Sunday, March 23, 2008

SDG-9 European alert

Assuming that SDG-9 is still flying at this time, it is possible that stations in England may be within listening range at any time in the next 24 to 36 hours.

That is, given the ambiguity about the balloon's exact altitude and thus trajectory, it could be within range of England now or it might not arrive for another day or so. Once it is within range of a given station, it will probably be readable for four to six hours at most. So if you have the ability to set up Spectran or some other recording software, now would be the time to do it. A gap of four hours could cause you to miss the balloon entirely.

Assuming that we make it to England, the next passover would be Spain. Please see the image in the previous post for more information on possible trajectories.

NB: After a long night at -45C, the frequency of the transmitter will most likely have been shifted significantly downward (WB2YDS noted a drop from 29.499 to 29.496 Mhz as the payload temperature dropped from -9C to -40C after sunset on the first day of the flight).

If you hear it at all, please drop me a line at rochte@gmail.com!

Thanks and 73,
Robert

1 comment:

Andy G0SFJ said...

0901 utc and I have just scanned my recording (WAV) of last night. I'm afraid no CW tones lifted the squelch on 29499 last night. TRX is ICOM IC728 with dipole oriented N-S

andy, G0SFJ central england.