Flight Scrubbed…

As most of you have figured out by now after listening to the HF Bands or looking at your APRS Screens PBH-15 did not launch on Thursday evening…  For a flight like this to be successful the wind predictions have to be exact.  Unfortunately this time… They wern’t!!!

If you follow @PBH5 on Twitter or go to their website you will get the up to date info on their next launch attempt… 

There is no doubt in my mind that they will succeed in their endevours.  The attained the altitude record with little effort…  Their sponsors have deep pockets…  They know what they are doing…  My predictions are that “Duration and distance records will most likely fall, if not on this flight , on the next one. ”

73bob

Long Weekend Balloon Flight

As I type this posting the crew at Cornell University are getting the final preps done for the flight of PBH-15.  This flight will be attempting a Trans Atlantic Flight and hoping to set two new ARHAB Records (Longest Distance and Longest Duration).  Their Previous flight PBH-13 set a new altitude record on March 4th.

For this event they will be using APRS (VHF 144.390) followed by 30m CW and 40m CW.  From their Twitter account @PBH5 comes the following:

 

PBH-15 Band Plan/ Call Signs: APRS: 144.390MHz (KC2ZJH), HF 30m: 10.14650MHz (N2XE), HF 40m: 7.10229MHz (N2XE). HF is CW Morse only. #PBH5

So if you have nothing else to do on a long weekend why not dial them up and give a listen….  You can even send them in location updates off their hf beacons via the web.  This info is on their website…

As with any balloon flights weather could cancel or delay any flight but as of right now the countdown timer on their website is still running so….

73bob

Card arrived in the mail

Now you might remember that back in APRIL, I participated in the Project Blue Horizon flight of PBH-9 and that they had mentioned that they would be sending me something to thank me.  The email they sent me is mentioned here.

Well yesterday via Canada Post I got this nice two sided card and I thought I would share it with you….

And the second side looks like this

Like I said earlier….” Nice touch”

73bob

ALL Project Blue Horizon flights put on hold

Here is the info I have rcvd from the PBH Twitter site

1. Working with the FAA to coordinate a future trans-Atlantic flight plan.3:45 PM May 4th from web

1. Our PBH-10 flight profile was not approved by the FAA and NAV Canada and requires further coordination extending past this semester.about 6 hours ago from web

1. PBH missions will be picked up next semester by the next project team.about 5 hours ago from web

1. Thank you to all those who helped and supported our missions. We could not have successfully flown this year without the help of the hams.about 5 hours ago from web

1. 73, PBH Teamabout 5 hours ago from web

I am disapointed that the flights will be on hold for a while.  This was an excellent group to work with and it proved that “You can teach an old dog new tricks” as I have learned some things that might help with future LASA flights.

Hopefully I will be able to participate when they fly PBH-10 next semester…

Good Luck to the the Bunch

73bob

Tuesdays issues and a few other topics

Well the week is underway and the WX has been good so far… Monday was fantastic and I was able to get a long walk done in the morning and a bike ride in the afternoon.  I am starting to condition myself for the first good ride of the year which would see the bike loaded up with the necessities of life such as a couple of sandwiches and a thermos of coffee and my backpack full of FT817 heading out to one of the more distant parks for a Daytime operating session…  Although there are less people on the air if I head out during the week there are also less people in the park which make it easier to string out antennas and also makes for more quiet operating as you don’t tend to hear the words…

“Hey Mister….whatcha doing???”

…when all the children are at school.  Now don’t get me wrong I enjoy showing off our hobby to whoever want to hear the spiel but…  Its getting harder to impress kids these days as they have the internet with their VOIP Programs, chat programs and their cell phones and text messaging as the benchmark.  The fact that I can talk around the world seems to pale a bit when they can send a file attachment around the world and chat by voice and text message all at the same time…

The non internet idea does not come into play as most of them have not been somewhere that had no internet and in some cases no cell phone service…

