Subscribe to the Yahoo “Ballooning” group for updates/discussions regarding ANSR-44

Arizona Near Space Research (ANSR) is pleased to announce the flight of ANSR-44. This high altitude balloon flight will take place on Saturday, April 26, at 9:00 A.M (1600 UTC). The primary launch site will be the University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center, near Maricopa, AZ (N33.073667, W111.9828333). The alternate launch site will be the Gila Bend High School, in Gila Bend, AZ (N32.954838, W112.716856). Final launch site choice will be depend on the predicted winds aloft. Watch for additional announcements on Thursday and Friday prior to launch day.

The balloon will be a 3000-gram weather balloon, filled with helium. The expected burst altitude will be 90,000 feet or more. The flight is anticipated to last about 2.5 hours from launch to touchdown.

This flight will be another in the “Changes in Altitudes” series of educational flights organized by Northern Arizona University(NAU).
The balloon will carry 7 student-built payload “BalloonSats” carrying pressure and temperature sensors and cameras. Six Arizona Middle and High Schools will participate in this flight. The schools are:
Flagstaff Middle School, Mingus Union H.S., Granite Mtn. Middle School, Canyon Ridge Elementary School, Gila Crossing Community School and Sierra Vista Middle School. The flight is sponsored by the Arizona Space Grant Consortium and the Phoenix Mars Mission Outreach Program. ANSR would like to thank these organizations for helping us fulfill our goal of “Promoting Science and Education through Amateur Radio and High Altitude Balloons.”

In addition, the standard ANSR Flight Computer and redundant tracking beacon will accompany the student payloads. The ANSR Cross-band repeater will again be activated on this flight. Stations, especially those distant from the balloon, are invited to use the repeater when the repeater is not in use by the chase and recovery team. Please give priority to the chase and recovery teams if asked.
Feel free to use the Yahoo Groups “Ballooning” site to coordinate schedules. Peak altitude should be about 10:30 to 10:50 A.M. MST (1730-1750 UTC)

The following is the payload frequency plan:

APRS Beacon (KD7LMO-11):
445.950 MHz packet at 5, 25, 35, 55 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11

Cross Band NB-FM Voice Repeater:
Input: 145.560 MHz/162.2 Hz PL tone
Output: 445.525 MHz Linked to IRLP Node 9255
APRS when repeater not in use on 445.950 MHz at 10, 20, 40, and 50 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11.
Landing prediction after burst at 15 and 45 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO (no -SSID)

APRS Beacon 2 (KD7LMO-11):
445.950 MHz packet at 0, 30 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11

Cross band digipeaters will GATE the APRS data to the 144.390 MHz standard APRS frequency and subsequently I-GATED to the Internet for out of area trackers. You can track the flight using either of the following links:

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kd7lmo-11
http://map.aprsworld.net/kd7lmo-11

Be sure to check Yahoo Groups “Ballooning” for updates to this announcement prior to the flight.

Jack, W7JLC
ANSR/AZ Space Grant Liaison

Posted by Steve, KD7VRB

For the current ANSR-43 Pre-Flight tracking prediction click here

Arizona Near Space Research (ANSR) is pleased to announce the flight of ANSR-43. This high altitude balloon flight will take place on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 9:00 A.M MST (1600 UTC). The primary launch site will be Maricopa, AZ. Launch location updates published to Yahoo ballooning group and http://www.ansr.org with any changes flight morning via the Sacaton repeater.

The balloon will be a 1200-gram weather balloon, filled with helium. The expected burst altitude will be 90,000 feet or more. The flight is anticipated to last about 2.5 hours from launch to touchdown.

The balloon will carry two packages:
1) HF-Beacon: New hardware checkout, including a new cut-down mechanism to cut away near 85,000 ft.
Reports on direct receive of 144.39 APRS appreciated.
2) Cross Band Voice Repeater

Note that we have a HF PSK-31 beacon on this flight, very interested in long range contacts and feedback via IRLP during the flight and data sent to the Yahoo Ballooning group.

Talk In Prior to launch / tracking when cross-band repeater not available on the Sacaton Peak,AZ repeater, 447.725 MHz/100.0 Hz PL tone.
Our mobile cross band Digipeater will repeat the 445.950MHZ APRS data to the 144.390 MHz standard APRS frequency and subsequently I-GATED to the Internet for out of area trackers.

