Arizona Near Space Research (ANSR) is proud to announce the flight of ANSR-53.

UPDATE: We will be also testing out the new IRLP node during this flight.

IRLP node: 9255

This high altitude balloon flight will take place on Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 9:00 A.M. This will be an equipment checkout flight for hardware used to support the Space Grant and ASCEND programs upcoming later this season.

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).

The Secondary Launch site will be Gila Bend High School, Gila Bend, AZ (32 deg 57.34 min, -112 deg 43.04 min)

The final launch site choice will depend on the predicted winds aloft. Watch for additional announcements on Friday prior to launch day (see links below).
The vehicle will be a 1200g helium-filled latex balloon. The expected burst altitude will be 90,000 feet or higher. The flight is anticipated to last about 2.5 hours from launch to touchdown.

Payload: In addition to ANSR flight computer/cross-band repeater and beacon packages, the balloon train will carry 3 additional packages including a digital cameras to photo-document the flight.

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.

During the flight we will be using the following comm 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 beacons will transmit position information as follows:
KA7NSR-11 on 445.950 MHzat 10, 20, 40, and 50 seconds UTC time

Landing prediction after burst at 15 and 45 seconds UTC time via KD7LMO
(no -SSID)

2 - APRS Beacons from Embry Riddle will also be flown on this flight as well.
Position information will be transmitted as follows.
N7ERU-11 on 445.925 MHz

Our mobile cross-band digi-peater will repeat the KA7NSR-11 APRS data to the 144.390 MHz standard APRS frequency and subsequently will be I-Gated to the internet for out-of-area trackers. N7ERU-11 may also be digipeated to I gate as well.

You can track the flight using the following links:
http://map.aprsworld.net/ka7nsr-11
http://aprs.fi/?call=ka7nsr-11
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=ka7nsr-11
Additional and updated flight information, watch / subscribe to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ballooning -- ANSR remailer
Additional ANSR and High Altitude Ballooning information:
http://ansr.org -- Arizona Near Space Research
http://www.arhab.org -- Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning schedules
http://www.arhab.org/ARHABrecords.htm -- Worldwide HAB records tabulation