Tuesday, April 17, 2007

SDG-4 update 1:36 PM EDT

Bill, KA8VIT, in Cleveland was continuing to copy the beacon at 17:07 UTC, but just barely.

Based on the scant data that we have available right now, my prediction for the flight (based on a READY HYSPLIT trajectory) goes like this:

Time in UTC Location
--------------------------------------------
1700 New Straitsville, OH
1800 South of Middleport, OH
1900 Alum Creek, WV
2000 Wolf Pen, WV
2100 SE of Marion, VA
2200 SE of Wilkesboro, NC
2300 Huntersville, NC
0000 Between Monroe, NC and Lancaster, SC
0100 NE of Bishopville, SC

If you are near any of these areas (or even if you're not particularly close), please listen to 28.636 and try to copy some of the telemetry. We desperately need your help!

And by the way, the balloon should be clearly visible in the sky when it passes over - it's flying at about 6000 feet and the balloon is a bright white cylinder 20 feet long. It will look like a small, bright line in the sky. If you see it, let us know - and a picture would be awesome!

-R

3 comments:

North Star Scouter said...

Is there APRS aboard?

R Rochte said...

No, this particular balloon is only carrying a 10 meter beacon. Our next balloon in this series is scheduled to carry a MicroTrak 300 APRS tracker.

North Star Scouter said...

OK, too bad, I've been listening from KC, MO all day but have heard nothing. I was hoping to track it via APRS.

Good luck, I'm interested in what you're doing and would love to build one too. My group (Near Space Ventures) has launched many balloons but never a tetroon.