The following came in via an email list that I subscribe to and I thought I would share it with you .
=====================
Sunday morning, July 11, 2010, at around 9:00 am BRAQ will launch another high altitude ballon.
This email has been sent to Clubs from Ontario, Québec, Maritimes and North-East of the USA, hoping that a large number of amateurs will be able to establish QSO
The main payload will consist in a VHF-UHF crossband repeater available to the amateur community while airborne.
THE FREQUENCIES AS BEEN CHANGED
The repeater input frequency is 445.525 Mhz with a tone of 103.5 Hz and the ouptput frequency is 145.560 Mhz. The power output of the repeater should be around .5 watts
This will be a bilingual (French and English) directed net and net control with be Gerry VE2AW. Check-ins are invited to use the phonetic alphabet and then will be required to provide their nickname and location (QTH). A commemorative QSL card will be issued to all stations which are confirmed by the net control station.
ADDITIONNAL INFORMATIONS ON WEB PAGES BELOW
http://raqi. ca/braq/live. htm
DETAILS SUR LE LIEU DE RENCONTRE ET DE LANCEMENT, AINSI QUE SUR LES FRÉQUENCES
DETAILS ON LAUNCH SITE, PRE-FLIGHT MEETING AND ALL FREQUENCIES.
http://raqi. ca/braq/modules/ repeater/ repeater. htm AU SUJET DE LA REPETITRICE : ABOUT THE REPEATER
http://raqi. ca/braq/modules/ control/control. htm AU SUJET DU CONTROLLEUR DE VOL : ABOUT THE FLIGHT CONTROLLER
http://raqi. ca/braq/modules/ Tracker_balise/ tracker_balise. htm AU SUJET DE LA BALISE APRS ET CW : ABOUT THE SECONDARY APRS TRACKER AND BEACON
=========================
73bob
Tags: amateur balloon, amateur radio, RAQI
July 11, 2010 at 3:40 am |
I listened on the Echolink node for a number of hours today. Can you tell me how far southwest you expect the signal to reach?
What is the expected altitude?
What is the expected range?
73
Lloyd, KC5FM
July 11, 2010 at 2:39 pm |
Heard you through the BRAQ 2010-4 repeater this am. Fine signal from Ottawa. Thanks for your support ! Francois VE2AAY
July 11, 2010 at 4:10 pm |
Thanks… Rig was Ft897 20w on UHF with a 2m jpole at 30 feet for an antenna… The balloon did most of the work…
73 and thanks for the fun time….bob
July 11, 2010 at 3:24 pm |
If I may comment on Lloyd’s question above…
This flight peaked at about 44,000 ft.
Radio horizon is about 500 km (300 miles) from that height; this would be the approximate range unless exceptional propagation conditions were available on 2m. Even at 90,000 feet, “line-of-sight” is still only about 400 miles.
Bob VA3QV covered about 200 km, possibly the furthest station heard this morning.
Thanks, Lloyd, for your interest.
François VE2AAY
July 11, 2010 at 4:16 pm |
My contact being approx 200 km was the furthest??? wow
73bob
July 11, 2010 at 7:03 pm |
Hello, Bob,
just saw the list of 50 contacts made. How about one of the two most distant contacts ? I’m calculating your distance at 196 km, the balloon was nearing 40,000 ft.
Just before you, a station checked-in from east of Québec City. If this operator worked the repeater from home (St-Michel), his distance would be 216 kilometers or so.
Don’t feel bad, you get a “multiplier” for out-of-province ! Hi Hi !!
Interestingly, your antenna and the antenna on board were both 2m antennas. Line-of-sight does do wonders.
François VE2AAY
July 11, 2010 at 7:39 pm |
Hi Francois,
50 contacts…. fantastic…. I do work with the Perth Group when they fly their LASA events and it is fun….
If you go to APRS.fi and look for VA3QV the NTS Icon is actually in my back yard so it give you an exact point for determining distance.
The interesting thing is that the repeater was +20 at contact 41 but still coming in fairly strong S7 when I heard contact 48 but it dropped quickly after that…
2nd place is not too bad but I’m the furthest Ontario contact at least
Please thank the guys who did this for me and hope to follow your next adventure…
As far as the antenna goes…. My J pole was built exactly for 2m and one day for the heck of it I tried it on 70cm and it seems to be a dual band J pole as it likes 2m and 70cm with good swr (1.3 average) on both bands… I had it 30 feet above ground and fed it with about 50 feet of RG8X to the FT897 on the patio table in the backyard. Ft 897 is 20w maximum on UHF
73bob
July 12, 2010 at 2:20 pm |
Hello, Bob,
Through your postal code, I had you closer to the electric substation but that does not change the distance by much.
Apogee occurred around 10:38 EDT and, then, flight director Michel VE2WMG chose to trigger descent by releasing one of the two balloons.
The balloon was being pushed by 95 km/h (60 mi/h) winds while the chase team had to contend with speed limits of 50 and 70 km/h. The QSO rate had gone down and recuperating the equipment is a significant requirement.
By 11:00 EDT, it descended below 7,000 ft at which point Ottawa would have been out of range.
p.s. I did look-up the Lanark Space Agency, I see they provide plenty of excitement too !
François