----- Forwarded message from Mark Conner -----
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 11:24:44 -0600
From: Mark Conner
Subject: NSTAR Flight 03-B announcement
To: <>
Nebraska Stratospheric Amateur Radio (NSTAR) Flight 03-B is presently
scheduled for Sunday, April 6th at noon CDT (1700 UTC) from the
Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, Nebraska. This launch is
held in conjunction with the museum's Family Day and a ham radio booth
to be set up at the museum.
Note that Daylight Savings Time starts on the morning of the 6th!
We will use either a 600g Kaymont or 300g Kaysam balloon for this
flight. Max altitude will be about 70kft or 55kft respectively.
The museum is just off I-80 about halfway between Lincoln and Omaha.
Because of the museum's position relative to the Omaha metro area, it
may not be possible to launch that day at the museum itself if the wind
forecast indicates a landing in or near the metro. If this is the case,
we'll move the launch to our usual place near Treynor IA and the people
at the museum will see the balloon data shortly after launch.
The payloads will be similar to the 03-A flight two weeks ago, except we
will switch primary and backup APRS frequencies. Primary will be on
144.39 MHz to support the APRS demo at the museum, backup will be 144.34
MHz. SSTV (Robot 36) will be on 147.585 MHz. The simplex repeater will
not fly this time.
The forecast for next weekend has been all over the place. At the
moment, it appears we'll have light surface winds during the day, but
the forecast track is uncomfortably close to Omaha. Cloudy, cool, and
showery conditions are forecasted. We'll make a decision on launch site
(museum or Treynor) not later than Friday evening before (April 4th).
At the moment, I do not have a backup date yet if the 6th is a no-go.
April 19/20 is Easter weekend, so we won't have it then.
Let me know if you can help launch or chase at either or both sites. I
know this flight is a little unusual in that we're launching on a Sunday
at noon, but hopefully we can get a bit of PR by doing so.
73 de Mark N9XTN
----- End of forwarded message from Mark Conner -----
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