Scouts) prepare the parachutes and conduct other final assembly. My brother Tom will aquire the helium later this week. The payload package for Strato-Eagle 1 is a custom built poly-styrene box measuring approx 9 inches cubed. The weight right now in it's flight ready configuration is 1 pound, 13.20 ounces. We have offered the boys the oppurtunity to insert notes that we will carry to "near space". I expect that our payload with all peripherials will be just over two pounds. Our intent is to fly a fully equiped but light weight camcorder. This records onto internal SD media cards. We also have the APRS beacon operating on 144.390 MHz. Our SSID will be N5VRT-9. Andy W5ACM reports: We will have a new sub-payload for BLT-25. It is a crossband repeater with 146.435 MHz FM up and 28.636 MHz DSB down. Check the specs and pix at http://www.w5acm.net . To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Thu Aug 27 23:44:01 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:44:01 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 THIS SATURDAY!!! Message-ID: BLT Team, We have added quite a few photos to the BLT web pages (http://www.w5acm.net ). Be sure to check them out, and also attend the launch on Saturday Morning! Some specs on BLT-25 include: Live Main Payload Color ATV = 1255 FM 900 mW Crossband FM Repeater Uplink = 146.000 & Downlink = 446.000 Crossband VHF/HF Repeater Uplink = 146.435 MHZ FM & Downlink = 28.636 MHz DSB APRS GPS Downlink = 440.950 W5ACM-9 250 mW Backup APRS GPS Downlink = 445.925 W5ACM-8 300 mW Digital Camera with a picture every 15 seconds Digital Video Camera with Two Hours of On-Board Memory Remote Control System for Video Camera Selection (Hi-Res & Lo-Res) Audio Beeper Special SECOND Balloon with 144.390 MHz APRS Data, Cameras, etc. - Boy Scout Launch! Launch Coordination Frequency = 147.435 MHz We still have a nice selection of BLT-25 T shirts with all sizes from Small through 2XL with only one gap - size L. The $20 donation for a shirt keeps us high on Helium... Trust me, this is a Good Thing! Help us stay high in the sky! Don't Miss It! We're on for 10 AM - August 29, 2009! Wharton Municipal Airport We Have Been Beyond The Edge of Space!!!! Andy W5ACM From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Fri Aug 28 10:35:31 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:35:31 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport Message-ID: Map: http://home.swbell.net/s4us/Wharton_Muni_zoom.jpg BLT-25 Website: http://www.w5acm.net/b25.html To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From afmattis at hal-pc.org Fri Aug 28 11:17:42 2009 From: afmattis at hal-pc.org (Allen F. Mattis) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:17:42 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 Message-ID: Due to my medical condition I am unable to attend the launch in Wharton. I plan to listen for both repeaters and work through them if possible from my house in Houston. I will begin listening about 10 AM - I believe I recall that at least one of the launches got off a little early. Allen N5AFV 713-204-8069 if you need to call me From TxLawMan at aol.com Fri Aug 28 21:55:30 2009 From: TxLawMan at aol.com (TxLawMan at aol.com) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:55:30 EDT Subject: [BLT] B LT-25 Message-ID: Chances are I am not gonna make it in the morning. Had a situation come up that needs tending to. I'll try to participate from here if possible. From wha at rcallen.com Sat Aug 29 08:36:06 2009 From: wha at rcallen.com (Will Allen) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:36:06 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport Message-ID: <20090829093608.GA14698@mail11a.verio-web.com> To the edge of space, And back... Have a great flight, Will KD5IIU -----Original Message----- From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 10:35 AM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport Map: http://home.swbell.net/s4us/Wharton_Muni_zoom.jpg BLT-25 Website: http://www.w5acm.net/b25.html To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From kg5ai at comcast.net Sat Aug 29 10:52:38 2009 From: kg5ai at comcast.net (Myles Barkman) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:52:38 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport References: <20090829093608.GA14698@mail11a.verio-web.com> Message-ID: FYI, uplink is on 147.435 MHz, downlink 446.000 for FM crossband repeater. Balloon is up. Myles KG5AI ----- Original Message ----- From: "Will Allen" To: ; Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 8:36 AM Subject: Re: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport > To the edge of space, > > And back... > > Have a great flight, > > Will > KD5IIU > > -----Original Message----- > From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com > Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 10:35 AM > To: blt at stevens.com > Subject: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport > > Map: http://home.swbell.net/s4us/Wharton_Muni_zoom.jpg > > > > BLT-25 Website: http://www.w5acm.net/b25.html > > > > To The Edge of Space! > > > > Andy W5ACM > > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From n5en at wt.net Sat Aug 29 11:24:05 2009 From: n5en at wt.net (Steve Niles) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:24:05 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 THIS SATURDAY!!! Message-ID: <20090829092446.B8F77DE@dm0207.mta.everyone.net> Crossband uplink is actually 147.435, down is 446.000. Steve -----Original Message----- From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 11:44 PM To: blt at stevens.com Cc: hqrp at stevens.com; hats at stevens.com; hqrp at yahoogroups.com Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 THIS SATURDAY!!! BLT Team, We have added quite a few photos to the BLT web pages (http://www.w5acm.net ). Be sure to check them out, and also attend the launch on Saturday Morning! Some specs on BLT-25 include: Live Main Payload Color ATV = 1255 FM 900 mW Crossband FM Repeater Uplink = 146.000 & Downlink = 446.000 Crossband VHF/HF Repeater Uplink = 146.435 MHZ FM & Downlink = 28.636 MHz DSB APRS GPS Downlink = 440.950 W5ACM-9 250 mW Backup APRS GPS Downlink = 445.925 W5ACM-8 300 mW Digital Camera with a picture every 15 seconds Digital Video Camera with Two Hours of On-Board Memory Remote Control System for Video Camera Selection (Hi-Res & Lo-Res) Audio Beeper Special SECOND Balloon with 144.390 MHz APRS Data, Cameras, etc. - Boy Scout Launch! Launch Coordination Frequency = 147.435 MHz We still have a nice selection of BLT-25 T shirts with all sizes from Small through 2XL with only one gap - size L. The $20 donation for a shirt keeps us high on Helium... Trust me, this is a Good Thing! Help us stay high in the sky! Don't Miss It! We're on for 10 AM - August 29, 2009! Wharton Municipal Airport We Have Been Beyond The Edge of Space!!!! Andy W5ACM [The entire original message is not included] From kg5ai at comcast.net Sat Aug 29 12:53:50 2009 From: kg5ai at comcast.net (Myles Barkman) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:53:50 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 THIS SATURDAY!!! References: <20090829092446.B8F77DE@dm0207.mta.everyone.net> Message-ID: <89EF7064E2F04F928596BA4F2F99435D@Office> This will show the altitude as well. Appears to be on way down. http://k6ib.com/cgi-bin/aprs/tracker?view=A&call=w5acm-9&icon=2 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Niles" To: ; Cc: ; ; Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 11:24 AM Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT-25 THIS SATURDAY!!! > Crossband uplink is actually 147.435, down is 446.000. > > Steve > > -----Original Message----- > From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com > Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 11:44 PM > To: blt at stevens.com > Cc: hqrp at stevens.com; hats at stevens.com; hqrp at yahoogroups.com > Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 THIS SATURDAY!!! > > BLT Team, > > We have added quite a few photos to the BLT web pages > (http://www.w5acm.net ). Be sure to check them out, > and also attend the launch on Saturday Morning! Some specs on BLT-25 > include: > > Live Main Payload Color ATV = 1255 FM 900 mW > Crossband FM Repeater Uplink = 146.000 & Downlink = 446.000 > Crossband VHF/HF Repeater Uplink = 146.435 MHZ FM & Downlink = 28.636 MHz > DSB > APRS GPS Downlink = 440.950 W5ACM-9 250 mW > Backup APRS GPS Downlink = 445.925 W5ACM-8 300 mW > Digital Camera with a picture every 15 seconds > Digital Video Camera with Two Hours of On-Board Memory > Remote Control System for Video Camera Selection (Hi-Res & Lo-Res) > Audio Beeper > > Special SECOND Balloon with 144.390 MHz APRS Data, Cameras, etc. - Boy > Scout Launch! > > Launch Coordination Frequency = 147.435 MHz > > We still have a nice selection of BLT-25 T shirts with all sizes from > Small through 2XL with only one gap - size L. The $20 donation for a shirt > keeps us high on Helium... Trust me, this is a Good Thing! Help us stay > high in the sky! > > Don't Miss It! We're on for 10 AM - August 29, 2009! > Wharton Municipal Airport > > We Have Been Beyond The Edge of Space!!!! > > Andy W5ACM > > > [The entire original message is not included] > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From tcm10 at comcast.net Sat Aug 29 18:52:49 2009 From: tcm10 at comcast.net (Tom Matthews) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:52:49 -0500 Subject: [BLT] 70 CM arrow Recovered from Airport Message-ID: For the young man who was operating an 817 and also had an Arrow with only the 70 cm elements fixed - I was the last one to leave and noticed your antenna leaning agains the fence. Let me know how to get it back to you - Congratulations on your fantastic app for the iPhone - keep me posted. Regards, Tom K5SAF Cell 713 249-5374 From pabad at swbell.net Sun Aug 30 02:29:45 2009 From: pabad at swbell.net (Pete Abad) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:29:45 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Good news from "The Edge ofSpace!" Message-ID: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> The balloon exceeded 90,000 feet then landed in between the separated north/south lanes of Hwy 59 near Kendelton. Total pictures taken by the on board digita still camera: 1184 (Looking forward to ehnancing the best shots.) Total digital recorded time of the 70cm crossband repeater: 4 hrs, 11 min, 16 sec. (Quality is excellant.) These are pre-editing numbers. The actual usable date will be less after editing. Looking for video. If you took video at the BLT-25 event and wish to have it included in the final BLT-25 dvd with full credit for your contribution, pleas contact me. Prefer un-edited video as each time it is edited, the video is uncompressed then recompressed reducing the quality of the video. I produce the final version in one editing session. Finished works welcomed. Thank you. 73, Pete Abad KD5ELH From cekeng at comcast.net Sun Aug 30 09:05:12 2009 From: cekeng at comcast.net (Charlie) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:05:12 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Now the Bad news from "The Edge of Space!" In-Reply-To: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> Message-ID: High-resolution Camera Failed, Again! Need to find out what happen to the high res. camera. History: BLT-24 Camera works great in all tests. Camera failed at launch. We assumed it was high humidity and fog inside the camera. Was it? BLT-25 Camera works great in all tests. Camera failed at launch. We need to do testing soon. Could it be failure due to High RF inside the package? I would like to put the package back to launch conditions at the Lab. Then see what happens. Remove the power to each piece at a time and see if we can find what happens. Let's find the problem and not just put blanket on part tell the problem goes away. I would like to do this sooner that later at launch prep for BLT-26 when we go over 100,000 ft. Charlie _____ From tcm10 at comcast.net Sun Aug 30 09:47:42 2009 From: tcm10 at comcast.net (Tom Matthews) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:47:42 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Good news from "The Edge ofSpace!" In-Reply-To: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> References: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> Message-ID: <4FC99C11C2B94154BEEBF28E7FB66BCB@TCMPC> Pete, I will see how the direct digital capture compares with the analog version and get you the best of the two or both. Repeater downlink is (should be) on the right audio channel this time - Tom K5SAF -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Pete Abad Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 2:30 AM To: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com; cekeng at comcast.net; Mike Scarcella; Tony Summerville; Ron Sparks; BLT Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Good news from "The Edge ofSpace!" The balloon exceeded 90,000 feet then landed in between the separated north/south lanes of Hwy 59 near Kendelton. Total pictures taken by the on board digita still camera: 1184 (Looking forward to ehnancing the best shots.) Total digital recorded time of the 70cm crossband repeater: 4 hrs, 11 min, 16 sec. (Quality is excellant.) These are pre-editing numbers. The actual usable date will be less after editing. Looking for video. If you took video at the BLT-25 event and wish to have it included in the final BLT-25 dvd with full credit for your contribution, pleas contact me. Prefer un-edited video as each time it is edited, the video is uncompressed then recompressed reducing the quality of the video. I produce the final version in one editing session. Finished works welcomed. Thank you. 73, Pete Abad KD5ELH _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From ab5ss at swbell.net Sun Aug 30 09:59:51 2009 From: ab5ss at swbell.net (John Maca) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:59:51 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Place to share your BLT-25 Photo's with the group In-Reply-To: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> References: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> Message-ID: <8C1D8E20-F902-4A99-AD93-D185175B9526@swbell.net> All - I created an album on my MobileMe site for folks to upload any BLT pictures they want to share with the group. It's open to anyone for upload & download of pictures, no video please :) I thought this might be more convenient than emailing MB's of photos around. I'll keep this album up for a month or so, then take it down. Enjoy. John AB5SS On Aug 30, 2009, at 2:29 AM, Pete Abad wrote: > The balloon exceeded 90,000 feet then landed in between the > separated north/south lanes of Hwy 59 near Kendelton. > > Total pictures taken by the on board digita still camera: > > 1184 (Looking forward to ehnancing the best shots.) > > Total digital recorded time of the 70cm crossband repeater: > > 4 hrs, 11 min, 16 sec. (Quality is excellant.) > > These are pre-editing numbers. The actual usable date will be less > after editing. > > Looking for video. If you took video at the BLT-25 event and wish > to have it included in the final BLT-25 dvd with full credit for > your contribution, pleas contact me. Prefer un-edited video as each > time it is edited, the video is uncompressed then recompressed > reducing the quality of the video. I produce the final version in > one editing session. Finished works welcomed. Thank you. > > 73, > Pete Abad KD5ELH > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From ka5cvh at gmail.com Sun Aug 30 13:27:20 2009 From: ka5cvh at gmail.com (Mike (KA5CVH) Urich) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:27:20 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Now the Bad news from "The Edge of Space!" In-Reply-To: <4a9a873f.2802be0a.0b18.ffffa864SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> References: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> <4a9a873f.2802be0a.0b18.ffffa864SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> Message-ID: <15b2c6c70908301127w79cf423bycd6b97424d9ca449@mail.gmail.com> On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Charlie wrote: > High-resolution Camera Failed, Again! Mike wrote As a semi-pro photographer from many many years ago I had even very good lens' (Carl Zeiss) that would behave poorly at 12,000' -14,000' elevation. I would suspect that there is nothing wrong with the camera but the lens can not handle the altitude. This would be something to contact the manufacturer and ask them about. -- Hooray for the rich, because a poor man never gave me a job. Mike Urich http://ka5cvh.com http://www.medinafortexas.com/ From w5acm at swbell.net Sun Aug 30 13:38:48 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:38:48 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Good news from "The Edge ofSpace!" References: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> Message-ID: Pete, et. al., YES, Please forward all pix and videos to Pete! We want it ALL for the BLT-25 DVD. BTW: I will be providing (among other things) the single 3 hr video file that the onboard digital camcorder took... It worked FLAWLESSLY! Thanks to Tom K5SAF for obtining this unit for the BLT! There were some issues with "blooming" due to the high light-level reflections off the clouds as we approached (and exceeded) 95, 000 feet, but it has been FUN to watch! The camcorder's internal microphone caught all kinds of things like the audio beeper, conversations around the payload both prior to launch and after recovery! Did you know that the apparent audio frequency of the beeper gets higher as the air gets thinner? This is most likely due to the beeper, but it's interesting. Did you know that when the air is gone you can't hear the beeper? :-) At burst you can hear a slight "pop" sound, and then a HUGE rushing as re-entry begins. The wind sounds different on the way down compared to on the way up. And yes, you get to see Highway 59 up close and personal as BLT-25 comes in for a landing! Congrats and Thanks to All of our on-site participants this year! Andy W5ACM ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pete Abad" To: ; ; "Mike Scarcella" ; "Tony Summerville" ; "Ron Sparks" ; "BLT" Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 2:29 AM Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Good news from "The Edge ofSpace!" > The balloon exceeded 90,000 feet then landed in between the separated > north/south lanes of Hwy 59 near Kendelton. > > Total pictures taken by the on board digita still camera: > > 1184 (Looking forward to ehnancing the best shots.) > > Total digital recorded time of the 70cm crossband repeater: > > 4 hrs, 11 min, 16 sec. (Quality is excellant.) > > These are pre-editing numbers. The actual usable date will be less after > editing. > > Looking for video. If you took video at the BLT-25 event and wish to have > it included in the final BLT-25 dvd with full credit for your > contribution, pleas contact me. Prefer un-edited video as each time it is > edited, the video is uncompressed then recompressed reducing the quality > of the video. I produce the final version in one editing session. > Finished