University of Tennessee Amateur Radio Club, Inc.

Serving the University and the Knoxville Community Since 1947

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UTARC Balloon Mission UX-3

Mission Summary
    UX-3's primary goal will be to break 100,000 ft altitude.  It is the first flight of a completely new flight system.  Building on the experiences of UX-2 and UX-1, the electronics are more powerful, there are backup systems, and forensic analyses will be possible from the first in-flight telemetry transmissions from our balloons.  This launch will be a longer duration and probably longer distance flight than lower altitude flights, due to the extended time necessary to gain so much altitude.  Launch of UX-3 will take place from the campus of the University of Tennessee, to improve visibility of the radio club and the exciting projects possible with Amateur Radio.
    You will be able to follow the progress and status of the balloon online here at http://balloon.utarc.org.  Live maps will be available along with live audio streams of telemetry and possibly chase crews.


This flight has been sponsored by Distributed Instruments.
In-flight voice provided by: South Central Radio Group's Jeff Jarnigan, Sarah Rose, and Bob Wilson.

Mission Status Update
The flight was a success! UX-3 traveled 119 miles, reaching a maximum recorded altitude of 115,935 feet, and snapped video and still images the whole way. We will be editing and cleaning up all this media soon, but for now, you can check out the unedited content at http://sunsite.utk.edu/~mcoffey/ux-3. Additionally, you can check out the raw packet logfile and a screenshot of our highest altitude, taken by K4HSM.

Launch Details
Launch Date: Saturday, October 22, 2005  (alternate Sunday 10/23/05)
Launch Time: 8:00am Eastern Time
Launch Site: University Center Rear Plaza,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Driving Directions)
Visitor Arrival Time: We recommend arriving before 7:30 am
Crew Arrival Time: Varies, 4am through 7am
All Parking: Staff Lot 9, next to Neyland Stadium

Flight Technical Detail
Balloon Envelope: (2) 3000 gram, Kaysam Latex
Estimated Max Altitude: 100,000 ft +
Payload Weight: 4-6lbs

Mission Radios
Primary APRS Data and Voice Telemetry 145.600 MHz FM, 2 W
Secondary APRS Data Telemetry 144.390 MHz FM, 250 mW
Secondary Voice Telemetry 28.625 MHz DSB-RC (tune with USB), 200 mW
Direction Finding Beacon 433 MHz CW, 50 mW

Payload Info
  • Primary 2M Transceiver RS HTX-200
    • Outputs standard digital APRS and telemetry, as well as voice narration
  • Secondary 2M Transmitter Byonics PocketTracker
  • 10M Transmitter Dual Sideband transmitter
    • Designed and built by Carl Lyster, this will carry voice narration only
  • 433MHz Beacon
    • Implemented by David Hoffman, this tiny, self-contained 50mw transmitter will be located externally on the flight line as a small auxiliary payload.  It will simply cycle on and off automatically for radio direction finding, to augment and back up the digital data for tracking and recovery.
  • GPS GARMIN GPS-18LVC
    • Compact, serial-only GPS
  • Packet Radio TNC Bob Ball's TNC-On-A-Chip
    • Built by Carl Lyster from an article in QEX Magazine, by Bob Ball, WB8WGA.  This inexpensive packet radio modem performs all simple TNC functions using only one microchip, a PIC16F88.  Normal APRS and telemetry info will be sent using this, and it will also receive uplink commands.
  • Flight Computer Custom design based on PIC16F877
    • Built and programmed by Carl Lyster and Dan Bowen, This sports multiple relays, onboard RealTime Clock, DS1820 temperature sensors and a  DTMF Touch-Tone decoder.  The Flight Computer will be responsible for all primary operations on the balloon, including GPS decoding, data and voice transmissions, video and still image captures, uplink command decoding,
  • Speech Sequencer based on PIC18F252
    • This circuit, built by Carl Lyster and programmed by Mike Coffey, takes telemetry data and converts it into a sequence of English words to be played back by the MP3 player. It is also responsible for storing telemetry data on the MP3 player's SD flash memory card. You can listen to a sample transmission, played through the 10-meter radio.
  • Audio Playback and Telemetry Storage  µMP3 SD Card Player
  • Horizontal MPEG4 Video / Still Camera AIPTEK IS-DV
    • Provided by Travis Maclay. Will take 640x480 MPEG4 movies, and 2048x1536 pixel JPEG still images.  Flight computer will control when videos are taken, including all of launch, 1 minute clips throughout ascent, several minutes when burst is detected, several clips on descent and continuous from 15,000 feet all the way through landing.
  • Vertical (Down-facing) Still Cameras (2) Pure Digital Dakota "Disposable" Cameras
    • Cheap ($10) digital camera that we modified to hold 150 pics instead of 25.
  • Cutdown Device 
    • Built by Carl Lyster. Module will be located above parachute on flight line, with a 30AWG Nichrome Wire wrapped around the load line.  A digital RF signal from the payload will trigger the photo-lithium battery to energize the nichrome heater wire and melt the line.
  • Antennas
    • Built by Moe Brewer.
    • 2M 
      • Two quarterwave whips on top of payload
    • 10M
      • Halfwave dipole, with one leg running up flight train and other leg hanging from bottom of payload


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