The last time I actually impressed a “Tekkie” with the communications ability of amateur radio was at a friends cottage.  This was a rustic setting…  There was road access, there was no power, there were no phones, there was no running water, no cell phone service but there was that little hut behind the cottage with the cresent moon on the door…  Thats what you have to call “rustic”…

However when I was bored I decided to put the 2m rig in the car on scan and low and behold I heard some AX25 Packet squawks.  I quickly hooked up my TNC and Laptop(TRS80 Model 100)…(Yes back in those days I did keep one with me just in case) and was able to connect with an .ampr.org packet bbs.  Using that BBS we were able to send an email to his wife and a couple of hours later a reply came in and a sked was set up that every hour we would check the emails so they could still keep in touch… That was a few years (more than a few actually) ago and most likely the cell service has improved enough that this would no longer be an issue but back then…  My buddy was really impressed…. at least then he was…

This could lead into a great discussion that has been tossed around many, many time and almost beaten into the ground…  Even hams seem to be forgetting the basics…  Having to make do with nothing to do something…  Look how basic packet has gone by the wayside as Winlink 2000 comes into the forefront…  Look at the poor participation in our HF Nets with a purpose such as the Trans-Canada Net on 14.140, or any of the ARES HF Nets or any of the Ontario Section Nets either ARES or NTS.  People just don’t think the new systems will fail …  We should know better….

Darn sorry….  without thinking about it I jumped on my soapbox for a paragraph…  Sorry and back to the blog…

Today will be the usual stuff such as my morning walk and an afternoon bike ride… Got to keep the legs tired so I know the exercise plan is working…  Now only if the weight would start to come off…  Also today I think I will try and get the dual band beam hooked up to the FT 857 and aimed east towards Montreal in preparation for the  LASA Flight(s) sheduled for this Saturday morning.  Not sure what way the wind will be blowing but every other time it has been east (North East , East or South East) so I figure that aiming the beam east won’t hurt.

On the topic of balloons for a minute…. It seem that the Project Blue Horizon flight of PBH-10 was scrubbed due to a request from the FAA and Nav Canada.  You can find a bit more information on their Twitter Site but I did find a detailed explanation on the Yahoo Groups Balloon Sked site that makes sense to me.  Sorry but if I remember correctly you have to join this group to be able to read messages.  For those of you who are not members I will give you the condensed version here…

Due to the fact that the anticipated flight path of the balloon, both Nav Canada and the FAA asked them to put the flight on hold as the balloon would be competing with roughly 1000 trans atlantic flights for airspace.  Even though the balloon is not officially regulated the PBH Group has decided to put the flight on hold while they are looking at options…

I am looking forward to assisting with the tracking of this flight whenever they decide to launch…

Today is the last day of forcasted good weather till Friday so unless I want to install a beam antenna in the rain I better get my act together today…

73bob

Monday Morning in Ottawa

Hey… We are off to a good start on the week as I was able to sleep in till 0730 when “Toby” decided he needed to go out….  And he calls himself “Mans best friend!!!”  If he was then he would sleep in till at least 9am…  But on the bright side its better than the 0600 wake up I got yesterday….

Back to radio stuff for a while….

This morning while the house was quiet (everyone else was asleep) I grabbed my flashlight and headed down into the shack.  I powered up the FT 847, which normally runs off battery power and checked my noise level. On 3.755 LSB after tuning the antenna with the auto tuner my radio was setting an S9 level on the meter.

I then started flipping off the circuit breakers in the house and was listening at the same time.  No change in the audio level of the noise….  I continued flipping off the breakers and I am now sitting in the dark.  Using the flashlight I check the meter and nothing is moving…. nothing is changing…. the house is using no power.  Now to my ears nothing has changed with the noise level, so I go over to the radio and my fears are confirmed.  The noise is still at the S9 level.  No change!!!

Now if I go outside and disconnect the coax at the balun for the “Inverted L” my noise drops to “S1″ and if I disconnect the coax at my LDG auto tuner end the noise also drops to “s1″.

This is confirming to me that the problem is a signal (harmonic???) somewhere close to the 80m Amateur Band that my antenna is receiving.  The next steps would be to attach some sort of small antenna on my FT 817 (my only true portable radio that covers the 80m band) and go sniffing around the neighborhood to see if I have any chance of finding the source.