works welcomed. Thank you. > > 73, > Pete Abad KD5ELH > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > From w5acm at swbell.net Sun Aug 30 13:50:27 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:50:27 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Now the Bad news from "The Edge of Space!" References: <200908301405.n7UE5hJO003381@nlpi084.prodigy.net> Message-ID: <21BC2F0E9A3C41E3A7C747B56A20A3F3@w5acmathlon> Charlie, et. al., The camear failure on BLT-24 was dramatic and a real head-scratcher, i.e. no picture, and nothing we seemed to do would get it working. For BLT-25 it appears that the internal computer (I never saw a mini-cam with THIS many menus) was not set for automatic iris operation. I think we just need to learn more about the camera and give it a really good test in very bright sunlight. It was working, but the white level was way wrong. I was supposed to send the commands to change cameras during the flight, but was having too much fun listening to the 10M downlink, making some contacts and watching the Fabulous ATV downlink! So we don't know for sure if the camera would have tried to compensate for the high light level during the flight. We need to get into some serious study and practice programming and understanding this versatile cam - as you say soon - and not later. We also need to have more operators ready to step in and send commands to the payload from the ground. I must say that the back-up camera gave us a really good show via the system that Tom had running at our Wharton Flight Control Center! Andy W5ACM ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charlie" To: "'BLT'" Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 9:05 AM Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Now the Bad news from "The Edge of Space!" > High-resolution Camera Failed, Again! > > Need to find out what happen to the high res. camera. > > History: > > BLT-24 > > Camera works great in all tests. > > Camera failed at launch. > > We assumed it was high humidity and fog inside the camera. Was it? > > BLT-25 > > Camera works great in all tests. > > Camera failed at launch. > > We need to do testing soon. > > Could it be failure due to High RF inside the package? > > I would like to put the package back to launch conditions at the Lab. > > Then see what happens. > > Remove the power to each piece at a time and see if we can find what > happens. > > Let's find the problem and not just put blanket on part tell the problem > goes away. > > I would like to do this sooner that later at launch prep for BLT-26 when > we > go over 100,000 ft. > > Charlie > _____ > From N5MT at aol.com Sun Aug 30 16:39:17 2009 From: N5MT at aol.com (N5MT at aol.com) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:39:17 EDT Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 - Video by N5MT Message-ID: I finished making a copy of my video and I had 53 video clips for 1.2 Gig of data. I only took 24 still shots so that was about 30 megs. I have made a DVD and need Pete's mailing address so I can send the DVD I just made. I was at the landing site, actually about 500 ft away from the landing site, when several of us captured video and stills of the package descending from about 3000 ft. It was directly overhead and the sun was also there so the quality of some of the shots were poor but I can see the package by looking at a larger computer screen and it was there but small in size. There was some distortion from the sun rays off the package in two frames. Somehow I missed the shot where it was 5 sec above the highway. N5EY Tom and John M were both taking pics so hopefully they had better pics of the final seconds. 73 Mike N5MT From ab5ss at swbell.net Sun Aug 30 18:30:55 2009 From: ab5ss at swbell.net (John Maca) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:30:55 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Place to share your BLT-25 Photo's with the group In-Reply-To: <8C1D8E20-F902-4A99-AD93-D185175B9526@swbell.net> References: <53C0F7830D6343FC8B51D72D00BD48BC@RamboII> <8C1D8E20-F902-4A99-AD93-D185175B9526@swbell.net> Message-ID: <3CB113A1-DCF0-47CB-838B-BF3BF6A2EE47@swbell.net> Sorry, I forgot to post the link. It's http://gallery.me.com/jjmaca#100129 On Aug 30, 2009, at 9:59 AM, John Maca wrote: > All - I created an album on my MobileMe site for folks to upload any > BLT pictures they want to share with the group. It's open to anyone > for upload & download of pictures, no video please :) I thought this > might be more convenient than emailing MB's of photos around. I'll > keep this album up for a month or so, then take it down. Enjoy. > > John > AB5SS > > On Aug 30, 2009, at 2:29 AM, Pete Abad wrote: > >> The balloon exceeded 90,000 feet then landed in between the >> separated north/south lanes of Hwy 59 near Kendelton. >> >> Total pictures taken by the on board digita still camera: >> >> 1184 (Looking forward to ehnancing the best shots.) >> >> Total digital recorded time of the 70cm crossband repeater: >> >> 4 hrs, 11 min, 16 sec. (Quality is excellant.) >> >> These are pre-editing numbers. The actual usable date will be less >> after editing. >> >> Looking for video. If you took video at the BLT-25 event and wish >> to have it included in the final BLT-25 dvd with full credit for >> your contribution, pleas contact me. Prefer un-edited video as each >> time it is edited, the video is uncompressed then recompressed >> reducing the quality of the video. I produce the final version in >> one editing session. Finished works welcomed. Thank you. >> >> 73, >> Pete Abad KD5ELH >> >> _______________________________________________ >> BLT mailing list >> BLT at stevens.com >> http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From w5acm at swbell.net Sun Aug 30 14:16:40 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:16:40 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Uplink change on VHF/UHF repeater References: <20090829093608.GA14698@mail11a.verio-web.com> Message-ID: Sorry about the uplink change! We used a different cross-band HT at the last minute for the VHF/UHF cross-band repeater, and didn't notice that the receive frequency had not been changed to the new 146 MHz setting!!! It certainly worked well though! When I opened the main payload after the flight, the cross-band HT was almost too hot to handle. It got Quite a workout!!! 73 de Andy W5ACM ----- Original Message ----- From: "Myles Barkman" To: Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:52 AM Subject: Re: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport > FYI, uplink is on 147.435 MHz, downlink 446.000 for FM crossband repeater. > Balloon is up. > > Myles KG5AI > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Will Allen" > To: ; > Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 8:36 AM > Subject: Re: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport > > >> To the edge of space, >> >> And back... >> >> Have a great flight, >> >> Will >> KD5IIU >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com >> Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 10:35 AM >> To: blt at stevens.com >> Subject: [BLT] Map to the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport >> >> Map: http://home.swbell.net/s4us/Wharton_Muni_zoom.jpg >> >> >> >> BLT-25 Website: http://www.w5acm.net/b25.html >> >> >> >> To The Edge of Space! >> >> >> >> Andy W5ACM >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> BLT mailing list >> BLT at stevens.com >> http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt >> >> _______________________________________________ >> BLT mailing list >> BLT at stevens.com >> http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > From w5ezmtx at gmail.com Mon Aug 31 06:46:35 2009 From: w5ezmtx at gmail.com (A.C. SPRAGGINS) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:46:35 +0000 Subject: [BLT] BLT 25 Makes Big News in Austin! Message-ID: Today's Daily Texan has a nice article about the flight. See this link: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/state-local/ut-alums-radio-operators-launch-research-balloon-1.1849863 73 de A.C. -- A.C. SPRAGGINS w5ezmtx at gmail.com Texas: From n5en at wt.net Mon Aug 31 09:04:35 2009 From: n5en at wt.net (Steve Niles) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:04:35 -0700 Subject: [BLT] BLT 25 track maps Message-ID: <20090831070435.5CD1CA87@resin16.mta.everyone.net> Here's a couple maps (from aprs.fi) showing BLT25's track and peak altitude packet of 95,153 ft. [1]http://n5en.com/blt25map.jpg [2]http://n5en.com/blt25map2.jpg Congrats to the BLT25 team!!! 73 Steve N5EN References 1. http://n5en.com/blt25map.jpg 2. http://n5en.com/blt25map2.jpg From w5acm at swbell.net Mon Aug 31 23:07:44 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:07:44 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Thanks to Our Hosts! Message-ID: <7D12E2A5D23B4FFFA01E39D8431CC19C@w5acmathlon> Fredrick! MANY thanks for the hospitality this past Saturday! Your facilities were just perfect for our activities. Everyone enjoyed the event. We retrieved our payload with no problems, but the hunt continues for the Boy Scout Troop payload. I will make sure that you get a copy of our BLT-25 DVD when it is completed. I understand that some of our group went for Predator rides and really enjoyed them. We certainly had Calm Air & Big Smiles!! Andy MacAllister For The South Texas Balloon Launch Team -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Fredrick Scheffel [mailto:fredrick at SkyTrailsLSA.com] Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 4:27 PM To: MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU] Subject: RE: 2009 Launch! - Saturday August 29th Sounds good Andy, We look forward to seeing you-all here! Regards, Fredrick Scheffel, SFIE, CEO of SkyTrails LSA From w5acm at swbell.net Tue Sep 1 22:13:28 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 22:13:28 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Screen Caps from the JazzCam! Message-ID: JazzCam Speaks! Check out the Screen Caps! http://www.w5acm.net/b25_9830.html We did it!!! To 95,158 Feet - and Back! 73 de Andy W5ACM From w5ezmtx at gmail.com Mon Sep 7 20:12:41 2009 From: w5ezmtx at gmail.com (A.C. SPRAGGINS) Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 01:12:41 +0000 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25/BLT-26 SEPT. 9th Meeting Suggestion... Message-ID: Hey Gang! Congrats on a most interesting and successful flight on Aug. 29th, 2009! We've met, at talked, at Chili's many times. But, the suggestion was made, and seconded, that we meet at the Brick House restaurant and pub on Hwy. 290. So, I'm re-recommending that we meet there this week, Wed., Sept. 9th at 5:30. If you all accept my recommendation we should be able to debrief our last flight and discuss next year's event. Talk about a finale! For those who might need directions, the Brick House is on the outbound side of Hwy. 290, between Pinemont and Hollister. It's between Denny's and Hooter's. So, what say you? Yea or nay? They have a far better menu of food and beer! -- A.C. SPRAGGINS w5ezmtx at gmail.com Texas: From cekeng at comcast.net Mon Sep 7 21:00:57 2009 From: cekeng at comcast.net (Charlie) Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 21:00:57 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25/BLT-26 SEPT. 9th Meeting Suggestion... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I will not make a meeting at the brick house. Charlie K5ENG -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of A.C. SPRAGGINS Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 8:13 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT-25/BLT-26 SEPT. 9th Meeting Suggestion... Hey Gang! Congrats on a most interesting and successful flight on Aug. 29th, 2009! We've met, at talked, at Chili's many times. But, the suggestion was made, and seconded, that we meet at the Brick House restaurant and pub on Hwy. 290. So, I'm re-recommending that we meet there this week, Wed., Sept. 9th at 5:30. If you all accept my recommendation we should be able to debrief our last flight and discuss next year's event. Talk about a finale! For those who might need directions, the Brick House is on the outbound side of Hwy. 290, between Pinemont and Hollister. It's between Denny's and Hooter's. So, what say you? Yea or nay? They have a far better menu of food and beer! -- A.C. SPRAGGINS w5ezmtx at gmail.com Texas: _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From wa5twt at comcast.net Tue Sep 8 10:38:06 2009 From: wa5twt at comcast.net (Mike Scarcella) Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 10:38:06 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25/BLT-26 SEPT. 9th Meeting Suggestion... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2D44C2F2A2DF4216B6425C27A1295A5B@MikePC> sounds great to me! mike wa5twt -------------------------------------------------- From: "A.C. SPRAGGINS" Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 8:12 PM To: Subject: [BLT] BLT-25/BLT-26 SEPT. 9th Meeting Suggestion... > Hey Gang! > > Congrats on a most interesting and successful flight on Aug. 29th, 2009! > > We've met, at talked, at Chili's many times. But, the suggestion was > made, > and seconded, that we meet at the Brick House restaurant and pub on Hwy. > 290. > > So, I'm re-recommending that we meet there this week, Wed., Sept. 9th at > 5:30. > If you all accept my recommendation we should be able to debrief our last > flight and discuss next year's event. Talk about a finale! > > For those who might need directions, the Brick House is on the outbound > side > of Hwy. 290, between Pinemont and Hollister. It's between Denny's and > Hooter's. > > So, what say you? Yea or nay? They have a far better menu of food and > beer! > > -- > A.C. SPRAGGINS > w5ezmtx at gmail.com > Texas: > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Sep 8 16:08:49 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 16:08:49 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25/BLT-26 SEPT. 9th Meeting Suggestion... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: A.C., Thanks for bringing this up! I had forgotten about the suggestion. Not many responses so far, and it looks like a split vote... We can do Chili's this month, and continue the possible venue change discussion in earnest over a cold Blue Moon or Sam Adams. I have however, sent a request to the Chili's at I-10W and Beltway 8 requesting that they carry St Arnolds either on tap or bottle. Let's see if they listen... For September - I'll see you at Chili's! 5:30 PM - Wednesday - September 9th 1040 West Belt North Andy W5ACM -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of A.C. SPRAGGINS Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 8:13 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT-25/BLT-26 SEPT. 9th Meeting Suggestion... Hey Gang! Congrats on a most interesting and successful flight on Aug. 29th, 2009! We've met, at talked, at Chili's many times. But, the suggestion was made, and seconded, that we meet at the Brick House restaurant and pub on Hwy. 290. So, I'm re-recommending that we meet there this week, Wed., Sept. 9th at 5:30. If you all accept my recommendation we should be able to debrief our last flight and discuss next year's event. Talk about a finale! For those who might need directions, the Brick House is on the outbound side of Hwy. 290, between Pinemont and Hollister. It's between Denny's and Hooter's. So, what say you? Yea or nay? They have a far better menu of food and beer! -- A.C. SPRAGGINS w5ezmtx at gmail.com Texas: _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From rhiller at sdicgm.com Wed Sep 9 09:54:33 2009 From: rhiller at sdicgm.com (Rick Hiller) Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 09:54:33 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Hardline for Trade and/or Sale Message-ID: <004f01ca315d$718ce8a0$54a6b9e0$@com> I am starting to clear the garage (yet again). I have (unterminated) : Two - 70 foot runs of Comscope(?) 5/8" 75 ohm hardline -- cable TV distribution line, plastic jacket One - 100 foot run of Amphenol .405" 50 ohm hardline - aluminum outer conductor, no jacket I need: 100 feet of LMR-400 / 9913 or close equivalent Partials are fine, depending Trade: what I have for what I need OR Sell: for forty cents a foot OR any combination thereof...I'm easy. Location - Beechnut between 59 and the Beltway Questions? Let me know...Rick - W5RH rhiller at sdicgm.com From rons at sparkles.com Wed Sep 9 12:20:22 2009 From: rons at sparkles.com (Ron Sparks) Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:20:22 +0400 Subject: [BLT] BLT 25 track maps In-Reply-To: <20090831070435.5CD1CA87@resin16.mta.everyone.net> References: <20090831070435.5CD1CA87@resin16.mta.everyone.net> Message-ID: <4AA7E3D6.70304@sparkles.com> Great maps Steve. Does anybody have the raw BLT track/altitude data file they can send me? Thanks, Ron, AG5RS Steve Niles wrote: > Here's a couple maps (from aprs.fi) showing BLT25's track and peak altitude > packet of 95,153 ft. > [1]http://n5en.com/blt25map.jpg > [2]http://n5en.com/blt25map2.jpg > > Congrats to the BLT25 team!!! > > 73 > Steve N5EN > > References > > 1. http://n5en.com/blt25map.jpg > 2. http://n5en.com/blt25map2.jpg > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > From TxLawMan at aol.com Tue Sep 15 11:41:11 2009 From: TxLawMan at aol.com (TxLawMan at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:41:11 EDT Subject: [BLT] Balloon Launch Message-ID: A friend pointed me to this article. A non-ham endeavor. Brian _http://forums.ixplora.com/index.php?s=2ae28f7fdeedd0cb5132a0b000df3b42&show topic=11245&pid=35457&st=0&#entry35457_ (http://forums.ixplora.com/index.php?s=2ae28f7fdeedd0cb5132a0b000df3b42&showtopic=11245&pid=35457&st=0&#entry354 57) From ab5ss at swbell.net Tue Sep 15 13:29:53 2009 From: ab5ss at swbell.net (John Maca) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:29:53 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [BLT] MIT Balloon Launch In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <860758.63420.qm@web82703.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Check out this article. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget/ From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Thu Sep 17 08:24:03 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:24:03 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Space Data Balloon launches Message-ID: Harris N5QJE saw this one: http://urgentcomm.com/networks_and_systems/mag/remote-health-transceiver s-200909/ From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Wed Sep 23 15:47:48 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:47:48 -0500 Subject: [BLT] FW: CNN - Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth Message-ID: If you would like to check out the MIT guys' website info, go to http://space.1337arts.com/ This looks like a very fun way to get results! We beat them by a few days and a few thousand feet though... : - ) Andy ________________________________ From: darrell kirk [mailto:darrellk_us at yahoo.com] Subject: Fw: CNN - Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth I thought this was really cool - some body copied us... Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth Oliver Yeh is the kind of guy who cooks up ideas so kooky, so out-of-this-world, that even his fellow MIT students tend to roll their eyes when they hear them. But that never stops him. His latest concept -- to launch a camera into near-space using a weather balloon, a cell phone, hand warmers and a drink cooler -- fell flat when he sent out an e-mail message to dozens of his classmates, asking for help. Unfazed, Yeh managed to find one friend willing to chip in. And on September 2, the go-it-alone pair floated a balloon-camera high enough into the atmosphere to photograph the curvature of the Earth and the deep black of space, all on a lunch-money budget of $148. "For me, it was just about not being afraid to do what I love to do," said Yeh, a 20-year-old MIT senior studying computer science and electrical engineering. "Before, people were just kind of like, 'That's a crazy idea; there he goes all over again.' (Yeh once convinced a friend to float the Charles River with him on a raft made of plastic bottles.) "I didn't have a lot of people who wanted to do it with me, so I'm really glad I stuck it out and succeeded in what I wanted to do." After Yeh's fellow student and sidekick, Justin Lee, uploaded the story to CNN's iReport.com, their camera-to-space effort, which they named Project Icarus, went viral online. Since then, the duo has received a number of requests from other would-be space photographers, asking for their project notes. Yeh said he will post those soon on the project's Web site at 1337arts.com. They've gotten so many inquiries they had to post this warning: "CAUTION/DISCLAIMER: Launching things into the stratosphere can be DANGEROUS! Please contact the FAA before trying ..." These enterprising students seem to have hit a nerve with the public, probably because their effort costs so little, suggesting that anyone with some know-how and a few common tools can photograph the edge of space. That's something normally reserved for big-budget agencies like NASA. They're also tapping into the exploding do-it-yourself movement online. Web sites like Makezine.com and Instructables offer blueprints for people who want to make everything from wiener-dog wheelchairs to self-playing harmonicas. Most of the inventors who use these sites care more about the ideas and the sense of community and accomplishment than traditional rewards like copyrights and cash, said Eric Wilhelm, a former MIT student who is now CEO of Instructables. Yeh and Lee are far from the first people, or even the first students, to send balloons into near-space to take pictures. But their on-the-cheap methods and stunning images have earned them a glowing reputation among those who paved their way. Yeh and Lee also learned from those who came before them. They did tons of Internet research during the spring semester and over summer break, so that when they arrived back on MIT's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they set right to work. All of the parts they used are commonly available. Yeh and Lee bought a Canon camera on eBay and then fastened it inside a Styrofoam cooler. A hole poked in the side of the container let the camera lens gaze out into space, and they attached a Motorola Boost cell phone to the camera so it would send GPS coordinates back to Earth. A wireless router was hooked up to the mobile phone to give it the extra antenna power needed to send the coordinates down. And the students taped a hand warmer -- the kind skiers put in their gloves -- to the mobile phone's battery so it wouldn't freeze. "We weren't sure if they were both necessary, but we couldn't test it, because we couldn't find anything that's negative 40 degrees," Yeh said. "Our freezer stopped at negative 10, so that was the best we could do." The plan seemed simple enough -- at least to the MIT students. They would fill a spherical weather balloon, available online, with helium and float the entire cooler-camera-cell-phone apparatus high into the atmosphere. When the balloon had traveled about 17 miles up, air pressure would cause it to pop, and a parachute dangling from the side of the cooler would lower the contraption back to Earth. Then the GPS in the phone would tell them where to find their camera, which they set, using open-source software, to take photos every 5 seconds. Yeh and Lee knew that wind would change their contraption's course after launch, so they went on a free Web site to try to calculate roughly where the balloon would go. After some consideration, they decided to launch the balloon from a field near a warehouse in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. That was far enough from the coast, they hoped, to avoid sending the balloon and the camera into metro Boston or the Atlantic Ocean. But, not quite sure of the calculations, they pasted this note on the side of the cooler just in case: "If found, please call [their phone number]. ... Material contents are 100% safe/non-toxic/non-flammable and are part of a student science project. $40 reward." They rented a Zipcar, loaded up the cooler and left their apartments that night. After adding one person to the team -- a new student Lee had met at MIT orientation -- they drove 60 miles inland and slept on the ground at a parking lot, the car and their big idea waiting beside them. In the morning, they launched. The balloon stayed afloat for five fretful hours. During that time, all of the question marks about their cobbled-together process dominated Yeh's thinking: What if the phone battery died? What if it froze? What if the device crashed down to Earth too hard and the camera broke? What if it landed in the ocean? Or hit a person? Or a plane? The chance for a mishap seemed tremendous. Four hours after the launch, Lee said, the team thought all was lost. "We were like placing bets on whether we thought it would work or not," the 23-year-old mechanical engineering grad student said. "Early on, we were optimistic that it would work. About 4 hours after, [when] we hadn't heard any news about the device, we had sort of given up hope. We'd thought we'd lost it." Dejected, the group drove back to Boston to Lee's apartment. They checked his computer and found an unlikely signal: The camera had landed in a construction zone outside Worcester, Massachusetts, about 25 miles from the launch site. "We were so excited, we jumped right back into the car, and we drove out to Worcester, and we found it. That was a great moment," Lee said. They were amazed with the results. The camera was unharmed. The hand warmers were still hot. And the photos were amazing. "There's something that's fascinating about seeing the Earth from high -- I can't quite put my finger on it," Lee said. "But there's something just beautiful about seeing that." He said Yeh is the kind of person who has tons of zany ideas, so many that he's not always taken seriously. "Oliver also has a tendency to dream big without necessarily thinking about the required steps," he said. "He was like, 'Oh, let's go into space tomorrow!' And I was like, 'No, Oliver, we can't just release a balloon into space tomorrow ... We want it to succeed. We don't want it to fail.' " Lee said he admires Yeh's out-there imagination -- and his ability to follow up on his dreams. "A lot of people have ideas but don't do anything with them, but he actually does them," Lee said. Yeh's favorite photo is one captured at 93,000 feet, just as the balloon rises to its highest point and pops, revealing the black or space behind it. It's as if he had to let his vision reach its most insanely illogical peak before it produced something truly remarkable. From mullani at tlite.com Wed Sep 23 22:42:15 2009 From: mullani at tlite.com (Nizar A. Mullani) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:42:15 -0000 Subject: [BLT] FW: CNN - Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Yes. But, they have a high powered PR group behind them. They released a press report on their launch and got the publicity. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 3:48 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] FW: CNN - Students launch camera to edge of space,snap pics of Earth If you would like to check out the MIT guys' website info, go to http://space.1337arts.com/ This looks like a very fun way to get results! We beat them by a few days and a few thousand feet though... : - ) Andy ________________________________ From: darrell kirk [mailto:darrellk_us at yahoo.com] Subject: Fw: CNN - Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth I thought this was really cool - some body copied us... Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth Oliver Yeh is the kind of guy who cooks up ideas so kooky, so out-of-this-world, that even his fellow MIT students tend to roll their eyes when they hear them. But that never stops him. His latest concept -- to launch a camera into near-space using a weather balloon, a cell phone, hand warmers and a drink cooler -- fell flat when he sent out an e-mail message to dozens of his classmates, asking for help. Unfazed, Yeh managed to find one friend willing to chip in. And on September 2, the go-it-alone pair floated a balloon-camera high enough into the atmosphere to photograph the curvature of the Earth and the deep black of space, all on a lunch-money budget of $148. "For me, it was just about not being afraid to do what I love to do," said Yeh, a 20-year-old MIT senior studying computer science and electrical engineering. "Before, people were just kind of like, 'That's a crazy idea; there he goes all over again.' (Yeh once convinced a friend to float the Charles River with him on a raft made of plastic bottles.) "I didn't have a lot of people who wanted to do it with me, so I'm really glad I stuck it out and succeeded in what I wanted to do." After Yeh's fellow student and sidekick, Justin Lee, uploaded the story to CNN's iReport.com, their camera-to-space effort, which they named Project Icarus, went viral online. Since then, the duo has received a number of requests from other would-be space photographers, asking for their project notes. Yeh said he will post those soon on the project's Web site at 1337arts.com. They've gotten so many inquiries they had to post this warning: "CAUTION/DISCLAIMER: Launching things into the stratosphere can be DANGEROUS! Please contact the FAA before trying ..." These enterprising students seem to have hit a nerve with the public, probably because their effort costs so little, suggesting that anyone with some know-how and a few common tools can photograph the edge of space. That's something normally reserved for big-budget agencies like NASA. They're also tapping into the exploding do-it-yourself movement online. Web sites like Makezine.com and Instructables offer blueprints for people who want to make everything from wiener-dog wheelchairs to self-playing harmonicas. Most of the inventors who use these sites care more about the ideas and the sense of community and accomplishment than traditional rewards like copyrights and cash, said Eric Wilhelm, a former MIT student who is now CEO of Instructables. Yeh and Lee are far from the first people, or even the first students, to send balloons into near-space to take pictures. But their on-the-cheap methods and stunning images have earned them a glowing reputation among those who paved their way. Yeh and Lee also learned from those who came before them. They did tons of Internet research during the spring semester and over summer break, so that when they arrived back on MIT's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they set right to work. All of the parts they used are commonly available. Yeh and Lee bought a Canon camera on eBay and then fastened it inside a Styrofoam cooler. A hole poked in the side of the container let the camera lens gaze out into space, and they attached a Motorola Boost cell phone to the camera so it would send GPS coordinates back to Earth. A wireless router was hooked up to the mobile phone to give it the extra antenna power needed to send the coordinates down. And the students taped a hand warmer -- the kind skiers put in their gloves -- to the mobile phone's battery so it wouldn't freeze. "We weren't sure if they were both necessary, but we couldn't test it, because we couldn't find anything that's negative 40 degrees," Yeh said. "Our freezer stopped at negative 10, so that was the best we could do." The plan seemed simple enough -- at least to the MIT students. They would fill a spherical weather balloon, available online, with helium and float the entire cooler-camera-cell-phone apparatus high into the atmosphere. When the balloon had traveled about 17 miles up, air pressure would cause it to pop, and a parachute dangling from the side of the cooler would lower the contraption back to Earth. Then the GPS in the phone would tell them where to find their camera, which they set, using open-source software, to take photos every 5 seconds. Yeh and Lee knew that wind would change their contraption's course after launch, so they went on a free Web site to try to calculate roughly where the balloon would go. After some consideration, they decided to launch the balloon from a field near a warehouse in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. That was far enough from the coast, they hoped, to avoid sending the balloon and the camera into metro Boston or the Atlantic Ocean. But, not quite sure of the calculations, they pasted this note on the side of the cooler just in case: "If found, please call [their phone number]. ... Material contents are 100% safe/non-toxic/non-flammable and are part of a student science project. $40 reward." They rented a Zipcar, loaded up the cooler and left their apartments that night. After adding one person to the team -- a new student Lee had met at MIT orientation -- they drove 60 miles inland and slept on the ground at a parking lot, the car and their big idea waiting beside them. In the morning, they launched. The balloon stayed afloat for five fretful hours. During that time, all of the question marks about their cobbled-together process dominated Yeh's thinking: What if the phone battery died? What if it froze? What if the device crashed down to Earth too hard and the camera broke? What if it landed in the ocean? Or hit a person? Or a plane? The chance for a mishap seemed tremendous. Four hours after the launch, Lee said, the team thought all was lost. "We were like placing bets on whether we thought it would work or not," the 23-year-old mechanical engineering grad student said. "Early on, we were optimistic that it would work. About 4 hours after, [when] we hadn't heard any news about the device, we had sort of given up hope. We'd thought we'd lost it." Dejected, the group drove back to Boston to Lee's apartment. They checked his computer and found an unlikely signal: The camera had landed in a construction zone outside Worcester, Massachusetts, about 25 miles from the launch site. "We were so excited, we jumped right back into the car, and we drove out to Worcester, and we found it. That was a great moment," Lee said. They were amazed with the results. The camera was unharmed. The hand warmers were still hot. And the photos were amazing. "There's something that's fascinating about seeing the Earth from high -- I can't quite put my finger on it," Lee said. "But there's something just beautiful about seeing that." He said Yeh is the kind of person who has tons of zany ideas, so many that he's not always taken seriously. "Oliver also has a tendency to dream big without necessarily thinking about the required steps," he said. "He was like, 'Oh, let's go into space tomorrow!' And I was like, 'No, Oliver, we can't just release a balloon into space tomorrow ... We want it to succeed. We don't want it to fail.' " Lee said he admires Yeh's out-there imagination -- and his ability to follow up on his dreams. "A lot of people have ideas but don't do anything with them, but he actually does them," Lee said. Yeh's favorite photo is one captured at 93,000 feet, just as the balloon rises to its highest point and pops, revealing the black or space behind it. It's as if he had to let his vision reach its most insanely illogical peak before it produced something truly remarkable. _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From w5acm at swbell.net Mon Oct 5 22:32:36 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 22:32:36 -0500 Subject: [BLT] ARBONET III Rescheduled for October 17th Message-ID: <31124EF18B1342B08705BA93796AA5F0@w5acmathlon> Will the really get it up this time??? You be the judge! http://www.arbonet.net/ From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Oct 13 16:20:45 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:20:45 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - TOMORROW - Wednesday October 14th @ 5:30 PM Message-ID: BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, October 14, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at the Chili's located in the NE corner of I-10W and Beltway 8. Join us, and be sure to check out updates at http://www.w5acm.net/b25.html . BLT-25 was a fabulous success and work continues on a DVD of all available video. What should we investigate for the future? Let's get some solid ideas on the table. Last month we took a vote on a possible move to the Brickhouse on 290 for dinner meetings, but Chili's came out on top. We will discuss further and do another vote tomorrow. In addition to BLT topics, we will also discuss the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. We hope to resolve it all very soon, but for now, all systems are down. Many thanks to Pete KD5ELH for creating the BLT-25 T Shirts and to all of you that purchased BLT-25 T Shirts!! K5WH WB5QCC WD5HNG KC5JAR N5MT AG5RS W5EZM KA5IIA K9TEX K5ENG N5RPQ KE5GDB W5RH KK5SC N5LKJ WA5TWT WA5WOD K5SAF AD5SS W2CVZ K5LIB KK2Z W5MOM N5VRT KD5ELH WA5VQH W5ACM I have some shirts left. A complete size list will be sent soon. We even have a few shirts from previous missions. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. YOUR support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From n5en at wt.net Thu Oct 15 14:36:27 2009 From: n5en at wt.net (Steve Niles) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:36:27 -0700 Subject: [BLT] 6-year-old boy, balloon launch... Message-ID: <20091015123627.A676E70C@resin11.mta.everyone.net> A 6-year-old boy climbed into a homemade balloon aircraft in Colorado and floated away Thursday, forcing officials to scramble to figure out how to rescue the boy as the balloon hurtled through the air. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091015/ap_on_re_us/us_boy_in_balloon Steve N5EN From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Mon Oct 19 09:54:36 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:54:36 -0500 Subject: [BLT] Report on ARBONET 3 - It Happened! Message-ID: Check out the specs on the flight of ARBONT 3: http://www.arbonet.net/blog/ Congrats to Doug W5BL and the ARBONET crew! From w5acm at swbell.net Tue Oct 20 22:10:40 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:10:40 -0500 Subject: [BLT] BLT-25 T-Shirt Count - just a few shirts are left! Message-ID: BLT Team! Join the club! Support your local BLT, and keep them independent! The shirt-sale proceeds buy helium, balloons, batteries and other consumables. Here is the last of the BLT-25 shirt inventory: Three 2XL One XL Two M Two S I am impressed! Pete KD5ELH did a superb job on second guessing the number of shirts to buy, but let's clear the last few out. I also have some pristine/new shirts from previous flights. They include: One M BLT-22 Two L BLT-17 All shirts go for a donation of $20 USD each - domestic shipping included. PayPal is preferred - to andrew.macallister at emerson.com Checks are also fine, but send an e-mail to reserve your choice. First come - First served. Checks or money orders should be made out to Andrew MacAllister, and sent to my registerred callsign address. We did it! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM BTW: I unintentionally left a few callsigns off the list of BLT-25 supporters (shirt buyers). Let me know if you are one. Also, be sure to check the BLT-25 pages at http://www.w5acm.net for new photos and a 72 MB video file of BLT-25 as seen by the Jazz Cam. From w5acm at swbell.net Thu Nov 5 22:17:54 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 22:17:54 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Balloon hunt Message-ID: <91B58F3A2326487AB60DE787A632B362@w5acmathlon> DARPA to host wild balloon chase Challenge features 10 red balloons a.. By Doug Beizerb.. Nov 04, 2009 A contest planned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will challenge contestants to use the Internet to locate the 10 large red weather balloons the agency will place across the continental United States, DARPA officials announced last week. DARPA will put the balloons in publicly accessible locations and display them for one day during daylight hours. The first participant to identify the latitude and longitude of all the balloons will receive the $40,000 cash prize. The balloons will be positioned Dec. 5, DARPA officials said Oct. 29. The competition, named the DARPA Network Challenge , marks the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA officials said. ?In the 40 years since this breakthrough, the Internet has become an integral part of society and the global economy,? said DARPA Director Regina Dugan. ?The DARPA Network Challenge explores the unprecedented ability of the Internet to bring people together to solve tough problems.? The contest is open to people of all ages worldwide. DARPA officials said the contest will demonstrate the importance of collaboration across borders, mobilizing individuals and groups to deal with problems aided by the Internet. DARPA has held competitions in the past including the Grand Challenge,which aimed to foster the development of autonomous robotic vehicle technology for use on the battlefield. From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Mon Nov 9 12:24:39 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 12:24:39 -0600 Subject: [BLT] FW: competition BLT26? Message-ID: From: Bill Reass Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 12:15 PM WHAT!!! We are being out-geeked!! check it out!! http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/09/balloon.irpt/index.html Maybe the BLT team needs twitter and face book and now "I reports"!! From w5acm at swbell.net Mon Nov 9 21:50:45 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 21:50:45 -0600 Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday November 11th @ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Message-ID: BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be testing a new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! In addition to BLT topics, we will also discuss the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. We hope to resolve it all very soon, but for now, all systems are down. Conversations have been on 147.435 MHz lately until Tony and Mike get the ducks to line up... As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! I had two on the QCWA cruise last month for "sea" days. To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From w5acm at swbell.net Tue Nov 10 22:27:51 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:27:51 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Final Reminder - BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday November 11th @ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Message-ID: <4E771E05D8AB47979379FC73678226DF@w5acmathlon> BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be testing a new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! In addition to BLT topics, we will also discuss the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. We hope to resolve it all very soon, but for now, all systems are down. Conversations have been on 147.435 MHz lately until Tony and Mike get the ducks to line up... As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! I had two on the QCWA cruise last month for "sea" days. To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From w5acm at swbell.net Mon Dec 7 00:06:00 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:06:00 -0600 Subject: [BLT] DARPA Balloons Message-ID: <434C6C4D5F2A4C5EBCDE2DF6C5E905E0@w5acmathlon> http://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/the-great-balloon-hunt 73 de Andy W5ACM FYI - Dinner Meeting coming up! THIS wednesday at The Brickhouse on 290. From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Tue Dec 8 16:04:38 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 16:04:38 -0600 Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Message-ID: BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at our new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! We have a table reserved for the event. Last month we discussed WiFi on BLT-26, camera work and the release of the official BLT-25 DVD. Pete is almost done. We will have it out to you ASAP. The cost will be nominal. The shirt donations have us covered for next year's financial needs! In addition to BLT topics, we will also continue discussions about the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM From mullani at tlite.com Tue Dec 8 17:00:15 2009 From: mullani at tlite.com (Nizar Mullani) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 17:00:15 -0600 Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <013f01ca785a$34a886d0$9df99470$@com> Andy, You may want to look at the Discone antenna for the WiFi part or even for video transmission. It has less of a null than the quarter wave antenna. I have attached an article of a discone antenna designed for WiFi use. http://www.timgineer.com/topics/discone Nizar -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:05 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Importance: High BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at our new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! We have a table reserved for the event. Last month we discussed WiFi on BLT-26, camera work and the release of the official BLT-25 DVD. Pete is almost done. We will have it out to you ASAP. The cost will be nominal. The shirt donations have us covered for next year's financial needs! In addition to BLT topics, we will also continue discussions about the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From rhiller at sdicgm.com Wed Dec 9 09:21:41 2009 From: rhiller at sdicgm.com (Rick Hiller) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 09:21:41 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <013f01ca785a$34a886d0$9df99470$@com> References: <013f01ca785a$34a886d0$9df99470$@com> Message-ID: <000a01ca78e3$4f8ab480$eea01d80$@com> IMHO....I assume this is for a balloon instrument package -- you would want a major lobe down facing from the package...so try an inverted 3/4 wl groundplane (3/4 wl vertical element with 1/4 wl radials). Easy to match and a major lobe right out the top of the vertical element. Rick -- W5RH ps...I wouldn't swear by the gain figures quoted in the article (sounded like an old QST Antenna ad claim ;-) ), plus his analysis is all referenced to the horizon....as you would apply it for land based use. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 5:00 PM To: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Andy, You may want to look at the Discone antenna for the WiFi part or even for video transmission. It has less of a null than the quarter wave antenna. I have attached an article of a discone antenna designed for WiFi use. http://www.timgineer.com/topics/discone Nizar -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:05 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Importance: High BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at our new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! We have a table reserved for the event. Last month we discussed WiFi on BLT-26, camera work and the release of the official BLT-25 DVD. Pete is almost done. We will have it out to you ASAP. The cost will be nominal. The shirt donations have us covered for next year's financial needs! In addition to BLT topics, we will also continue discussions about the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Wed Dec 9 10:30:07 2009 From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com (Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 10:30:07 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <000a01ca78e3$4f8ab480$eea01d80$@com> References: <013f01ca785a$34a886d0$9df99470$@com> <000a01ca78e3$4f8ab480$eea01d80$@com> Message-ID: Actually, we would want coverage out to the horizon but with less null straight down. As the payload wobbles, the null point off the quarter-wave whip interferes with local reception, i.e. those stations that are within the area that can be directly in line with the radiator. We can't make a stable platform. I anticipate that we will get a number of stations around Texas (horizon) that will want to try connecting if we get the specs out early enough, but we will want solid copy from Wharton also. Any thoughts? Andy -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Rick Hiller Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 9:22 AM To: 'Nizar Mullani'; MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU]; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments IMHO....I assume this is for a balloon instrument package -- you would want a major lobe down facing from the package...so try an inverted 3/4 wl groundplane (3/4 wl vertical element with 1/4 wl radials). Easy to match and a major lobe right out the top of the vertical element. Rick -- W5RH ps...I wouldn't swear by the gain figures quoted in the article (sounded like an old QST Antenna ad claim ;-) ), plus his analysis is all referenced to the horizon....as you would apply it for land based use. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 5:00 PM To: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Andy, You may want to look at the Discone antenna for the WiFi part or even for video transmission. It has less of a null than the quarter wave antenna. I have attached an article of a discone antenna designed for WiFi use. http://www.timgineer.com/topics/discone Nizar -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:05 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Importance: High BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at our new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! We have a table reserved for the event. Last month we discussed WiFi on BLT-26, camera work and the release of the official BLT-25 DVD. Pete is almost done. We will have it out to you ASAP. The cost will be nominal. The shirt donations have us covered for next year's financial needs! In addition to BLT topics, we will also continue discussions about the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From rhiller at sdicgm.com Wed Dec 9 11:09:54 2009 From: rhiller at sdicgm.com (Rick Hiller) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:09:54 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: References: <013f01ca785a$34a886d0$9df99470$@com> <000a01ca78e3$4f8ab480$eea01d80$@com> Message-ID: <005e01ca78f2$6d91a240$48b4e6c0$@com> Andy, With the 3/4 vertical you will get coverage on the horizon also......the main lobes of this antenna are along the vertical element and also, just like a 1/4 wl GP vertical, on the horizon, but with slightly less field strength, as that is redistributed to the increased vertical lobe. Maybe that is what Nizar was saying about the discone -- that the "gap" between the horizon oriented lobe and the vertical oriented lobe is less with the discone, so that you get more of a Ball or dome shaped pattern, which would be what you ideally require due to your moving platform. If so, I will be quiet. Regards....Rick -- W5RH -----Original Message----- From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com [mailto:Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:30 AM To: rhiller at sdicgm.com; mullani at tlite.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: RE: [BLT] Discone comments Actually, we would want coverage out to the horizon but with less null straight down. As the payload wobbles, the null point off the quarter-wave whip interferes with local reception, i.e. those stations that are within the area that can be directly in line with the radiator. We can't make a stable platform. I anticipate that we will get a number of stations around Texas (horizon) that will want to try connecting if we get the specs out early enough, but we will want solid copy from Wharton also. Any thoughts? Andy -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Rick Hiller Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 9:22 AM To: 'Nizar Mullani'; MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU]; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments IMHO....I assume this is for a balloon instrument package -- you would want a major lobe down facing from the package...so try an inverted 3/4 wl groundplane (3/4 wl vertical element with 1/4 wl radials). Easy to match and a major lobe right out the top of the vertical element. Rick -- W5RH ps...I wouldn't swear by the gain figures quoted in the article (sounded like an old QST Antenna ad claim ;-) ), plus his analysis is all referenced to the horizon....as you would apply it for land based use. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 5:00 PM To: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Andy, You may want to look at the Discone antenna for the WiFi part or even for video transmission. It has less of a null than the quarter wave antenna. I have attached an article of a discone antenna designed for WiFi use. http://www.timgineer.com/topics/discone Nizar -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:05 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Importance: High BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at our new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! We have a table reserved for the event. Last month we discussed WiFi on BLT-26, camera work and the release of the official BLT-25 DVD. Pete is almost done. We will have it out to you ASAP. The cost will be nominal. The shirt donations have us covered for next year's financial needs! In addition to BLT topics, we will also continue discussions about the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From n5en at wt.net Wed Dec 9 11:14:44 2009 From: n5en at wt.net (Steve Niles) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 09:14:44 -0800 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments Message-ID: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> How about an eggbeater? No nulls. Steve N5EN --- rhiller at sdicgm.com wrote: From: "Rick Hiller" To: , , Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:09:54 -0600 Andy, With the 3/4 vertical you will get coverage on the horizon also......the main lobes of this antenna are along the vertical element and also, just like a 1/4 wl GP vertical, on the horizon, but with slightly less field strength, as that is redistributed to the increased vertical lobe. Maybe that is what Nizar was saying about the discone -- that the "gap" between the horizon oriented lobe and the vertical oriented lobe is less with the discone, so that you get more of a Ball or dome shaped pattern, which would be what you ideally require due to your moving platform. If so, I will be quiet. Regards....Rick -- W5RH -----Original Message----- From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com [mailto:Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:30 AM To: rhiller at sdicgm.com; mullani at tlite.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: RE: [BLT] Discone comments Actually, we would want coverage out to the horizon but with less null straight down. As the payload wobbles, the null point off the quarter-wave whip interferes with local reception, i.e. those stations that are within the area that can be directly in line with the radiator. We can't make a stable platform. I anticipate that we will get a number of stations around Texas (horizon) that will want to try connecting if we get the specs out early enough, but we will want solid copy from Wharton also. Any thoughts? Andy -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Rick Hiller Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 9:22 AM To: 'Nizar Mullani'; MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU]; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments IMHO....I assume this is for a balloon instrument package -- you would want a major lobe down facing from the package...so try an inverted 3/4 wl groundplane (3/4 wl vertical element with 1/4 wl radials). Easy to match and a major lobe right out the top of the vertical element. Rick -- W5RH ps...I wouldn't swear by the gain figures quoted in the article (sounded like an old QST Antenna ad claim ;-) ), plus his analysis is all referenced to the horizon....as you would apply it for land based use. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 5:00 PM To: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Andy, You may want to look at the Discone antenna for the WiFi part or even for video transmission. It has less of a null than the quarter wave antenna. I have attached an article of a discone antenna designed for WiFi use. http://www.timgineer.com/topics/discone Nizar -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:05 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Importance: High BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at our new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! We have a table reserved for the event. Last month we discussed WiFi on BLT-26, camera work and the release of the official BLT-25 DVD. Pete is almost done. We will have it out to you ASAP. The cost will be nominal. The shirt donations have us covered for next year's financial needs! In addition to BLT topics, we will also continue discussions about the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From rhiller at sdicgm.com Wed Dec 9 12:11:04 2009 From: rhiller at sdicgm.com (Rick Hiller) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 12:11:04 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> Message-ID: <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> Yep!....really an egg beater or turnstile, depending on how much effort you want to put into phasing,etc. At 2.4GHz, I'd have to put on my reading glasses to work on it -- hi...Rick--W5RH -----Original Message----- From: Steve Niles [mailto:n5en at wt.net] Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments How about an eggbeater? No nulls. Steve N5EN --- rhiller at sdicgm.com wrote: From: "Rick Hiller" To: , , Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:09:54 -0600 Andy, With the 3/4 vertical you will get coverage on the horizon also......the main lobes of this antenna are along the vertical element and also, just like a 1/4 wl GP vertical, on the horizon, but with slightly less field strength, as that is redistributed to the increased vertical lobe. Maybe that is what Nizar was saying about the discone -- that the "gap" between the horizon oriented lobe and the vertical oriented lobe is less with the discone, so that you get more of a Ball or dome shaped pattern, which would be what you ideally require due to your moving platform. If so, I will be quiet. Regards....Rick -- W5RH -----Original Message----- From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com [mailto:Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:30 AM To: rhiller at sdicgm.com; mullani at tlite.