[aprssig] Airborne APRS

[William McKeehan]

I suspect that a manned balloon is a bit different from the unmanned weather
balloons that I was chasing. #1 being our payload weight was only 6lbs and
once they are on the ground, those low powered radios do not get signals out
very well.

On Fri, October 28, 2005 2:49 pm, Vic Fraenckel said:
> Just returned from ABQ where we participated on the long distance (1000mi+)
> manned gas balloon race. Each of the 24 balloons carried a APRS tracker. We,
> in the chase crew, tracked all of the balloons with using my D700 and
> APRSPoint software. The balloon track was NE thru NM, across the TX and OK
> panhandles, NE thru KS, NE and IA into MN. We lost contact with balloons in
> the plains states on occasion because of a dirth of Digis, but for the most
> part were able to see most of them most of the time. Our balloon landed near
> St. Cloud, MN and we were able to track it to its landing site with no problem
> as we were within 20 miles it for the last 4-5 hours.  All trackers were using
> jpole type antennas dangling from their baskets and most balloons flew well
> above 2-3000 feet all of the time and mostly above 9000 feet.
>
> An airplane seems like overkill. Just speculation as I do not know the
> situation the OP was facing.
>
> HTH
>
> Vic


-- 
William McKeehan
KI4HDU
Internet: mckeehan at mckeehan.homeip.net
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