Payload frequency plan:

Cross Band NB-FM Voice Repeater
Details: http://www.kd7lmo.net/pc.html
Input: 145.560 MHz/162.2 Hz PL tone
Output: 445.525 MHz Linked to IRLP Node 9255
APRS when repeater not in use on 445.950 MHz at 10, 20, 40, and 50 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11
Landing prediction after burst at 15 and 45 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO (no -SSID) on APRS
Tracking via I-GATE
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kd7lmo-11

HF-Beacon
Details incl message format: http://www.kd7lmo.net/hf-aprs.html
PSK-31 on 14070.450 KHz(20m) at 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48,54 MINUTES and 00 seconds UTC time
No 80m PSK-31
APRS on 144.340MHz every minute at 54, 56, and 58 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11
APRS on 144.390MHz once a minute at 52 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11
Tracking via I-GATE
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kd7lmo-11

Be sure to check http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ballooning/ and http://www.ansr.org for updates to this announcement prior to the flight.

Steve
KD7VRB

A quick update on ANSR activities.

ANSR-42 on 15Dec successfully tested the new HF-beacon and new APRS beacon (aka Beacon1) gathering data for improvements working towards release for general use. The packages were un-injured with their 7kV close encounter.
ANSR-42 info: http://kd7lmo.net/ansr/ansr_42.html

Decision was made to fly the HF-beacon on another “regular” flight (ANSR-43) for additional beacon checkout (2m APRS power output improvement and 20m PSK-31 again) and test a new cutdown. This before scheduling a zero-pressure flight sometime in January/February. A stretch goal for ANSR-43 would be 29Dec2007 based on cutdown development/testing and higher confidence dates of 5Jan2008 or 12Jan2008, so stay tuned this week. ANSR-43 would include the standard voice cross-band repeater/flight computer and tentatively launch from Maricopa, AZ.

Mark, ng0x posted to the ballooning group yesterday regarding a solar balloon, haven’t followed up with him on this so there’s a chance we’d do something additional around the 27th, don’t know yet.

Happy Holidays to all,

Steve, KD7VRB

Updated ANSR-42 Flight Annoucement (7:20pm MST 14Dec2007)
Changes:
- Removed NSRV beacon from the flight
- Only 20m PSK-31 on HF beacon, no 80m for this checkout flight.
- Change Launch location to Maricopa High School

Final launch location posted Friday 14Dec to Yahoo Ballooning and www.ansr.org Monitor Sacaton repeater Saturday morning for pre-flight and launch location changes if the winds change.

Arizona Near Space Research (ANSR) is pleased to announce the flight of ANSR-42. This high altitude balloon flight will take place on Saturday, December 15, 2007 at 9:00 A.M MST (1600 UTC).

The launch site will be Maricopa High School, 45012 W. Honeycutt Ave., Maricopa, AZ 85239
Launch location updates published to Yahoo ballooning group and http://www.ansr.org with any changes flight morning via the Sacaton repeater.

The balloon will be a 1200-gram weather balloon, filled with helium. The expected burst altitude will be 90,000 feet or more. The flight is anticipated to last about 2.5 hours from launch to touchdown.

The balloon will carry four packages:
1) Cross Band Voice Repeater
2) HF-Beacon: New hardware checkout
3) New “Yellow Box” APRS Beacon: New hardware checkout
4) ASU Space Grant: ASU flying their Space Grant package.

Note that we have a HF PSK-31 beacon on this flight, very interested in long range contacts and feedback via IRLP during the flight and data sent to the Yahoo Ballooning group.

Talk In Prior to launch / tracking when cross-band repeater not available on the Sacaton Peak,AZ repeater, 447.725 MHz/100.0 Hz PL tone.
Our mobile cross band Digipeater will repeat the 445.950MHZ APRS data to the 144.390 MHz standard APRS frequency and subsequently I-GATED to the Internet for out of area trackers.

Payload frequency plan:

Cross Band NB-FM Voice Repeater
Details: http://www.kd7lmo.net/pc.html
Input: 145.560 MHz/162.2 Hz PL tone
Output: 445.525 MHz Linked to IRLP Node 9255
APRS when repeater not in use on 445.950 MHz at 10, 20, 40, and 50 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11
Landing prediction after burst at 15 and 45 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO (no -SSID) on APRS
Tracking via I-GATE
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kd7lmo-11
http://map.aprsworld.net/kd7lmo-11

HF-Beacon
Details incl message format: http://www.kd7lmo.net/hf-aprs.html
PSK-31 on 14070.450 KHz(20m) at 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48,54 MINUTES and 00 seconds UTC time
NO 80m PSK-31
APRS on 144.340MHz every minute at 54, 56, and 58 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11
APRS on 144.390MHz once a minute at 52 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11
Tracking via I-GATE
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kd7lmo-11
http://map.aprsworld.net/kd7lmo-11

New “Yellow Box” APRS Beacon
Details: http://www.kd7lmo.net/aprsbeacon.html
APRS on 445.950 at 2 and 32 seconds UTC time via KA7NSR-11
Landing prediction after burst at 17 and 47 seconds UTC time via KA7NSR-0
Tracking via I-GATE
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?ka7nsr-11
http://map.aprsworld.net/ka7nsr-11

ASU ASCEND! Flight Package

Be sure to check http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ballooning/ and http://www.ansr.org for updates to this announcement prior to the flight.

