Amateur Radio From Loudoun County VA

BALLOON!!    BALLOON!!    BALLOON!!    BALLOON!!

In lieu of a Club meeting LARG will be launching its next stratospheric balloon on July 20. The next scheduled club meeting will take place on August 17.

June Club Meeting News - This meeting was essentially dedicated to our final 2002 Field Day preparations.

Balloon Launch Schedule and Information - The balloon committee, under the able leadership of Tom, WB3AKD, finalized its plans for the July 20 launch at a meeting on July 10. "Sky-Eye 2X" will feature an instrument package designed by John, KG4L, and has two still cameras taking photos every 90 seconds; one camera will be oriented horizontally, the other vertically. We will also be continuously transmitting temperature, pressure and battery voltage via the telemetry/tracking frequency on CW.

We will tentatively launch the balloon at 0900 EDST from a location that will result in a landing zone in the Shenandoah Valley east of Winchester; Tom, WB3AKD, will coordinate the launch activities. Mission Control will be set up on Little North Mountain, west of Winchester and will be coordinated by John, W4AU. If you would like to take part in tracking and recovery, contact Gary, NC4S . For the other activities contact either John or Tom. We will utilize the following frequencies for this operation:

VHF communications - 147.480 simplex; 147.060 (Frederick repeater) and 147.255 (Martinburg repeater) are alternatives. HF communications - 7.285 LSB, 7.010 CW Balloon telemetry - 145.650 FM

We will have a dinner and the traditional handing off of the instrument package at Mario's Restaurant in Purcellville starting at 1900 on Thursday, July 18.

Field Day 2002 - We had the largest turnout ever for FD this year; 52 club members, friends, and family all contributed to make this the best-attended LARG event ever! Our host, Bob, KF4VBM, provided the beautiful site at his farm, Fox Glen, and everyone else's hard work make the whole enterprise a success. The FD Chairman, John, W4AU, reports that our final score is still be calculated, but we have about 2400 good (no dupes) QSO's from our 4A operation, including our GOTA and VHF stations. Be sure to visit the excellent web site that Norm, AI2C , has created at the LARG web site. The photographs are fantastic!

Club News - LARG is (or soon will be) the proud owner of a 2-meter repeater. At the June club meeting we approved the purchase, after inspection, of a 2-meter repeater that was for sale in the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, Bill, WF1L, was travelling to the area and was able to inspect and photograph the equipment, and our repeater committee decided to make the purchase. Stay tuned for further news and information as we put this radio on the air. Congratulations to Larry, KG4CGR, who passed his Extra exam in Philadelphia.

Calendar of Events:

NNNN