May 3 RWK Balloon Launch Status Update – Launch Postponed

By Chip Coker KD4C

Thursday Update: The decision has been made to postpone the balloon launch to Saturday 5/31. The driving factors of this decision are the excess amount of rain we have received in the past few days (very saturated ground here in NTX), the winds aloft pushing the predicted flight path pretty far east making the chase somewhat difficult, and the lakes/trees in the expected landing area. The only thing working in our favor was the weather this weekend.

Weds Update: The predictions have taken a bit of a turn now that the storm system from earlier has moved through. Currently we’re still slated to launch this Saturday, but there are a few things working against us: ground saturation in the potential landing spots, and the extended flight path. We’ll keep an eye on the predictions and plan to have a go/no-go call by tomorrow evening.

Tuesday Update: We’re watching the weather and air currents very closely – and crossing our fingers – and it looks like we should be “on” for our planned High Altitude Balloon Launch this Saturday, May 3rd. We will make the final decision on Thursday, so “Stay Tuned to this message”!

As a reminder, we would love to have you participate, either at the launch site, as part of a tracking team, or from your shack, where you can watch the balloon progress, receive the various payloads, and potentially earn the “Worked All Payloads” award/QSL!

We also posted instructions on How To Program Your DMR Radio To Communicate via the Single-Frequency Repeater. We’ve flown this payload several times and the coverage is amazing – from Oklahoma to Houston. You should see how far you can talk while the balloon is in the air!

We will have some final instructions regarding the launch once we make the call. If we are a “go” for Saturday, the launch will be in Aubrey TX (about 30 min NW or Richardson) at 9am. We hope to see you there, or at least on the air.

So get started on those tracking stations, start working on your ground stations, and stay tuned!

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