That most likely will happen next week…

This week for the most part will be spent getting the equipment ready for the next LASA Flights- )BTW they have updated their website over the weekend to reflect the new flights).  Last week I checked out the APRS equipment and the FT 897 with my vertical J Pole that will be handling local VHF/UHF Voice comms.   I also have a 1/4 w vertical for 6m installed but the only repeater that I can reach is in Ottawa so we could cover that on 2m…

This week I have to install my Cushcraft 10 element (5 on VHF and 5 on UHF) and hook everything it to my FT 857 with it aimed roughly east but it will be adjustable from North East though to South East to accomodate the repeaters North of Montreal- in Montreal itself and the repeaters south of Montreal or in Northern NY State.  This will give me coverage approximately 250kms east of Ottawa depending on where the balloons go…  A little less if they go North East as there arn’t that many repeaters up there but it it goes South East there are a couple of long range repeaters in Eastern NY that will get me voice comms into the State of Vermont.  Remember the first flight made it as far as Maine thanks to the jet stream…

On the topic of Balloons there is still no word why PBH-10 was scrubbed…  The web site just says to check their Twitter site…

In addition as I still have the high noise level problems I guess I will have to take the Transportable Station (30AH battery/ FT 857/ 80m Hamstick Dipole) out to the park to check in to the Ontario Phone Net a few times this week to keep up with the paperwork.  Then there is the social side of the hobby which also is my favorite and thats Ragchewing…  The trick is to get the noise low enough that I can hear old firends so I can talk to them…

So thats how the week is starting to look…  No doubt there will be more additions but its a good start…

73bob

PBH-10 Scrubbed due to ???

Hi Folks,

It looks like I have the rest of the weekend off as the Project Blue Horizons Flight 10 (PBH-10) has been scrubbed.

I just got this off their TWITTER SITE:

PBH-10 has been postponed indefinitely and will not be flying this weekend. More details will be available early this week.

On their site it gave no reason.  One would assume that the weather would be the most likely culprit but….  It could of been technical….

From an amateur standpoint its a bit dissapointing as many hours were spent getting the station set up for long term monitoring.  On the plus side however it won’t take me long to get things set up for whenever they plan on launching next.

In the mean time the LASA group are scheduled to launch two payload on May 9th from Perth Ontario and I am waiting for an email with details on that one to share with you.

73bob

Pre Flight info Updated for PBH-10

Hi guys,

I just checked the PBH website and the PBH Twitter site and I have the following update for you.

First the launch window remains as follows:

Current/Next Mission: PBH-10

Launch Time: 
21:00 EDT May 2nd
(01:00 UTC May 3th)

Mission Objective(s): 
 - Trans-Atlantic flight
 - Long distance flight

Mission Duration: TBD

Air Vehicle Distance: TBD

Secondly the mission details remain as follow:

PBH-10

Launch Date: Sunday May 3, 2009

Launch Location: Owego, NY

Launch Time (EDT): 21:00 (01:00 UTC 4/30)

Flight Objective: Trans-Atlantic Flight

Flight COMMs: HF CW

Frequency: 7.1025 MHz +/-300 Hz

Between the website and the twitter site only way you can get quicker info on this one is to be monitoring the HF Frequency or be sitting at mission control…

If there are any changes I will mention it here…  After the launch I will be commenting with my opinions on whats happening and/or why.  Remember that I will have no more information than you do as I get my info off their website or their twitter site but my comments will be with my normal Ham Radio Twist…

At my end I have tested out my CW Decoding software and it is 99% acurate with a computer generated code transmission.  My FT 857 is ready to go and the antenna has been prepared.  I am planning on using a directional wire antenna aimed east.  Back up antenna would be my 40m mobile antenna (vertically polarised) with radials aimed east and if for any reason either antennas are not working as expected then my Inverted L can also be used…

Keep checking back for more updates with my “view from the cheap seats”

73bob