Weather Balloon Launch - 7-13-2019
- Details
- Category: Balloons
- Written by Blake Raab (N4BWR)
APRS tracking is available here.
ICS-205 Incident Radio Communications Plan
The West Georgia Amateur Radio Society will be hosting another weather balloon launch this Saturday July 13, 2019. We will plan to meet at 9 AM at the VFW Fairgrounds in Carrollton. The address is 1625 Bankhead Hwy, Carrollton, GA 30116. Obviously, this event will be dependent on weather, so we will have to wait and see as the week progresses.
We will meet at 9 AM and begin preparations and inflation. Launch will happen whenever it's ready. We can't really narrow it to a specific time, but it will probably be between 10 and 11. After that, we will begin chasing the balloon, which will be carrying an APRS payload to transmit its location and altitude in real time. It will also carry a crossband repeater so we can communicate with each other through the balloon. The balloon will be a 1200 gram weather balloon this time. We have used 800 gram before. Using the larger size, along with hydrogen, we anticipate reaching an altitude near 113,000 feet. Predictions have the balloon going west into Alabama. Distances depend on exact conditions at the time.
I will update this article after 7:45 on the 13th with a map of the prediction as well as predicted landing coordinates. I will also give a briefing on that information at the launch site. If you plan to chase the balloon, please stay in contact with the other chase teams through either the W4FWD repeater or the balloon's crossband repeater, wherever you can reach us. I may update predictions on the fly based on variations observed in our ascent rate, and I don't want anyone to still be heading for the other predicted landing site if there is a change.