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: RE: [BLT] Discone comments Actually, we would want coverage out to the horizon but with less null straight down. As the payload wobbles, the null point off the quarter-wave whip interferes with local reception, i.e. those stations that are within the area that can be directly in line with the radiator. We can't make a stable platform. I anticipate that we will get a number of stations around Texas (horizon) that will want to try connecting if we get the specs out early enough, but we will want solid copy from Wharton also. Any thoughts? Andy -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Rick Hiller Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 9:22 AM To: 'Nizar Mullani'; MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU]; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments IMHO....I assume this is for a balloon instrument package -- you would want a major lobe down facing from the package...so try an inverted 3/4 wl groundplane (3/4 wl vertical element with 1/4 wl radials). Easy to match and a major lobe right out the top of the vertical element. Rick -- W5RH ps...I wouldn't swear by the gain figures quoted in the article (sounded like an old QST Antenna ad claim ;-) ), plus his analysis is all referenced to the horizon....as you would apply it for land based use. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 5:00 PM To: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Andy, You may want to look at the Discone antenna for the WiFi part or even for video transmission. It has less of a null than the quarter wave antenna. I have attached an article of a discone antenna designed for WiFi use. http://www.timgineer.com/topics/discone Nizar -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:05 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Importance: High BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at our new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! We have a table reserved for the event. Last month we discussed WiFi on BLT-26, camera work and the release of the official BLT-25 DVD. Pete is almost done. We will have it out to you ASAP. The cost will be nominal. The shirt donations have us covered for next year's financial needs! In addition to BLT topics, we will also continue discussions about the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From mullani at tlite.com Wed Dec 9 15:14:46 2009 From: mullani at tlite.com (Nizar Mullani) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 15:14:46 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> Message-ID: <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> Rick, Andy did a great job of explaining the issues related to transmitting video from a rotating, wobbling, and swinging platform such as a balloon payload. Several years ago we built several different antennas and tested them. One of the antenna was the Turnstile antenna because of its circular polarization and a beam pattern that radiated downwards. So, this antenna should be great for a rotating platform. However, when we tested this antenna it had issues with signal fading as the payload swung back and forward. (Tony, Andy and Mike want to comment on the test results of some of the antennas.) The explanation for this fading is in Figure 2 (with the ground plane) of the attached article of Turnstile antenna. You will see that the radiation pattern falls off drastically beyond about 40 degrees from the vertical. So, as the payload swings back and forward the signal can drop off and cause fading. http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/turnstile.pdf . After modeling and testing several types of antennas we came to the conclusion that the quarter wave monopole with a ground plane was the simplest and worked the best. It has a vertically polarized signal that is independent of the rotation of the payload. It also has a nice horizontal radiation pattern that extends out to the horizon. It is easy to build and match to the transmitter. The only drawback is the sharp null that exists vertically from the antenna, which can result in a signal fade directly below the balloon as the platform swings back and forward. During the last balloon launch I noticed a little bit of fading of the signal at times even though the video was the best I have seen. I thought the fading was probably caused by the swinging of the platform back and forward. I suggested the Discone antenna as an alternative to the monopole because it has a similar polarization and radiation pattern as the monopole but does not have as deep a null in the vertical position as the monopole. So, it should work similar to the monopole for distant stations and hopefully better than the monopole for stations directly below it. The other thing I like about the Discone antenna is its broad bandwidth and ease of construction. I wonder if the same antenna can be used to radiate both the WiFi and the ATV signal? Nizar -----Original Message----- From: Rick Hiller [mailto:rhiller at sdicgm.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 12:11 PM To: 'Steve Niles' Cc: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com; mullani at tlite.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: RE: [BLT] Discone comments Yep!....really an egg beater or turnstile, depending on how much effort you want to put into phasing,etc. At 2.4GHz, I'd have to put on my reading glasses to work on it -- hi...Rick--W5RH -----Original Message----- From: Steve Niles [mailto:n5en at wt.net] Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments How about an eggbeater? No nulls. Steve N5EN --- rhiller at sdicgm.com wrote: From: "Rick Hiller" To: , , Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:09:54 -0600 Andy, With the 3/4 vertical you will get coverage on the horizon also......the main lobes of this antenna are along the vertical element and also, just like a 1/4 wl GP vertical, on the horizon, but with slightly less field strength, as that is redistributed to the increased vertical lobe. Maybe that is what Nizar was saying about the discone -- that the "gap" between the horizon oriented lobe and the vertical oriented lobe is less with the discone, so that you get more of a Ball or dome shaped pattern, which would be what you ideally require due to your moving platform. If so, I will be quiet. Regards....Rick -- W5RH -----Original Message----- From: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com [mailto:Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:30 AM To: rhiller at sdicgm.com; mullani at tlite.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: RE: [BLT] Discone comments Actually, we would want coverage out to the horizon but with less null straight down. As the payload wobbles, the null point off the quarter-wave whip interferes with local reception, i.e. those stations that are within the area that can be directly in line with the radiator. We can't make a stable platform. I anticipate that we will get a number of stations around Texas (horizon) that will want to try connecting if we get the specs out early enough, but we will want solid copy from Wharton also. Any thoughts? Andy -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Rick Hiller Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 9:22 AM To: 'Nizar Mullani'; MacAllister, Andrew [PROCESS/DAN/HOU]; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments IMHO....I assume this is for a balloon instrument package -- you would want a major lobe down facing from the package...so try an inverted 3/4 wl groundplane (3/4 wl vertical element with 1/4 wl radials). Easy to match and a major lobe right out the top of the vertical element. Rick -- W5RH ps...I wouldn't swear by the gain figures quoted in the article (sounded like an old QST Antenna ad claim ;-) ), plus his analysis is all referenced to the horizon....as you would apply it for land based use. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 5:00 PM To: Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com; blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Andy, You may want to look at the Discone antenna for the WiFi part or even for video transmission. It has less of a null than the quarter wave antenna. I have attached an article of a discone antenna designed for WiFi use. http://www.timgineer.com/topics/discone Nizar -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:05 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] BLT Dinner Meeting - Wednesday December 9th@ 5:30PM - New Venue Test Continues - BRICKHOUSE Importance: High BLT Team, This is reminder of our dinner meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at 5:30 PM. We will be at our new alternate venue - the Brick House Tavern and Tap, 12910 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Join us! We have a table reserved for the event. Last month we discussed WiFi on BLT-26, camera work and the release of the official BLT-25 DVD. Pete is almost done. We will have it out to you ASAP. The cost will be nominal. The shirt donations have us covered for next year's financial needs! In addition to BLT topics, we will also continue discussions about the HATS ATV repeater and the HTTY 2M & 1.25M repeaters. There are still some site issues currently being investigated by N5RPQ and WA5TWT. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, I have some BLT shirts left. All shirts are $20 each, and that includes postage for those that are out of town, or would simply like to get it in the mail. Remember that the sale of shirts pays for consumables like balloons, batteries, helium, etc. If you would like to use PayPal ( http://www.paypal.com ) my PayPal account is andrew.macallister at emerson.com . Your support is appreciated and the shirts are fun to wear on ham cruises and at hamfests! To The Edge of Space! Andy W5ACM _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From cboone at earthlink.net Wed Dec 9 17:07:09 2009 From: cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 17:07:09 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> Message-ID: <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> A turnstile is NOT a circular polarized antenna...it is an omni directional horizontal antenna. A true CP antenna has both vertical and horizontal components....(Broadcast engineer for 30 years...I think know the difference between the two! ;) What a balloon launch needs is a true isotropic antenna..but it doesn't exist in real life...there will always be nulls or compromise. A CP comes close and can be built by making a circular halo with a 1/2w dipole elements attached to the end of the halo...this antenna needs to be gamma matched and hung in the vertical mode but it too wont be perfect but does have adequate downwards radiation. A discone is a vertical polarized antenna. There is little or no horizontal polarization from the discone..also a discone is usually mounted with the disc on top and the cone at the bottom....may not work as well inverted...(and upright, you have to feed the coax to the bottom of the cone and then up to the disc)...A discone is looked at as a HP filter to the ether which is why it has a 6-10:1 bandwidth but in balloon mode, a vertical dipole would be just as good.... Personally, IMPO, an eggbeater or CP element may be best for balloon use..I don't think the discone would work well (I could be wrong but knowing discones for 35 years, I just cant see it working any better than a vertical dipole other than the WIDE bandwidth the discone offers; which may prove useful with the WiFi signal but beware, there is NO gain in a discone...it is 0dbd across the entire bandwidth)... Chris WB5ITT PG-9-5322 FCC Commercial (since 1974) -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:15 PM To: 'Rick Hiller'; 'Steve Niles' Cc: blt at stevens.com; Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments Rick, Andy did a great job of explaining the issues related to transmitting video from a rotating, wobbling, and swinging platform such as a balloon payload. Several years ago we built several different antennas and tested them. One of the antenna was the Turnstile antenna because of its circular polarization and a beam pattern that radiated downwards. So, this antenna should be great for a rotating platform. However, when we tested this antenna it had issues with signal fading as the payload swung back and forward. (Tony, Andy and Mike want to comment on the test results of some of the antennas.) The explanation for this fading is in Figure 2 (with the ground plane) of the attached article of Turnstile antenna. You will see that the radiation pattern falls off drastically beyond about 40 degrees from the vertical. So, as the payload swings back and forward the signal can drop off and cause fading. http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/turnstile.pdf . After modeling and testing several types of antennas we came to the conclusion that the quarter wave monopole with a ground plane was the simplest and worked the best. It has a vertically polarized signal that is independent of the rotation of the payload. It also has a nice horizontal radiation pattern that extends out to the horizon. It is easy to build and match to the transmitter. The only drawback is the sharp null that exists vertically from the antenna, which can result in a signal fade directly below the balloon as the platform swings back and forward. During the last balloon launch I noticed a little bit of fading of the signal at times even though the video was the best I have seen. I thought the fading was probably caused by the swinging of the platform back and forward. I suggested the Discone antenna as an alternative to the monopole because it has a similar polarization and radiation pattern as the monopole but does not have as deep a null in the vertical position as the monopole. So, it should work similar to the monopole for distant stations and hopefully better than the monopole for stations directly below it. The other thing I like about the Discone antenna is its broad bandwidth and ease of construction. I wonder if the same antenna can be used to radiate both the WiFi and the ATV signal? Nizar From mullani at tlite.com Wed Dec 9 18:27:49 2009 From: mullani at tlite.com (Nizar Mullani) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 18:27:49 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> Message-ID: <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> Chris, The Turnstile antenna is circularly polarized in the vertical plane and horizontally polarized in the horizontal plane. The Wikipedia web site quoted below says it is circularly polarized. However, it refers to the use of the Turnstile antenna in the vertical direction. Commercial stations use stacked Turnstiles to suppress the vertical radiation and enhance the horizontal radiation. The polarization of the horizontal radiation from stacked Turnstiles is horizontal. The Turnstile tested previously for the balloon platform was for radiation in the vertical plane and was circularly polarized, or close to it. Nizar Turnstile antenna >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search A turnstile antenna for LEO weather satellites.A turnstile antenna is a set of two dipole antennas aligned at right angles to each other and fed 90 degrees out-of-phase. The name reflects that the antenna looks like a turnstile when mounted horizontally. When mounted horizontally the antenna is nearly omnidirectional on the horizontal plane. When mounted vertically the antenna is directional to a right angle to its plane and is circularly polarized. The turnstile antenna is often used for communication satellites because, being circularly polarized, the polarization of the signal doesn't rotate when the satellite rotates. -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Chris Boone Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 5:07 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments A turnstile is NOT a circular polarized antenna...it is an omni directional horizontal antenna. A true CP antenna has both vertical and horizontal components....(Broadcast engineer for 30 years...I think know the difference between the two! ;) What a balloon launch needs is a true isotropic antenna..but it doesn't exist in real life...there will always be nulls or compromise. A CP comes close and can be built by making a circular halo with a 1/2w dipole elements attached to the end of the halo...this antenna needs to be gamma matched and hung in the vertical mode but it too wont be perfect but does have adequate downwards radiation. A discone is a vertical polarized antenna. There is little or no horizontal polarization from the discone..also a discone is usually mounted with the disc on top and the cone at the bottom....may not work as well inverted...