NORTH TEXAS BALLOON PROJECT: FLIGHT 18

Flight Announcement – FLIGHT 18 – Summer 2010, August 7, Hillsboro, Texas

NTBP is a group of amateur (HAM) radio operators from Fort Worth and Dallas and has launched balloons from Cleburne, Clifton, and Hillsboro Airports since 1991. This is the first launch during this last year and is funded by the amateur radio operators associated with the NTBP.

Please send an email to webmaster@ntexbp.org for further information or to make reports during or after the actual launch. The back up date will be August 14, 2010.

PRESS RELEASE: AMATEUR RADIO GROUP TO FLY BALLOON FLIGHT FROM HILLSBORO TEXAS AIRPORT

The next mission number 18, has not been named, will be held by the North Texas Balloon Project (NTEXBP) is planned for launch about 8:30 am on August 7, 2010 from the municipal airport in Hillsboro, Texas, just south of Fort Worth and Dallas. Back up date is August 14, 2010. Two payload packages containing sensors and amateur radios will be carried to nearly 100,000 feet in about 90 minutes by a helium balloon and return via parachute in about 50 minutes. Mobile recovery teams will use position reports from the onboard GPS and APRS transmitter on 144.390 MHz and radio direction finding techniques to recover the payloads.

Pre-launch activities will begin about 7:00 am with the HF Launch Net on 7260 +/- 5 kHz, LSB beginning around 8:00 am. A cross band repeater will be activated soon after launch. Uplink is 445.800 MHz and downlink is 147.560 MHz. Handheld VHF radios

and scanners can receive the downlink easily. At the peak altitude ham radio operators from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kansas can contact each other using the cross band repeater.

The radios used normally have a range of about 5 to 10 miles, but that range will be extended to about 500 miles at the peak altitude. At the peak altitude, the curvature of the earth is visible. Digital video is recorded for later playback. APRS packets transmit the balloon’s location about once a minute.

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