I want to thank everyone who participated in the ARBONET-3 mission yesterday. The mission was a huge success although we have "temporarily misplaced" the RWK payload that was not attached to the rest of the payload stack when we discovered it late yesterday afternoon near Shreveport.
[We have since found the RWK payload - Ed]
I want to extend a special thanks to the following people whose efforts insured that the mission had a successful conclusion:
Tom Trissell, KC5ILO, for preparing the facilities at the Clarksville Airport and making them available for us to use.
Bill Brown, WB8ELK (yes, all the way from Alabama) for his invaluable calculations while the payloads were in-flight that provided the recovery team with a target area to focus our search efforts on. Given that we had no altitude data from the package and we believe the last APRS data captured from the payloads came while the "vehicle" was still in the jet stream the recovery area wasn't very well defined. Without Bill's guidance, the recovery phase would have taken much longer and in fact might have been unsuccessful all together.
Ron Porter, K5AI. Ron was the first to detect the homing beacon once the package was on the ground and alerted the ARBONET chase team of his location. David, KC5UYR and Tommy, W5TCD also discovered the beacon within a few minutes of Ron's first report. This information was obviously welcomed news and lead directly to the successful recovery!
Billy Mason, KD5KNR, Mike Heskett, WB5QLD, David Forbes, KC5UYR and Tommy Davis, W5TCD for their excellent work during the chase and recovery phase. You guys are the best!
I hope everyone had as much fun yesterday as I did!
73,
Doug Loughmiller, W5BL
That was fast!
According to Doug Kilgore, KD5OUG, the 20 meter beacon was found:
"I received a call from Benton, LA. The RWK 20 Meter beacon payload has been located. It landed in a horse paddock south of Benton - Benton Rd and Rubicon Rd.. The screamer on the outside was still screaming and spooking the horses..."
Doug and XYL are enroute and going to take the people that found the payload to dinner. Stay tuned for more about the RWK payload recovery!
ARBONET 3 went off on time without any problems. OK, OK, OK, so that was the intended headline....
ARBONET 3 lifted off at about 10:58 after a few holds, but the lift off was, as Doug-W5BL said, "Text book sweet".
Light winds and a few clouds were in the area and overall the weather was quite good for launch.
The payloads were given final checks and assembly just prior to liftoff, the payloads tethered together and staged in-line.
The fill team filled the balloon in the hangar and minutes later they were ready for release. Final button-up and system checks were made; several ham operators manned the balloon, the parachute and the 4 payloads getting ready for release.
The balloon was taken outside of the hangar and Tommy from Fort Worth supervised the release phase. Payloads 1-2 were taken aloft while the balloon was still tethered and soon the balloon was released.
Payloads 3 and 4 were then released as the balloon started ascending, with payload 4 including a small plastic bottle to serve as a weight for the bottom side of the 20 meter Richardson Wireless Club 20 meter beacon wire antenna.
Video on Payload 1 was faced downward to watch the payload action. It ran the entire flight, from liftoff to touchdown. Two other video cameras were also in the flight composition, but the videos have not been reviewed.
Video camera 1 was started prior to lift-off and in the video lift-off occurred 00:09:13 (hours:minutes:seconds) into the video. A very easy ascent is shown of the payloads rising through light clouds and into the clear sky just above.
Soon word was given that both APRS systems were not reporting altitude. Although we are sure altitude was configured, it appears there was some problem that kept it being reported properly.
APRS system K5ARB-1 soon quit reporting altogether, after only 27 or so packets received.
APRS system K5ARB-2 kept reporting for the next two hours. However, altitude data was never received, so altitude was approximated throughout the flight.
The flight was tracked on a heading of south by southeast and soon chase teams were en route for recovery. Simulations pin pointed an area near Shreveport, LA.
Throughout the flight, WB8ELK was tracking both the APRS system and later ground chase teams. Bill has over 300 flights to his credit and his experience and ability to predict a flight profile is a fine resource to have in the pocket when things go bad.
At 02:11:00 into the video, burst happens. The sound of the burst and shock can be seen and heard in the video. Descent is immediately marked by wind noise and the extremely rough ride down through the area of very thin air. Payload camera 1's camera mount is broken; either from the shock of burst or the tough ride experienced right after burst, but the video is still working well. The APRS system K5ARB-2 quits sending packets. The RWK CW beacon soon quits sending CW. The FM CW beacon is also no longer heard.
