North Texas Balloon Project
Lockheed Martin Recreation Association 
Amateur Radio Club - W5SJZ

We have left this up for historical purposes. 
Please go to www.ntexbp.org or www.w5sjz.org 
for current information and news.

Launch Day News Release:

Dateline: Fort Worth, Texas  1:00pm 4-17-2004
The Flight of Columbia, Mission 11, NTBP

    

 
Thoughts… and witching...
 
Members involved in this morning’s flight had a great time and the mission was a success! Yes with that introduction, many of you want to know my source of drugs. I just say well the source is most likely not good enough for everyone.

All I can say is nothing ventured, nothing gained. It is easy to call off a mission and sit around thinking of yester year or you can go out and give it the good old try, and that is what we did this morning.
 
What I can say about the success is that we accomplished the following:
  1. Commemorated the loss of a gallant crew of true heroes for their sacrifice.
  2. Got every one out for some well needed radio club exercise, me included.
  3. Showed again we can establish emergency communications in a short time frame.
  4. Established communications with emergency power under adverse conditions.
  5. Established wireless computer network and Internet for an emergency location.
  6. Learned the in and outs of live webcam on the Internet.
  7. Pulled together 25 to 30 club members and others for an event.
  8. Moved 50 plus miles and one hour away from home base to do our hobby.
  9. Set up at another location and preserved that persons equipment plus got invited back.
  10. All persons said they could not wait for us to come and try it again and would be there.
  11. Have a great breakfast.
  12. Launch a balloon.
  13.  Test launch a second balloon discovering the old balloons are worthless and must be thrown away.
  14. Well killed no deer or sacrificed a fish to further our hobby.
  15.  All radios are ok and no losses.
  16.  The packages are ok no losses.
  17.  The parachute was not lost.
  18.  A new launch crew and balloon prep team was trained.
  19.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.
  20.  Bill Peacock got to talk on 40 meters.
  21.  We got lots of Hams excited and great coverage from ARRL especially at the section level.
What we learned:
 
Some will be nay sayers, well so be it. We made some of the same mistakes other launches have in the past, but you know many of those past folks are gone or tired and a new generation is here. With any new generation some mistakes of the past must be repeated in order to learn. Today was a learning experience. I know we will have a mission critique, that is also how we learn, so keep your thoughts for that.
 
For one I think there was some pressure to get this thing done. That always causes Murphy to raise his/her ugly head. We had problems with the cross band and the digital camera that Jory had to work through, as well as antenna problems with the HF station. Our hat goes off to all the team members including the predeployed DF team who waited so diligently. Also to Jory that did the job of seven guys, I hope someone sprang for that drink he needed, if not we will catch him Thursday. To the Dave? The Ham whose hanger we used, who had all the tools ready for us. He needs a vote for area ham of the year.
 
What else? Well when the wind blows that hard and you want to launch, scale back. We could have and should have scrubbed the ATV package in favor of the main package and adjusted the balloon. That would have been what sailors once did in shortening sail in high winds. When a package builder will not be at launch and the vital function is not in jeopardy then wait for that package until the maker can be there so others don’t have to learn/guess how to make it work. Use the KISS method and not try to stretch things. Thow away those old balloons or use them with practice packages for practice. Do a lot more small launches in all conditions that don’t have high requirement packages on them for practice. Get our system down and cross train lots of people. We do DF practice but not launch practice. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg. I just wanted to jump out there and tell you I had fun and I think we did great before others might want to talk about not getting a perfect run.
 
Remember even God makes a mistake every now and then. We say its his will, but it still looks like a mistake from where I sit…

WE WILL BE BACK!
 
Best in fair weather balloon launching
 
Larry   K5PHD  73’s

Latest Balloon Project Announced:

"The Spirit of Columbia" NTBP #11
 
The North Texas Balloon Project flight #11 is planned for launch
about 8:30 am on April 17, 2004 from the municipal airport in
Hillsboro, Texas, just south of Fort Worth and Dallas.  This mission
is dedicated to the memory of the astronauts lost a year ago in the
Shuttle Columbia tragedy.
 
The weather balloon carrying amateur radio experiments is expected to
reach nearly 100,000 feet in about 90 minutes and return via
parachute in about 30 minutes.  Mobile recovery teams will use
position reports from the onboard APRS on 144.390 MHz and RDF (fox
hunting) to recover the payloads.
 
Set up will begin at 7:00 am with the HF Launch Net on 7260 +/- 10
kHz LSB starting at 8:00 am.  The cross band repeater uses an uplink
at 445.800 MHz and downlink at 147.560 MHz.  Video from onboard
cameras is transmitted at 1255.000 MHz for reception by anyone with
FM ATV capability.
 
The public is invited to come out to the Hillsboro Municipal Airport,
located at Exit 3 on Interstate Highway 35W, to watch the launch,
flight status, and downlink video. In the event of unfavorable
weather or jet stream conditions, the launch will occur at a later
date.
 
Handheld VHF radios and scanners can receive the downlink easily.  At
the peak altitude ham radio operators from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas,
Louisiana, and Kansas can contact each other using the cross band
repeater. 
 
The radios used normally have a range of about 25 miles, but that
range will be extended to about 500 miles at the peak altitude.  Two
video cameras are used to alternately show the balloon and the
horizon.  At the peak altitude, the curvature of the earth is
visible. 
 
NTBP's Doug Howard said, "This is being done mostly for fun.  It
involves many different facets of amateur radio and thus a project
that many types of amateur radio operators can enjoy together.  There
is also an educational component utilized by scouting groups, because
it involves orienteering and can be counted toward several different
merit badges, as well as by teachers for science experiments." 
According to  Howard, Boy Scout troops from Fort Worth and Benbrook
will participate.
 
NTBP is a group of amateur (HAM) radio operators from Fort Worth and
Dallas and has launched balloons from Cleburne, Clifton, and Hillsboro
airports since 1991.  This is the second launch during the last year
and is funded by the amateur radio operators associated with the NTBP.
 

Balloon Project # 10 Flight of El Fenix

Balloon Project # 9 Clifton Launch 

LINK TO W5SJZ HOMEPAGE

Last Update April 17, 2004