[W5SFA] Balloon Update

[Roger Klein]

Folks,

A balloon with call WA5IWB/D was successfully launched around 8:15 am this morning. Ray, Joe KA8WEP, Nathalie N5ATH and N5RWK braved the cold. Clear skies at launch with a pretty good breeze from the northwest to southeast, but it made it off the ground. We had a post-launch breakfast at the Texas Star Cafe.

Ray's payload was 58 grams and was a homebrew transmitter assembled from parts. Being on the heavy side, he used a combination of two balloons in series (one tethered on top of the other). It took a while to come alive, the first signal reports on wsprnet.org did not show up until 10:24 am! Ray thinks that the transmitter had drifted out of band due to the cold, or the sun had not reached enough a high enough angle for the solar panels. It's reporting on wsprnet.org every 4 minutes with a 6-character grid square.

You can follow the track at [http://lu7aa.org.ar/WSPR.ASP?banda=20m&other=wa5iwb/d&balloonid=×lot=&repito=&detail=&SSID=00](http://lu7aa.org.ar/WSPR.ASP?banda=20m&other=wa5iwb/d&balloonid=&timeslot=&repito=&detail=&SSID=00) Zoom up on the map to see the track. It is currently in the Gulf of Mexico south of Louisiana heading east, in grid square EL38kl.

The N5RWK balloon last reported at 20:20 UTC yesterday, just south of Nova Scotia in grid square FN82. It hasn't been heard from since, so it may have gone down. It looks like its max altitude was around 25,000 ft.

73,

Roger

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