Since the parachute surface area does not change like the balloon's volume displacement, the initial descent is fast and furious. There is no air to act against the parachute to slow the payloads decent from the pull of gravity. High speeds are reached and the payloads can be seen flung about like a rag doll on the end of a whip.
At 2:15:13 into the video, a major snap happens throughout the tethered lines - not unlike many before it, but at this point the RWK CW beacon can't take the stress and departs the payloads. It can be seen falling away in about two blurred video frames only. Shortly after, the heavier air is encountered, the parachute becomes more effective and the payloads settle into a more sane descent to touchdown.
Nearer to ground, the payloads look like they will have little choice but to land in trees. The trees here are about 100' tall; the area is filled with swamp, and mosquitoes and perhaps a few hungry gators. At a few thousand feet, the road can be seen where Ham operators later convene at a gas station and natural gas wells can be seen all around.
The payloads appear to be landing in the trees. At the last minute however, a gas well comes into sight and payload 3 touches down in the gas well clearing at 2:53:31 with payload 1 hitting the ground at 2:53:34. The chances of hitting such a nice spot were a million to 1 in Las Vegas. The area was perhaps 100 yards long by 50 yards wide.
Meanwhile, chase teams met up in Benton, LA to eat and talk about strategy to find the payloads. We soon depart on the same trek as indicated by Bill Brown, WB8ELK, who ran scenario on top of scenario in balloon flight profile software to help guide us to the spot of most probability. We headed to the area thought most probable and stopped to make plans, since we were very near a large lake. One chase team would head around the west side of the lake while the other would head around the east side and start searching in the area thought most likely best for success.
Upon reaching the east side of highway 157, Doug, W5BL received a phone call from K5AI, Ron Porter. Ron is a local resident of Bossier City, LA and was out listening for the payloads as well. Ron called Doug and told him he heard the FM Morse code beacon. Doug had me pull over and I called to David KC5UYR and he also pulled over. Upon pulling over, David and Tommy could also now hear the FM CW beacon, and just across the street there was Ron Porter. After assembling some radio direction finding gear and listening, it was decided to circle the area the best we could to pinpoint the location. Within a few minutes, Tommy noted an APRS packet was received with Lat and Long, so we knew within a few hundred feet where to look.
My crew and I took the long way around the block and met up with David and Tommy. Looking at the map, I felt the package was a bit more to the right of where we were looking and David agreed. He drove his truck down the road a bit and I intended to follow on foot jumping into the trees up the road a bit from where the others went in.
Soon I heard David KC5UYR call, "K5NOT, Michael, I found it!"
My crew, K5RAU, Hannah and Tyler ran up the gas well road that David drove down minutes before. I shouted into the brush where the others were that the payload was over here. There before us, in an OASIS of clearing among thousands of tall trees in the area, and among a swamp, were the payloads laid out as if dropped by a helicopter on purpose. In the middle of the clearing where the gas wells exist was payload 3 and further southwest laid payloads 2, 1 and the parachute, with what was left of the spaghetti looking mass that was once the balloon.
Minutes later the rest of the chase teams came into the area. We photographed and recovered the payloads. Having found this needle in a hay stack was simply amazing once again.
We searched in vain for the RWK payload, thinking it may have caught the trees on the way in, so we waded into the swamp and into the trees a while and have scratches and mosquito bites to reflect the futile effort. The insects in the area sounded like the sounders we use on the payloads. Ron, Doug and I made several circles thinking we heard the unit. After several ill attempts, I grabbed the younger ears of Tyler and he and I returned to the area I felt it was in and Tyler let me know I was just hearing bugs.
Knowing the time line and being able to possibly identify some of the topographic fingerprints of the land seen below the payloads when the RWK beacon whipped off the end of the string, there is a good chance we can approximate the location of the RWK payload.
Overall this flight was a great success. The teamwork and enthusiasm of all involved was sincerely impressive at the very least. Every aspect of the flight reflected people helping people to pull off a poor-man's space flight, and in the face of problems realized after burst, we still came out of the woods with a set of payloads in hand.
Thanks to all of you that participated in ARBONET 3! You reflect the best in what Ham radio has to offer!
--Michael K5NOT
There is a new press release posted under ARBONET PRESS at www.arbonet.net
--K5NOT
Due to hardware changes, there is a new voice beacon frequency of 144.930 MHz simplex FM.
--K5NOT
The new launch date is July 11th, 2009.
We plan to go for launch on July 11th from the Clarksville airport in North East Texas. All hams and spectators are welcome!
73's!
--K5NOT