Steve
KD7VRB

ANSR-42 is on track for Saturday 15Dec2007, I just finished the flight HW inventory and Mike, KD7LMO is working on the HF beacon, and Joe, KB7RMZ is updating our new yellow box APRS beacon. Both these are new beacons we’ll be checking out on this flight. We’ll have the cross-band repeater in addition to a package from ASU ASCEND students.
I’ll send a formal flight notification next week, tentative launch location is Maricopa, AZ.

73s
Steve, kd7vrb

ANSR, Arizona Near Space Research, will hold our regular monthly meeting on
Monday, November 19th, 2007, at 7:30 PM (0230 UTC) on the ASU campus. The
meeting will be held in the Moeur Building, Room 104. Enter on the north
side of the building off Orange Mall. Parking is along Forest Ave and 11th
Street.
We will monitor 146.56 simplex to let you in the building or if you need
directions.

November Mtg foils: http://www.ansr.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/ansr-mtg-nov2007.pdf

73s de KD7VRB
Steve

After looking at the winds tonight(11/16) and taking ASU’s payload and FAA airspace into consideration, the launch will be made from Maricopa at the U of A MAC at 9:00 AM Saturday(11/17). The launch team plans to be at the site at 8:00 AM.

Talk-in will be on the Sacaton repeater (447.725-/100.0pl).

Joe, KB7RMZ
(Posted by Steve, KD7VRB)

Arizona Near Space Research (ANSR) is pleased to announce the flight of ANSR-41. This high altitude balloon flight will take place on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 9:00 A.M MST. The primary launch site will be the University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center, near Maricopa, AZ (33 deg 04.42 min, 111 deg 58.97 min). Alternate launch sites will be the Gila Bend High School, in Gila Bend, AZ (32 deg 57.33 min, 111 deg 58.97 min) and the Freeman Exit launch platform east of Gila Bend, AZ (32 deg 50.70 min, 112 deg 19.05 min). The final launch site choice will be depend on the predicted winds aloft. Watch for additional announcements on Thursday and Friday prior to launch day at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ballooning/.

The balloon will be a 3000-gram weather balloon, filled with helium. The expected burst altitude will be 90,000 feet or more. The flight is anticipated to last about 2.5 hours from launch to touchdown.

The balloon will carry three ASCEND! payloads designed and built by students from the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. The payloads will carry various scientific instruments and each will weight less than 4.0 lbs. This flight is sponsored by the Arizona Space Grant Consortium and we thank them for helping us fulfill our goal of “Promoting Science and Education through Amateur Radio and High Altitude Balloons.” Additional information about the ASCEND! program can be found at http://spacegrant.arizona.edu/research/ascend.

The standard ANSR Flight Computer and Pico-Beacon will accompany the student payloads. The ANSR Cross-band repeater will again be activated on this flight. Stations, especially those distant from the balloon, are invited to use the repeater when the repeater is not in use by the chase and recovery team. Please give priority to the chase and recovery teams if asked. Feel free to use the Yahoo Groups Ballooning site to coordinate DX schedules. Peak altitude should be about 10:30 to 10:50 A.M. MST (1730-1750 UTC)

Talk In Prior to launch / tracking when cross-band repeater not available on the Sacaton Peak,AZ repeater, 447.725 MHz/100.0 Hz PL tone.

The following is the payload frequency plan:

Cross Band NB-FM Voice Repeater
Input: 145.560 MHz/162.2 Hz PL tone
Output: 445.525 MHz Linked to IRLP Node 9255
APRS when repeater not in use on 445.950 MHz at 10, 20, 40, and 50 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-11
Landing prediction after burst at 15 and 45 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO (no -SSID)

White-Box Beacon APRS
445.950 MHz packet at 0, 30 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO-12

Our mobile cross band Digipeater will repeat the APRS data to the 144.390 MHz standard APRS frequency and subsequently I-GATED to the Internet for out of area trackers. You can track the flight using the following links:

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kd7lmo-11
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kd7lmo-12
http://map.aprsworld.net/kd7lmo-11
http://map.aprsworld.net/kd7lmo-12

Be sure to check http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ballooning/ for updates to this announcement prior to the flight.

Jack Crabtree, W7JLC
ANSR/AZ Space Grant Liaison
(Posted by Steve, KD7VRB)

ANSR-40 was successfully launched and recovered today with all 10 student packages and two ANSR beacons in good shape. Stay tuned for more data and pictures.

Thanks to everyone that supported this NASA Space Grant Flight

Steve
KD7VRB