Launch Day is Here!
- Details
- Category: Root
- Written by Blake Raab (N4BWR)
Happy launch day morning! The weather is looking good, and everything is go for the launch of our weather balloon. We will be meeting at 9 AM at the Hobby Lobby parking lot in Carrollton. For the location, click here. Look for us at the far end, near the Olive Garden, not near Hobby Lobby.
We plan to use the W4FWD repeater (146.640 MHZ, negative offset, 131.8 hertz tone) for communicating during the chase and recovery, as well as the simplex repeater on the balloon, which will be on 146.550 MHz. We will coordinate chase teams on the launch site and discuss strategy. Personally, I would like to see at least one team proceed to a likely landing area immediately after launch.
You can see this morning's flight predictions from three sites in the map below. I generally like the prediction indicated by the blue line most. The site that generates the purple line does not ask for any flight parameters, like payload weight, balloon size, ascent rates, etc.