(and upright, you have to feed the coax to the bottom of the cone and then up to the disc)...A discone is looked at as a HP filter to the ether which is why it has a 6-10:1 bandwidth but in balloon mode, a vertical dipole would be just as good.... Personally, IMPO, an eggbeater or CP element may be best for balloon use..I don't think the discone would work well (I could be wrong but knowing discones for 35 years, I just cant see it working any better than a vertical dipole other than the WIDE bandwidth the discone offers; which may prove useful with the WiFi signal but beware, there is NO gain in a discone...it is 0dbd across the entire bandwidth)... Chris WB5ITT PG-9-5322 FCC Commercial (since 1974) -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:15 PM To: 'Rick Hiller'; 'Steve Niles' Cc: blt at stevens.com; Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments Rick, Andy did a great job of explaining the issues related to transmitting video from a rotating, wobbling, and swinging platform such as a balloon payload. Several years ago we built several different antennas and tested them. One of the antenna was the Turnstile antenna because of its circular polarization and a beam pattern that radiated downwards. So, this antenna should be great for a rotating platform. However, when we tested this antenna it had issues with signal fading as the payload swung back and forward. (Tony, Andy and Mike want to comment on the test results of some of the antennas.) The explanation for this fading is in Figure 2 (with the ground plane) of the attached article of Turnstile antenna. You will see that the radiation pattern falls off drastically beyond about 40 degrees from the vertical. So, as the payload swings back and forward the signal can drop off and cause fading. http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/turnstile.pdf . After modeling and testing several types of antennas we came to the conclusion that the quarter wave monopole with a ground plane was the simplest and worked the best. It has a vertically polarized signal that is independent of the rotation of the payload. It also has a nice horizontal radiation pattern that extends out to the horizon. It is easy to build and match to the transmitter. The only drawback is the sharp null that exists vertically from the antenna, which can result in a signal fade directly below the balloon as the platform swings back and forward. During the last balloon launch I noticed a little bit of fading of the signal at times even though the video was the best I have seen. I thought the fading was probably caused by the swinging of the platform back and forward. I suggested the Discone antenna as an alternative to the monopole because it has a similar polarization and radiation pattern as the monopole but does not have as deep a null in the vertical position as the monopole. So, it should work similar to the monopole for distant stations and hopefully better than the monopole for stations directly below it. The other thing I like about the Discone antenna is its broad bandwidth and ease of construction. I wonder if the same antenna can be used to radiate both the WiFi and the ATV signal? Nizar _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From rls at attglobal.net Wed Dec 9 19:47:09 2009 From: rls at attglobal.net (Ron Sparks) Date: Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:47:09 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> Message-ID: <4B20531D.7070904@attglobal.net> >From my experience on the BLT22 and BLT23, the discone (I guess that is what you are calling a vertical radiator with a solid skirt for groundplane) on 1255 for FM video did well with the wobble and spin (slow wobble/swing was worse than spin). However, it suffered a very noticeable null (full signal loss) when the package was directly overhead. The null seemed to be about 5-8 degrees wide. The sidelobes were getting weaker when the package was at about 45 degrees elevation from my groundstation, but I still got signal all the way down to 0 (videoed the landing). I have been doing a lot of experiments with WiFi and other digital modes. From my findings, both theoretically (path loss calculations based on previous balloon tracks) and experimentally -- I do not believe either a ground plane or discone will be suitable for WiFi. I have been working on a QFH for the proper freqencies and when I get it tuned I will do some short range (1/2 - 3/4 mile) tests here at the Payload Research Branch of the Secret Balloon Laboratory to see how it handles the wobble and rotation. The signal strengths I am seeing show that it is going to be about as sensitive as FM video if all you want to do is see know it is there. For any reasonable connection it will need about 30 dB more. In addition you need to reflash the ROM on your WiFi packages (both ends) in order to handle the packet delays involved when you get beyond about 1to 2 miles. I have that figured out now. I expect the QFH to beat the other antennas for this use. After all, there must be a reason that every commercial weather sonde manufacturer uses a either the full skirt cone groundplane or a QFH (I have a very nice QFH from a commercial 1680 MHz band sonde). I used the commercial unit as a "go-by" for my 2.4 GHz design. Just my 2 cents on what I have done so far. Ron, AG5RS Nizar Mullani wrote: > Chris, > > The Turnstile antenna is circularly polarized in the vertical plane and > horizontally polarized in the horizontal plane. The Wikipedia web site > quoted below says it is circularly polarized. However, it refers to the use > of the Turnstile antenna in the vertical direction. Commercial stations use > stacked Turnstiles to suppress the vertical radiation and enhance the > horizontal radiation. The polarization of the horizontal radiation from > stacked Turnstiles is horizontal. The Turnstile tested previously for the > balloon platform was for radiation in the vertical plane and was circularly > polarized, or close to it. > > Nizar > > Turnstile antenna > >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia > Jump to: navigation, search > > A turnstile antenna for LEO weather satellites.A turnstile antenna is a set > of two dipole antennas aligned at right angles to each other and fed 90 > degrees out-of-phase. The name reflects that the antenna looks like a > turnstile when mounted horizontally. When mounted horizontally the antenna > is nearly omnidirectional on the horizontal plane. When mounted vertically > the antenna is directional to a right angle to its plane and is circularly > polarized. The turnstile antenna is often used for communication satellites > because, being circularly polarized, the polarization of the signal doesn't > rotate when the satellite rotates. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of > Chris Boone > Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 5:07 PM > To: blt at stevens.com > Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments > > A turnstile is NOT a circular polarized antenna...it is an omni directional > horizontal antenna. A true CP antenna has both vertical and horizontal > components....(Broadcast engineer for 30 years...I think know the difference > between the two! ;) What a balloon launch needs is a true isotropic > antenna..but it doesn't exist in real life...there will always be nulls or > compromise. A CP comes close and can be built by making a circular halo with > a 1/2w dipole elements attached to the end of the halo...this antenna needs > to be gamma matched and hung in the vertical mode but it too wont be perfect > but does have adequate downwards radiation. > > A discone is a vertical polarized antenna. There is little or no horizontal > polarization from the discone..also a discone is usually mounted with the > disc on top and the cone at the bottom....may not work as well > inverted...(and upright, you have to feed the coax to the bottom of the cone > and then up to the disc)...A discone is looked at as a HP filter to the > ether which is why it has a 6-10:1 bandwidth but in balloon mode, a vertical > dipole would be just as good.... > > Personally, IMPO, an eggbeater or CP element may be best for balloon use..I > don't think the discone would work well (I could be wrong but knowing > discones for 35 years, I just cant see it working any better than a vertical > dipole other than the WIDE bandwidth the discone offers; which may prove > useful with the WiFi signal but beware, there is NO gain in a discone...it > is 0dbd across the entire bandwidth)... > > Chris > WB5ITT > PG-9-5322 FCC Commercial (since 1974) > > > -----Original Message----- > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of > Nizar Mullani > Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:15 PM > To: 'Rick Hiller'; 'Steve Niles' > Cc: blt at stevens.com; Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com > Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments > > Rick, > > Andy did a great job of explaining the issues related to transmitting video > from a rotating, wobbling, and swinging platform such as a balloon payload. > Several years ago we built several different antennas and tested them. One > of the antenna was the Turnstile antenna because of its circular > polarization and a beam pattern that radiated downwards. So, this antenna > should be great for a rotating platform. However, when we tested this > antenna it had issues with signal fading as the payload swung back and > forward. (Tony, Andy and Mike want to comment on the test results of some of > the antennas.) The explanation for this fading is in Figure 2 (with the > ground plane) of the attached article of Turnstile antenna. You will see > that the radiation pattern falls off drastically beyond about 40 degrees > from the vertical. So, as the payload swings back and forward the signal can > drop off and cause fading. > http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/turnstile.pdf . > > After modeling and testing several types of antennas we came to the > conclusion that the quarter wave monopole with a ground plane was the > simplest and worked the best. It has a vertically polarized signal that is > independent of the rotation of the payload. It also has a nice horizontal > radiation pattern that extends out to the horizon. It is easy to build and > match to the transmitter. The only drawback is the sharp null that exists > vertically from the antenna, which can result in a signal fade directly > below the balloon as the platform swings back and forward. During the last > balloon launch I noticed a little bit of fading of the signal at times even > though the video was the best I have seen. I thought the fading was probably > caused by the swinging of the platform back and forward. > > I suggested the Discone antenna as an alternative to the monopole because it > has a similar polarization and radiation pattern as the monopole but does > not have as deep a null in the vertical position as the monopole. So, it > should work similar to the monopole for distant stations and hopefully > better than the monopole for stations directly below it. > > The other thing I like about the Discone antenna is its broad bandwidth and > ease of construction. I wonder if the same antenna can be used to radiate > both the WiFi and the ATV signal? > > Nizar > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > From ke5gdb at gmail.com Wed Dec 9 20:49:20 2009 From: ke5gdb at gmail.com (Andrew Koenig) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 20:49:20 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <4B20531D.7070904@attglobal.net> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> <4B20531D.7070904@attglobal.net> Message-ID: <2f52b89b0912091849s41802440ka9c885fa19ce7b37@mail.gmail.com> I don't mean to hijack the thread or anything, but what are the plans as far as a router and software go? There's definitely a broad variety of options out there, and I'm curious to know what type of software you're leaning towards. On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Ron Sparks wrote: > >From my experience on the BLT22 and BLT23, the discone (I guess that is > what you are calling a vertical radiator with a solid skirt for > groundplane) on 1255 for FM video did well with the wobble and spin > (slow wobble/swing was worse than spin). However, it suffered a very > noticeable null (full signal loss) when the package was directly > overhead. The null seemed to be about 5-8 degrees wide. The sidelobes > were getting weaker when the package was at about 45 degrees elevation > from my groundstation, but I still got signal all the way down to 0 > (videoed the landing). > > I have been doing a lot of experiments with WiFi and other digital > modes. From my findings, both theoretically (path loss calculations > based on previous balloon tracks) and experimentally -- I do not believe > either a ground plane or discone will be suitable for WiFi. I have been > working on a QFH for the proper freqencies and when I get it tuned I > will do some short range (1/2 - 3/4 mile) tests here at the Payload > Research Branch of the Secret Balloon Laboratory to see how it handles > the wobble and rotation. The signal strengths I am seeing show that it > is going to be about as sensitive as FM video if all you want to do is > see know it is there. For any reasonable connection it will need about > 30 dB more. In addition you need to reflash the ROM on your WiFi > packages (both ends) in order to handle the packet delays involved when > you get beyond about 1to 2 miles. I have that figured out now. > > I expect the QFH to beat the other antennas for this use. After all, > there must be a reason that every commercial weather sonde manufacturer > uses a either the full skirt cone groundplane or a QFH (I have a very > nice QFH from a commercial 1680 MHz band sonde). I used the commercial > unit as a "go-by" for my 2.4 GHz design. > > Just my 2 cents on what I have done so far. > > Ron, AG5RS > > > > Nizar Mullani wrote: > > Chris, > > > > The Turnstile antenna is circularly polarized in the vertical plane and > > horizontally polarized in the horizontal plane. The Wikipedia web site > > quoted below says it is circularly polarized. However, it refers to the > use > > of the Turnstile antenna in the vertical direction. Commercial stations > use > > stacked Turnstiles to suppress the vertical radiation and enhance the > > horizontal radiation. The polarization of the horizontal radiation from > > stacked Turnstiles is horizontal. The Turnstile tested previously for the > > balloon platform was for radiation in the vertical plane and was > circularly > > polarized, or close to it. > > > > Nizar > > > > Turnstile antenna > > >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia > > Jump to: navigation, search > > > > A turnstile antenna for LEO weather satellites.A turnstile antenna is a > set > > of two dipole antennas aligned at right angles to each other and fed 90 > > degrees out-of-phase. The name reflects that the antenna looks like a > > turnstile when mounted horizontally. When mounted horizontally the > antenna > > is nearly omnidirectional on the horizontal plane. When mounted > vertically > > the antenna is directional to a right angle to its plane and is > circularly > > polarized. The turnstile antenna is often used for communication > satellites > > because, being circularly polarized, the polarization of the signal > doesn't > > rotate when the satellite rotates. > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf > Of > > Chris Boone > > Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 5:07 PM > > To: blt at stevens.com > > Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments > > > > A turnstile is NOT a circular polarized antenna...it is an omni > directional > > horizontal antenna. A true CP antenna has both vertical and horizontal > > components....(Broadcast engineer for 30 years...I think know the > difference > > between the two! ;) What a balloon launch needs is a true isotropic > > antenna..but it doesn't exist in real life...there will always be nulls > or > > compromise. A CP comes close and can be built by making a circular halo > with > > a 1/2w dipole elements attached to the end of the halo...this antenna > needs > > to be gamma matched and hung in the vertical mode but it too wont be > perfect > > but does have adequate downwards radiation. > > > > A discone is a vertical polarized antenna. There is little or no > horizontal > > polarization from the discone..also a discone is usually mounted with the > > disc on top and the cone at the bottom....may not work as well > > inverted...(and upright, you have to feed the coax to the bottom of the > cone > > and then up to the disc)...A discone is looked at as a HP filter to the > > ether which is why it has a 6-10:1 bandwidth but in balloon mode, a > vertical > > dipole would be just as good.... > > > > Personally, IMPO, an eggbeater or CP element may be best for balloon > use..I > > don't think the discone would work well (I could be wrong but knowing > > discones for 35 years, I just cant see it working any better than a > vertical > > dipole other than the WIDE bandwidth the discone offers; which may prove > > useful with the WiFi signal but beware, there is NO gain in a > discone...it > > is 0dbd across the entire bandwidth)... > > > > Chris > > WB5ITT > > PG-9-5322 FCC Commercial (since 1974) > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf > Of > > Nizar Mullani > > Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:15 PM > > To: 'Rick Hiller'; 'Steve Niles' > > Cc: blt at stevens.com; Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com > > Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments > > > > Rick, > > > > Andy did a great job of explaining the issues related to transmitting > video > > from a rotating, wobbling, and swinging platform such as a balloon > payload. > > Several years ago we built several different antennas and tested them. > One > > of the antenna was the Turnstile antenna because of its circular > > polarization and a beam pattern that radiated downwards. So, this antenna > > should be great for a rotating platform. However, when we tested this > > antenna it had issues with signal fading as the payload swung back and > > forward. (Tony, Andy and Mike want to comment on the test results of some > of > > the antennas.) The explanation for this fading is in Figure 2 (with the > > ground plane) of the attached article of Turnstile antenna. You will see > > that the radiation pattern falls off drastically beyond about 40 degrees > > from the vertical. So, as the payload swings back and forward the signal > can > > drop off and cause fading. > > http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/turnstile.pdf. > > > > After modeling and testing several types of antennas we came to the > > conclusion that the quarter wave monopole with a ground plane was the > > simplest and worked the best. It has a vertically polarized signal that > is > > independent of the rotation of the payload. It also has a nice horizontal > > radiation pattern that extends out to the horizon. It is easy to build > and > > match to the transmitter. The only drawback is the sharp null that exists > > vertically from the antenna, which can result in a signal fade directly > > below the balloon as the platform swings back and forward. During the > last > > balloon launch I noticed a little bit of fading of the signal at times > even > > though the video was the best I have seen. I thought the fading was > probably > > caused by the swinging of the platform back and forward. > > > > I suggested the Discone antenna as an alternative to the monopole because > it > > has a similar polarization and radiation pattern as the monopole but does > > not have as deep a null in the vertical position as the monopole. So, it > > should work similar to the monopole for distant stations and hopefully > > better than the monopole for stations directly below it. > > > > The other thing I like about the Discone antenna is its broad bandwidth > and > > ease of construction. I wonder if the same antenna can be used to radiate > > both the WiFi and the ATV signal? > > > > Nizar > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > BLT mailing list > > BLT at stevens.com > > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > > > _______________________________________________ > > BLT mailing list > > BLT at stevens.com > > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > -- Andrew Koenig From rons at sparkles.com Wed Dec 9 20:20:13 2009 From: rons at