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GPSL
2004
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Altitude: 82,945 ft
Balloon: 1000g Kaysam
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Launch Site: McPherson,
Kansas
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Payload/s:
APRS TTIII Tracker - 144.340 (KC5TRB-11)
K12 CW Beacon - 147.475
Bill Brown's 50mw FM/Voice Beacon - 145.310
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ORB-11 was flown from the
McPherson, Kansas airport on the morning of Saturday July 3, 2004.
Our launch crew was Bill Brown (WB8ELK), a soon to be HAM by the
name of Bob Hill from Hutchinson, Kansas and myself Harry Mueller (KC5TRB).
As we completed the fill and weighed the lift we realized we
had over filled the balloon and at about that same time Bill
discovered a hole in the upper portion of the neck of the nozzle.
We duct taped the hole, then the bottom one inch of the nozzle just
broke off. We got the payload tied on to what was left of the
nozzle, then lots of duct tape was used all around the nozzle.
We launch with 5 other flights and we were originally expecting an
altitude of 107,000 ft. until we over filled which gave us a 1200-1500 fpm lift instead of 910
fpm. We positioned ourselves for the final chase, just south of
Newton, Kansas. We had to back track about 10 miles when the
balloon broke early at 82,945 feet. We were positioned right under
it as it reached 7,000 feet on descent when we had a computer glitch and had to re-boot.
When we got the computer operational again, ORB was on the ground
and we were receiving no APRS position reports. In about 15
minutes we heard Bill's voice beacon and several minute after that
we were hearing my K-12 beacon as well. When we arrived at the
landing site, two other teams were there that had arrived 5-10
minutes before us. ORB was laying on its side, in the open, in a
cattle pen. We were given the landowners permission and ORB was
recovered at about 11 am. Damage was evident on the K-12 beacon
antenna, one of the two lines to Bill's beacon was cut and the
balloon remnants had fouled the chute.
The EOSS payloads had landed about three miles from our landing
site so we all went to see if they needed some help. When we got
there the payloads had not been found and it was determined
through DF'g, that it was somewhere in a very large cornfield.
Kansas has had a lot of rain and the fields are very muddy and the
corn was 6-8 feet tall. Three of us, Chris Krengel (KB0YRZ), Bob
Hill and myself took the challenge of finding and recovering the
payloads, . After an hour of trudging through the mud and corn we
found them.
We all met at a truck stop near Newton, Kansas and had lunch.
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GPSL is a very special event held once a year. It is very
interesting and a lot of fun.
Come on out next year and join the crowd. In the mean time come
out to an ORB
launch. Bring a DF antenna, an APRS tracker, someone interested
in becoming an
Amateur Radio Operator or anyone interested in developing an
experiment.
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73
Harry - KC5TRB
Oklahoma Research Balloons
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