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Balloon 2010

The planning for our 2010 mission began shortly after our treetop recovery of the 2009 mission. 2010 will be our fourth mission and will include a couple of new (for us) features. We acquired a geiger counter and will be sending that aloft to record cosmic radiation and observe the changes as it passes through the atmosphere. Dad decided to go fancy with this one and had an actual circuit board printed for his PIC circuit rather than leave it on the breadboard. Additionally, we will be sending up a video camera this year so look for clips from that. Larry's weather module will be accompanying once again as well as Dad's accelerometer, we'll post most or all of that data on the 2010 mission pages.

Update

Launch date was Saturday, 19 June 2010.

Highlights

• Initial equipment testing on Monday (14 Jun) revealed a bad GPS in the tracking module. A new Garmin GPS 18X was ordered via overnight FedEx on Tuesday morning and arrived on Wednesday. Tracking module was back up and operational.
• Testing with APRS software and TNC settings allowed us to view Balloon tracking as well as ourselves on the map together. Makes tracking simpler. Used ETrex handheld GPS for the temporary in-car tracker in the 'comms van'.
• We launched later in the morning this time. 9:37am rather than the normal 8am launch time. This allowed us to get (almost) up to the minute upper level winds and a more accurate track prediction. Additionally, this gave our forward deployed recovery team, Shiela and Chris, more time to get to the predicted recovery site. Had the mission finished as anticipated, they would have been well placed to observe the landing and recover the package.
• A new communications scenario was used during the chase this year. During the chase, Dan's daughter Aimee kept everyone aprised of balloon updates, plans and eventually, turn by turn directions to the tracking module using cell phone text messages.
• Two additional trackers joined us this year. Doug Ferrell (KD4MOJ) and Nirmal Singh (KE4URL) came down from Tallahassee and helped out with the chase. They get the credit for finding the tracking package as they were first on the scene after landing.
• The tracking module was found alone, separated from the rest of the package. Initially we thought it had snagged a tree and broken loose but it soon became apparent that it had separated at a high altitude and the rest of the package had continued on it's planned route. After a fruitless 2 hour search, we decided that half a recovery was better than no recovery at all. The search was called off, and the last remnants of the recovery team gathered for the obligatory bar-b-que dinner.
• RECOVERY! The experiment module, parachute and burst balloon are found and reported to the Florida State University police as a suspicious package. After examination and a few inquiries they decide that it is a private amateur radio project. Word eventually reaches Doug Ferrell who claims the package for the team. The package finally makes its way back to "mission control" for data recovery and analysis by 5:30pm on Wednesday, 23 June.