sparkles.com (Ron Sparks) Date: Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:20:13 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> Message-ID: <4B205ADD.4080308@sparkles.com> >From my experience on the BLT22 and BLT23, the discone (I guess that is what you are calling a vertical radiator with a solid skirt for groundplane) on 1255 for FM video did well with the wobble and spin (slow wobble/swing was worse than spin). However, it suffered a very noticeable null (full signal loss) when the package was directly overhead. The null seemed to be about 5-8 degrees wide. The sidelobes were getting weaker when the package was at about 45 degrees elevation from my groundstation, but I still got signal all the way down to 0 (videoed the landing). I have been doing a lot of experiments with WiFi and other digital modes. From my findings, both theoretically (path loss calculations based on previous balloon tracks) and experimentally -- I do not believe either a ground plane or discone will be suitable for WiFi. I have been working on a QFH for the proper freqencies and when I get it tuned I will do some short range (1/2 - 3/4 mile) tests here at the Payload Research Branch of the Secret Balloon Laboratory to see how it handles the wobble and rotation. The signal strengths I am seeing show that it is going to be about as sensitive as FM video if all you want to do is see know it is there. For any reasonable connection it will need about 30 dB more. In addition you need to reflash the ROM on your WiFi packages (both ends) in order to handle the packet delays involved when you get beyond about 1to 2 miles. I have that figured out now. I expect the QFH to beat the other antennas for this use. After all, there must be a reason that every commercial weather sonde manufacturer uses a either the full skirt cone groundplane or a QFH (I have a very nice QFH from a commercial 1680 MHz band sonde). I used the commercial unit as a "go-by" for my 2.4 GHz design. Just my 2 cents on what I have done so far. Ron, AG5RS Nizar Mullani wrote: > Chris, > > The Turnstile antenna is circularly polarized in the vertical plane and > horizontally polarized in the horizontal plane. The Wikipedia web site > quoted below says it is circularly polarized. However, it refers to the use > of the Turnstile antenna in the vertical direction. Commercial stations use > stacked Turnstiles to suppress the vertical radiation and enhance the > horizontal radiation. The polarization of the horizontal radiation from > stacked Turnstiles is horizontal. The Turnstile tested previously for the > balloon platform was for radiation in the vertical plane and was circularly > polarized, or close to it. > > Nizar > > Turnstile antenna > >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia > Jump to: navigation, search > > A turnstile antenna for LEO weather satellites.A turnstile antenna is a set > of two dipole antennas aligned at right angles to each other and fed 90 > degrees out-of-phase. The name reflects that the antenna looks like a > turnstile when mounted horizontally. When mounted horizontally the antenna > is nearly omnidirectional on the horizontal plane. When mounted vertically > the antenna is directional to a right angle to its plane and is circularly > polarized. The turnstile antenna is often used for communication satellites > because, being circularly polarized, the polarization of the signal doesn't > rotate when the satellite rotates. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of > Chris Boone > Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 5:07 PM > To: blt at stevens.com > Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments > > A turnstile is NOT a circular polarized antenna...it is an omni directional > horizontal antenna. A true CP antenna has both vertical and horizontal > components....(Broadcast engineer for 30 years...I think know the difference > between the two! ;) What a balloon launch needs is a true isotropic > antenna..but it doesn't exist in real life...there will always be nulls or > compromise. A CP comes close and can be built by making a circular halo with > a 1/2w dipole elements attached to the end of the halo...this antenna needs > to be gamma matched and hung in the vertical mode but it too wont be perfect > but does have adequate downwards radiation. > > A discone is a vertical polarized antenna. There is little or no horizontal > polarization from the discone..also a discone is usually mounted with the > disc on top and the cone at the bottom....may not work as well > inverted...(and upright, you have to feed the coax to the bottom of the cone > and then up to the disc)...A discone is looked at as a HP filter to the > ether which is why it has a 6-10:1 bandwidth but in balloon mode, a vertical > dipole would be just as good.... > > Personally, IMPO, an eggbeater or CP element may be best for balloon use..I > don't think the discone would work well (I could be wrong but knowing > discones for 35 years, I just cant see it working any better than a vertical > dipole other than the WIDE bandwidth the discone offers; which may prove > useful with the WiFi signal but beware, there is NO gain in a discone...it > is 0dbd across the entire bandwidth)... > > Chris > WB5ITT > PG-9-5322 FCC Commercial (since 1974) > > > -----Original Message----- > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of > Nizar Mullani > Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:15 PM > To: 'Rick Hiller'; 'Steve Niles' > Cc: blt at stevens.com; Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com > Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments > > Rick, > > Andy did a great job of explaining the issues related to transmitting video > from a rotating, wobbling, and swinging platform such as a balloon payload. > Several years ago we built several different antennas and tested them. One > of the antenna was the Turnstile antenna because of its circular > polarization and a beam pattern that radiated downwards. So, this antenna > should be great for a rotating platform. However, when we tested this > antenna it had issues with signal fading as the payload swung back and > forward. (Tony, Andy and Mike want to comment on the test results of some of > the antennas.) The explanation for this fading is in Figure 2 (with the > ground plane) of the attached article of Turnstile antenna. You will see > that the radiation pattern falls off drastically beyond about 40 degrees > from the vertical. So, as the payload swings back and forward the signal can > drop off and cause fading. > http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/turnstile.pdf . > > After modeling and testing several types of antennas we came to the > conclusion that the quarter wave monopole with a ground plane was the > simplest and worked the best. It has a vertically polarized signal that is > independent of the rotation of the payload. It also has a nice horizontal > radiation pattern that extends out to the horizon. It is easy to build and > match to the transmitter. The only drawback is the sharp null that exists > vertically from the antenna, which can result in a signal fade directly > below the balloon as the platform swings back and forward. During the last > balloon launch I noticed a little bit of fading of the signal at times even > though the video was the best I have seen. I thought the fading was probably > caused by the swinging of the platform back and forward. > > I suggested the Discone antenna as an alternative to the monopole because it > has a similar polarization and radiation pattern as the monopole but does > not have as deep a null in the vertical position as the monopole. So, it > should work similar to the monopole for distant stations and hopefully > better than the monopole for stations directly below it. > > The other thing I like about the Discone antenna is its broad bandwidth and > ease of construction. I wonder if the same antenna can be used to radiate > both the WiFi and the ATV signal? > > Nizar > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > From rons at sparkles.com Wed Dec 9 21:08:47 2009 From: rons at sparkles.com (Ron Sparks) Date: Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:08:47 -0600 Subject: [BLT] WiFi info In-Reply-To: <2f52b89b0912091849s41802440ka9c885fa19ce7b37@mail.gmail.com> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> <4B20531D.7070904@attglobal.net> <2f52b89b0912091849s41802440ka9c885fa19ce7b37@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4B20663F.60302@sparkles.com> Andrew, I just moved back to town and have not been able to get "plugged back in" to the BLT meetings, so I cannot speak for the group at this time. I have been doing a fair bit of WiFi work on my own and have a plan to build a unit before the summer. If the group likes the direction, I will certainly help move things down that path. The only approach that my limited smarts will allow me to do in a reasonable time is to use a router that can be reflashed with one of the open source WRT packages. My favorites so far are DD-WRT, openWRT, and Tomato. There is a pretty nice selection of routers that will handle these BIOSes. The "for sure" bet is the venerable Linksys (Cisco) WRT-54G. Be sure you watch the model numbers closely. For example the WRT-54G v1 through v6 works fine but there are problems with the WRT-54G2. Even worse the WRT-54G v7 will not work. Be careful. My favorite of the batch so far is the DD-WRT software on a WRT-54G. I am also looking at RO.B.IN software. Right now that looks like it is a bit too advanced for a first attempt balloon package. Ron, AG5RS Andrew Koenig wrote: > I don't mean to hijack the thread or anything, but what are the plans > as far as a router and software go? There's definitely a broad variety > of options out there, and I'm curious to know what type of software > you're leaning towards. > > On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Ron Sparks > wrote: > > >From my experience on the BLT22 and BLT23, the discone (I guess > that is > what you are calling a vertical radiator with a solid skirt for > groundplane) on 1255 for FM video did well with the wobble and spin > (slow wobble/swing was worse than spin). However, it suffered a very > noticeable null (full signal loss) when the package was directly > overhead. The null seemed to be about 5-8 degrees wide. The sidelobes > were getting weaker when the package was at about 45 degrees elevation > from my groundstation, but I still got signal all the way down to 0 > (videoed the landing). > > I have been doing a lot of experiments with WiFi and other digital > modes. From my findings, both theoretically (path loss calculations > based on previous balloon tracks) and experimentally -- I do not > believe > either a ground plane or discone will be suitable for WiFi. I have > been > working on a QFH for the proper freqencies and when I get it tuned I > will do some short range (1/2 - 3/4 mile) tests here at the Payload > Research Branch of the Secret Balloon Laboratory to see how it handles > the wobble and rotation. The signal strengths I am seeing show that it > is going to be about as sensitive as FM video if all you want to do is > see know it is there. For any reasonable connection it will need about > 30 dB more. In addition you need to reflash the ROM on your WiFi > packages (both ends) in order to handle the packet delays involved > when > you get beyond about 1to 2 miles. I have that figured out now. > > I expect the QFH to beat the other antennas for this use. After all, > there must be a reason that every commercial weather sonde > manufacturer > uses a either the full skirt cone groundplane or a QFH (I have a very > nice QFH from a commercial 1680 MHz band sonde). I used the commercial > unit as a "go-by" for my 2.4 GHz design. > > Just my 2 cents on what I have done so far. > > Ron, AG5RS > > > > Nizar Mullani wrote: > > Chris, > > > > The Turnstile antenna is circularly polarized in the vertical > plane and > > horizontally polarized in the horizontal plane. The Wikipedia > web site > > quoted below says it is circularly polarized. However, it refers > to the use > > of the Turnstile antenna in the vertical direction. Commercial > stations use > > stacked Turnstiles to suppress the vertical radiation and > enhance the > > horizontal radiation. The polarization of the horizontal > radiation from > > stacked Turnstiles is horizontal. The Turnstile tested > previously for the > > balloon platform was for radiation in the vertical plane and was > circularly > > polarized, or close to it. > > > > Nizar > > > > Turnstile antenna > > >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia > > Jump to: navigation, search > > > > A turnstile antenna for LEO weather satellites.A turnstile > antenna is a set > > of two dipole antennas aligned at right angles to each other and > fed 90 > > degrees out-of-phase. The name reflects that the antenna looks > like a > > turnstile when mounted horizontally. When mounted horizontally > the antenna > > is nearly omnidirectional on the horizontal plane. When mounted > vertically > > the antenna is directional to a right angle to its plane and is > circularly > > polarized. The turnstile antenna is often used for communication > satellites > > because, being circularly polarized, the polarization of the > signal doesn't > > rotate when the satellite rotates. > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com > [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com ] > On Behalf Of > > Chris Boone > > Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 5:07 PM > > To: blt at stevens.com > > Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments > > > > A turnstile is NOT a circular polarized antenna...it is an omni > directional > > horizontal antenna. A true CP antenna has both vertical and > horizontal > > components....(Broadcast engineer for 30 years...I think know > the difference > > between the two! ;) What a balloon launch needs is a true isotropic > > antenna..but it doesn't exist in real life...there will always > be nulls or > > compromise. A CP comes close and can be built by making a > circular halo with > > a 1/2w dipole elements attached to the end of the halo...this > antenna needs > > to be gamma matched and hung in the vertical mode but it too > wont be perfect > > but does have adequate downwards radiation. > > > > A discone is a vertical polarized antenna. There is little or no > horizontal > > polarization from the discone..also a discone is usually mounted > with the > > disc on top and the cone at the bottom....may not work as well > > inverted...(and upright, you have to feed the coax to the bottom > of the cone > > and then up to the disc)...A discone is looked at as a HP filter > to the > > ether which is why it has a 6-10:1 bandwidth but in balloon > mode, a vertical > > dipole would be just as good.... > > > > Personally, IMPO, an eggbeater or CP element may be best for > balloon use..I > > don't think the discone would work well (I could be wrong but > knowing > > discones for 35 years, I just cant see it working any better > than a vertical > > dipole other than the WIDE bandwidth the discone offers; which > may prove > > useful with the WiFi signal but beware, there is NO gain in a > discone...it > > is 0dbd across the entire bandwidth)... > > > > Chris > > WB5ITT > > PG-9-5322 FCC Commercial (since 1974) > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com > [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com ] > On Behalf Of > > Nizar Mullani > > Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:15 PM > > To: 'Rick Hiller'; 'Steve Niles' > > Cc: blt at stevens.com ; > Andrew.MacAllister at emerson.com > > Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments > > > > Rick, > > > > Andy did a great job of explaining the issues related to > transmitting video > > from a rotating, wobbling, and swinging platform such as a > balloon payload. > > Several years ago we built several different antennas and tested > them. One > > of the antenna was the Turnstile antenna because of its circular > > polarization and a beam pattern that radiated downwards. So, > this antenna > > should be great for a rotating platform. However, when we tested > this > > antenna it had issues with signal fading as the payload swung > back and > > forward. (Tony, Andy and Mike want to comment on the test > results of some of > > the antennas.) The explanation for this fading is in Figure 2 > (with the > > ground plane) of the attached article of Turnstile antenna. You > will see > > that the radiation pattern falls off drastically beyond about 40 > degrees > > from the vertical. So, as the payload swings back and forward > the signal can > > drop off and cause fading. > > > http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/turnstile.pdf > > . > > > > After modeling and testing several types of antennas we came to the > > conclusion that the quarter wave monopole with a ground plane > was the > > simplest and worked the best. It has a vertically polarized > signal that is > > independent of the rotation of the payload. It also has a nice > horizontal > > radiation pattern that extends out to the horizon. It is easy to > build and > > match to the transmitter. The only drawback is the sharp null > that exists > > vertically from the antenna, which can result in a signal fade > directly > > below the balloon as the platform swings back and forward. > During the last > > balloon launch I noticed a little bit of fading of the signal at > times even > > though the video was the best I have seen. I thought the fading > was probably > > caused by the swinging of the platform back and forward. > > > > I suggested the Discone antenna as an alternative to the > monopole because it > > has a similar polarization and radiation pattern as the monopole > but does > > not have as deep a null in the vertical position as the > monopole. So, it > > should work similar to the monopole for distant stations and > hopefully > > better than the monopole for stations directly below it. > > > > The other thing I like about the Discone antenna is its broad > bandwidth and > > ease of construction. I wonder if the same antenna can be used > to radiate > > both the WiFi and the ATV signal? > > > > Nizar > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > BLT mailing list > > BLT at stevens.com > > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > > > _______________________________________________ > > BLT mailing list > > BLT at stevens.com > > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > > > > > -- > Andrew Koenig > From fjuch at austin.rr.com Mon Dec 14 08:38:26 2009 From: fjuch at austin.rr.com (fjuch at austin.rr.com) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:38:26 +0000 Subject: [BLT] Ham Radio Bluetooth In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20091214143828.0QX5T.507028.root@hrndva-web06-z02> Hello, I saw this and thought the price was right for Ham Radio. It allows you to connect your Ham Radio (Anytrhing with a 3.5mm audio out jack) to your bluetooth headset. May be good for HT to earpiece so you only pick up the HT to talk not listen, also from your rig to headpiece so your wife doesn't have to listen to the rig. Any $20 and free shipping