April 12, 1928z: BIG MISSION FAILURE: While the repeater worked fine, there was a problem with the balloon repeater frequency. It turns out there was a terrestrial repeater on the same frequency as the downlink of the balloon, causing a long conversation to be repeated for a majority of the flight. Any audio recordings of the flight would be useful in tracking down the owners of this terrestrial repeater. A terrestrial repeater should not be in this portion of the 2m band, per the ARRL band plans. Please email ANY recordings that you might have to arrl.kvan@gmail.com, or any comments or suggestions that you may have for us. WE WANT FEEDBACK!
The Campus Amateur Radio Club at Iowa State University will be launching a high altitude balloon carrying a FM cross-band repeater in coordination with M:2:I’s High Altitude Experiments in Technology team (HABET). The repeater will consist of two HTs and a repeater box, combined with a dual-band whip and duplexer. The whip antenna will be positioned for vertical polarization. A live map of where the balloon is flying on launch day can be found at the below website and will have the identifier W0ISU-1: https://amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz=10&qm=12h&mc=42.01954,-93.65762
Here is the backup map that contains data from one of the balloon trackers. Note, this tracker does not work above 60,000 feet, and is sporadic: https://maps.findmespot.com/s/B0RJ#history/assets
More details, updates, and pictures will be posted here as the launch date approaches.
Note: when trying to make it into the repeater, use the maximum amount of power available to you (especially when the balloon is near the horizon) to ensure that dropouts do not occur in transmissions. We had this problem on previous balloon flights. *For example, if you have 50 watts, PLEASE feel free to use the full 50 watts!*
Time of launch: Saturday, April 12th OR Sunday, April 13th @ 1300z (weather permitting)
| Uplink: | 446.375 MHz (no tone) |
| Downlink: | 146.480 MHz |
Updates:
April 12, 14:36: Well, it looks like the output of a repeater is on the same frequency as the balloon.
April 12, 1403z: Launching now!
April 12, 1305z: Fill of balloon has begun.
April 12, 1200z: Launch time pushed back to earliest time of 1330z.
April 11: We are go for launch for April 12 at 1300z!