Flight 2000A - K4LRG / Balloon
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Introduction. The Balloon Committee has been meeting almost monthly this year and our Chairman , Tom - WB3AKD has been doing outstanding work pulling us together. His recent article on our Tuna TXer Transmitter is a cool example of where we are headed. We just completed a Fox Hunt on July 15th and we were all successful. Funny how long some of us walked around it when all we had to do was look up. There it was 10 feet above our heads. Tuna 2000 Flight Advisory Nr. 1 The design and integration of the controller and the transmitter are coming along and were the subject of our meeting on July 12th. Tom and Paulson plan to integrate everything at our July 26 meeting. By the way, the Tuna TXer was the Fox on Saturday.
Launch 2000 is now scheduled for Saturday, October 21, 2000
At our July 26th meeting, the committee decided to scrub the launch scheduled for July 29th. Tuna 2000 Flight Advisory Nr. 2 Despite our eagerness to send the payload aloft, we felt that we needed more time to insure the best chances for a successfully launch, flight and recovery. We have rescheduled the launch for the third Saturday in October. This will enable us to make upgrades to the payload hardware and software, increase the number of ground stations and allow us to do a couple of flight simulations to hone our skills in the various aspects of this endeavor. In the coming months we will acquire additional balloons, test the data link and use the actual payload to prepare for the October launch. Mark the third Saturday in October now.
Picking an appropriate launch site has been assigned to the Launch Team and they are busy learning new things about computerized prediction programs and reverse tracking. Their goal is to figure out how to put it down in Western Loudoun somewhere around Hamilton. They posted data to this Web site in preparation for the July launch including a Flight Data and Possible Launch Site Table . These efforts have begun again for the October 21 launch.
In preparation for our scheduled October 21 launch, the Launch Team is reviewing its Launch Team Plan and actively recording and analyzing wind aloft data in an attempt to find the best launch site.
| Launch 2000 Forecast |
Launch Site Survey
A special effort to locate potential launch sites was taken on Sunday, October 15, 2000, by Norm - AI2C and Kay - KA2IJU. Twenty-seven potential locations were identified.
Other Notes For Launchers, Trackers
, Mission Control
and Recovery-Pickup Folks
Experienced compass users will use isogonic charts, software, or measure declination (variation), and will understand the Earth's field and multiple influences on the compass. MAGNETIC DECLINATION at Wikipedia.
There are some nice downloadable software programs at this AMSAT Site to help track and locate satellites and balloons.
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