is in my price range. http://www.buy.com/prod/blubridge-mini-jack-bluetooth-universal-3-5mm-stereo-music-transmitter/q/loc/111/212515646.html?adid=17070 Fred, N5JXO From cboone at earthlink.net Tue Dec 15 00:17:35 2009 From: cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:17:35 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> Message-ID: <018301ca7d4e$4c00ea90$e402bfb0$@net> Wikipedia? Sorry but I don't take them as the "authority"! I suggest an ARRL Antenna Handbook OR W4RNL, Cebik's (SK) take on the turnstile (or Yi's "Antenna Compendium, Volume III" which describes the turnstile in detail...and those VOLs 1-5 weren't cheap! ;). The turnstile as properly constructed is horizontal only...NO vertical pol is emitted. Vertical crossed dipoles? Yes, they are circular pol & directional but that is not called a turnstile (can be either arranged as a + or X). As for commercial stations, the Super Turnstile, or Batwing as they are called, the antenna is still HORIZ omni. It became a favorite for lowband TV stations as it had a wide bandwidth (about 12MHz or wider) which lowband TV needed (most lowband antennas maybe cover 2-3MHz vs 6MHz for TV). Stacking does nothing to a vertical component in a turnstile. It merely squeezes the horizontal component toward the horizon (as stacking does to any antenna like a PAR OmniAngle or any other horizontal pol)...it also helps in vertical antennas as it increases radiation toward the horizon..much like a balloon being squeezed from the top and bottom...regardless of the polarization, there is more directed toward the horizon. The issue with launching a balloon with an antenna on the bottom is almost any antenna will have MUCH less pattern DIRECTLY down (actually directly overhead but then antennas are inverted below the balloon). An isotropic would be best but that is only a theoretical antenna and doesn't exist. A single omni CP element (horiz and vertical pol) may solve it: is a site that shows the single element I am talking about. Of course it would have to be scaled down to 2m or UHF....Or the Eggbeater since it has radiation directly overhead and thus less fade, etc. Chris WB5ITT -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 6:28 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments Chris, The Turnstile antenna is circularly polarized in the vertical plane and horizontally polarized in the horizontal plane. The Wikipedia web site quoted below says it is circularly polarized. However, it refers to the use of the Turnstile antenna in the vertical direction. Commercial stations use stacked Turnstiles to suppress the vertical radiation and enhance the horizontal radiation. The polarization of the horizontal radiation from stacked Turnstiles is horizontal. The Turnstile tested previously for the balloon platform was for radiation in the vertical plane and was circularly polarized, or close to it. Nizar From dave at stevens.com Thu Dec 17 11:19:24 2009 From: dave at stevens.com (J. D. STEVENS) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:19:24 -0600 Subject: [BLT] service disruption for clients using stevens.com servers Message-ID: <03017DF9-7322-4BA7-BCD8-8D98486023A5@stevens.com> Tomorrow, Friday, December 18, I plan to physically remove the primary email, web, and DNS server for the domains we host from a colocation facility in Houston. I plan to move the server to my office in Bellville. I expect a disruption of email and web services that will last from between four and 24 hours. I expect the service disruption to begin during the morning, US Central time. I hope to complete the transition during the afternoon. However, propagation of new Internet routing or other issues might extend to disruption. I expect the secondary DNS server to continue to function normally. Services that only require DNS from our servers should not be interrupted. Web and email services that are on our servers will be interrupted. While service is disrupted, I expected to be available by telephone at 713-419-0313 or by email at geezerdude46 at gmail.com. Dave -- Dave Stevens Dave at Stevens.COM STEVENS.COM, Inc. 713-419-0313 Bellville, TX, USA http://www.stevens.com From dave at stevens.com Fri Dec 18 13:34:52 2009 From: dave at stevens.com (J. D. Stevens) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:34:52 -0600 Subject: [BLT] service disruption for clients using stevens.com servers In-Reply-To: References: <03017DF9-7322-4BA7-BCD8-8D98486023A5@stevens.com> Message-ID: <4B2BD95C.9040707@stevens.com> We have completed to changes to the server and all systems are operational again. Dave J. D. Stevens wrote: > The server will shut down in about 10 minutes. Our goal is to resume > operations in about six hours. > > Dave > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Dec 17, 2009, at 11:19 AM, "J. D. STEVENS" wrote: > >> Tomorrow, Friday, December 18, I plan to physically remove the primary >> email, web, and DNS server for the domains we host from a colocation >> facility in Houston. I plan to move the server to my office in Bellville. >> >> I expect a disruption of email and web services that will last from >> between four and 24 hours. I expect the service disruption to begin >> during the morning, US Central time. I hope to complete the transition >> during the afternoon. However, propagation of new Internet routing or >> other issues might extend to disruption. >> >> I expect the secondary DNS server to continue to function normally. >> Services that only require DNS from our servers should not be >> interrupted. Web and email services that are on our servers will be >> interrupted. >> >> While service is disrupted, I expected to be available by telephone at >> 713-419-0313 or by email at geezerdude46 at gmail.com. >> >> Dave >> -- >> Dave Stevens Dave at Stevens.COM >> STEVENS.COM, Inc. 713-419-0313 >> Bellville, TX, USA http://www.stevens.com >> -- Dave Stevens Dave at Stevens.COM STEVENS.COM, Inc. 713-419-0313 Bellville, TX, USA http://www.stevens.com From mullani at tlite.com Tue Dec 22 17:25:39 2009 From: mullani at tlite.com (Nizar Mullani) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:25:39 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <018301ca7d4e$4c00ea90$e402bfb0$@net> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> <018301ca7d4e$4c00ea90$e402bfb0$@net> Message-ID: <001a01ca835e$146358a0$3d2a09e0$@com> Chris, Thanks for the references. I will review them and correct the Wiki site if you have not done so already. The Turnstile antenna I modeled for the balloon was a turnstile with sloping elements to provide some horizontal and vertical polarization. The antenna was placed a quarter wave above a reflector. This antenna was tested by the BLT team, but a simple quarter wave vertical was found to be the best by the team. I suggestd the Discone because it seems to have a shallower null at the 90 degree angle and may work slightly better than the quarter wave vertical for stations located directly under the balloon. Nizar -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Chris Boone Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 12:18 AM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments Wikipedia? Sorry but I don't take them as the "authority"! I suggest an ARRL Antenna Handbook OR W4RNL, Cebik's (SK) take on the turnstile (or Yi's "Antenna Compendium, Volume III" which describes the turnstile in detail...and those VOLs 1-5 weren't cheap! ;). The turnstile as properly constructed is horizontal only...NO vertical pol is emitted. Vertical crossed dipoles? Yes, they are circular pol & directional but that is not called a turnstile (can be either arranged as a + or X). As for commercial stations, the Super Turnstile, or Batwing as they are called, the antenna is still HORIZ omni. It became a favorite for lowband TV stations as it had a wide bandwidth (about 12MHz or wider) which lowband TV needed (most lowband antennas maybe cover 2-3MHz vs 6MHz for TV). Stacking does nothing to a vertical component in a turnstile. It merely squeezes the horizontal component toward the horizon (as stacking does to any antenna like a PAR OmniAngle or any other horizontal pol)...it also helps in vertical antennas as it increases radiation toward the horizon..much like a balloon being squeezed from the top and bottom...regardless of the polarization, there is more directed toward the horizon. The issue with launching a balloon with an antenna on the bottom is almost any antenna will have MUCH less pattern DIRECTLY down (actually directly overhead but then antennas are inverted below the balloon). An isotropic would be best but that is only a theoretical antenna and doesn't exist. A single omni CP element (horiz and vertical pol) may solve it: is a site that shows the single element I am talking about. Of course it would have to be scaled down to 2m or UHF....Or the Eggbeater since it has radiation directly overhead and thus less fade, etc. Chris WB5ITT -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of Nizar Mullani Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 6:28 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: Re: [BLT] Discone comments Chris, The Turnstile antenna is circularly polarized in the vertical plane and horizontally polarized in the horizontal plane. The Wikipedia web site quoted below says it is circularly polarized. However, it refers to the use of the Turnstile antenna in the vertical direction. Commercial stations use stacked Turnstiles to suppress the vertical radiation and enhance the horizontal radiation. The polarization of the horizontal radiation from stacked Turnstiles is horizontal. The Turnstile tested previously for the balloon platform was for radiation in the vertical plane and was circularly polarized, or close to it. Nizar _______________________________________________ BLT mailing list BLT at stevens.com http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt From ka5cvh at gmail.com Tue Dec 22 17:49:05 2009 From: ka5cvh at gmail.com (Mike (KA5CVH) Urich) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:49:05 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Discone comments In-Reply-To: <001a01ca835e$146358a0$3d2a09e0$@com> References: <20091209091444.47D003AE@resin15.mta.everyone.net> <008901ca78fa$f9a7c7c0$ecf75740$@com> <002801ca7914$a25ef780$e71ce680$@com> <000001ca7924$654bf220$2fe3d660$@net> <009901ca792f$9ad032c0$d0709840$@com> <018301ca7d4e$4c00ea90$e402bfb0$@net> <001a01ca835e$146358a0$3d2a09e0$@com> Message-ID: <15b2c6c70912221549g61b47dd2vb6ef1d07ccd973fd@mail.gmail.com> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 5:25 PM, Nizar Mullani wrote: > The Turnstile antenna I modeled for the balloon was a turnstile with sloping > elements to provide some horizontal and vertical polarization. Years ago when I lived in Indiana for a stint a balloon team up there built a quad loop from very small piano wire. They hung it below the package from the four corners keeping it in a horizontal orientation. As I recall it worked pretty darn good but so does a lot things from 75,000' -- Mike Urich, Liberty Czar http://ka5cvh.com http://twitter.com/KA5CVH Life is hard, church shouldn't be! http://fairmontpark.org From TxLawMan at aol.com Wed Dec 23 16:21:24 2009 From: TxLawMan at aol.com (TxLawMan at aol.com) Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:21:24 EST Subject: [BLT] ATV Question Message-ID: I am not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but we got a balloon group started over here in the Beaumont area. We divided up jobs at our last (first) meeting and one of mine is to look into ATV gear; cost, best gear etc. I am curious why the BLT team has gone with the 1.2 gig video versus the UHF frequencies, where you could watch it on most analog TVs. I am also very open to suggestions on good gear, power levels, etc. Thanks Brian KC5YSM From ka5cvh at gmail.com Wed Dec 23 17:02:12 2009 From: ka5cvh at gmail.com (Mike (KA5CVH) Urich) Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:02:12 -0600 Subject: [BLT] ATV Question In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <15b2c6c70912231502m7755519ta1f97b96d9671c11@mail.gmail.com> On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 4:21 PM, wrote: > ?am curious why the BLT team has gone with the 1.2 gig video versus the UHF > ?frequencies, where you could watch it on most analog TVs. I am also very Mike wrote I concur that UHF would better serve as any "cable ready" analog TV would receive it. -- Mike Urich, Liberty Czar http://ka5cvh.com http://twitter.com/KA5CVH Life is hard, church shouldn't be! http://fairmontpark.org From cboone at earthlink.net Wed Dec 23 17:11:05 2009 From: cboone at earthlink.net (Chris Boone) Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:11:05 -0600 Subject: [BLT] ATV Question In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <006501ca8425$3481d220$9d857660$@net> (Guess I need to make breakfast more often) I wasn't aware of a balloon group interest here, Brian. 1.2Ghz vs UHF allows use of FM vs AM....FM TV requires less power and is easier to implement on the xmit side; antennas are smaller thus making them have more gain..But on the negative side, the rcvr side requires a FM to video converter and you can't run FM on UHF TV because of the bandwidth. Gear for 1.2Ghz FM TV is readily available from numerous sources including W6ORG's site and Ebay among others Chris WB5ITT -----Original Message----- From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf Of TxLawMan at aol.com Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 4:21 PM To: blt at stevens.com Subject: [BLT] ATV Question I am not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but we got a balloon group started over here in the Beaumont area. We divided up jobs at our last (first) meeting and one of mine is to look into ATV gear; cost, best gear etc. I am curious why the BLT team has gone with the 1.2 gig video versus the UHF frequencies, where you could watch it on most analog TVs. I am also very open to suggestions on good gear, power levels, etc. Thanks Brian KC5YSM From w5acm at swbell.net Fri Dec 25 00:14:08 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:14:08 -0600 Subject: [BLT] ATV Question References: <006501ca8425$3481d220$9d857660$@net> Message-ID: <40DF66B2A8F140CCA9E4C9A62D39357C@w5acmathlon> All of our current FM-ATV gear comes from GNUPIC on eBay - in The Netherlands. We have checked out his 900 MHz, 1.2 GHz and 2.4 GHz transmitters and receivers. We prefer the 1.2 GHz band due to previous operations and successes. It would be interesting to try 900 MHz for ATV via balloon. We intend to use 2.4 GHz for ham-WiFi on our next flight. Andy W5ACM BTW: We have table 10 reserved at the Brickhouse on 290 for our next BLT dinner meeting. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Boone" To: Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 5:11 PM Subject: Re: [BLT] ATV Question > (Guess I need to make breakfast more often) I wasn't aware of a balloon > group interest here, Brian. > > 1.2Ghz vs UHF allows use of FM vs AM....FM TV requires less power and is > easier to implement on the xmit side; antennas are smaller thus making > them > have more gain..But on the negative side, the rcvr side requires a FM to > video converter and you can't run FM on UHF TV because of the bandwidth. > > Gear for 1.2Ghz FM TV is readily available from numerous sources including > W6ORG's site and Ebay among others > > Chris > WB5ITT > > -----Original Message----- > From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf > Of > TxLawMan at aol.com > Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 4:21 PM > To: blt at stevens.com > Subject: [BLT] ATV Question > > I am not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but we got a balloon group > started over here in the Beaumont area. We divided up jobs at our last > (first) meeting and one of mine is to look into ATV gear; cost, best gear > etc. I > am curious why the BLT team has gone with the 1.2 gig video versus the UHF > frequencies, where you could watch it on most analog TVs. I am also very > open to suggestions on good gear, power levels, etc. > > Thanks > Brian > KC5YSM > > > _______________________________________________ > BLT mailing list > BLT at stevens.com > http://lists.stevens.com/mailman/listinfo/blt > From w5acm at swbell.net Fri Dec 25 23:35:46 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:35:46 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Fw: MIT FOUND THE 10 RED DARPA BALLOONS ! Message-ID: <5AD75AC968374E18BA40689D624BE8FD@w5acmathlon> >From W5EZM: checkout this link: https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/default.aspx From w5acm at swbell.net Fri Dec 25 23:45:51 2009 From: w5acm at swbell.net (Andy MacAllister) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:45:51 -0600 Subject: [BLT] Correction - Re: ATV Question References: <006501ca8425$3481d220$9d857660$@net> <40DF66B2A8F140CCA9E4C9A62D39357C@w5acmathlon> Message-ID: <432A6705F43142A8996D507F43AD0CD5@w5acmathlon> Slight correction... It is a table for ten, not table 10... We had eight for dinner in December. We expect a few more for January. C U all there! Andy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy MacAllister" To: Sent: Friday, December 25, 2009 12:14 AM Subject: Re: [BLT] ATV Question > All of our current FM-ATV gear comes from GNUPIC on eBay - in The > Netherlands. > We have checked out his 900 MHz, 1.2 GHz and 2.4 GHz transmitters and > receivers. > We prefer the 1.2 GHz band due to previous operations and successes. > It would be interesting to try 900 MHz for ATV via balloon. > We intend to use 2.4 GHz for ham-WiFi on our next flight. > > Andy W5ACM > > BTW: We have table 10 reserved at the Brickhouse on 290 for our next BLT > dinner meeting. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Chris Boone" > To: > Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 5:11 PM > Subject: Re: [BLT] ATV Question > > >> (Guess I need to make breakfast more often) I wasn't aware of a balloon >> group interest here, Brian. >> >> 1.2Ghz vs UHF allows use of FM vs AM....FM TV requires less power and is >> easier to implement on the xmit side; antennas are smaller thus making >> them >> have more gain..But on the negative side, the rcvr side requires a FM to >> video converter and you can't run FM on UHF TV because of the bandwidth. >> >> Gear for 1.2Ghz FM TV is readily available from numerous sources >> including >> W6ORG's site and Ebay among others >> >> Chris >> WB5ITT >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: blt-bounces at stevens.com [mailto:blt-bounces at stevens.com] On Behalf >> Of >> TxLawMan at aol.com >> Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 4:21 PM >> To: blt at stevens.com >> Subject: [BLT] ATV Question >> >> I am not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but we got a balloon >> group >> started over here in the Beaumont area. We divided up jobs at our last >> (first) meeting and one of mine is to look into ATV gear; cost, best gear >> etc. I >> am curious why the BLT team has gone with the 1.2 gig video versus the >> UHF >> frequencies, where you could watch it on most analog TVs. I am also very >> open to suggestions on good gear, power levels, etc. >> >> Thanks >> Brian >> KC5YSM