Saturday 09 Aug 08
08:30CDT 13:30UT

The North Texas Balloon Project (NTBP) Flight 16 is planned for launch at 8:30 am CDT on Saturday, August 9, 2008. The backup launch date will be Saturday, August 16, 2008. Both primary and backup dates will launch from the Hillsboro Municipal Airport (32.0835 N 97.0971W), in Hillsboro, Texas, just south of Fort Worth and Dallas. Flight status will be available on launch day on HF launch net frequency and the Internet at www.ntexbp.org .

The high altitude balloon carrying amateur radio experiments is expected to reach 100,000 feet in about 90 minutes and return via parachute in about 60 minutes. Mobile recovery teams will use position reports from the onboard APRS, call sign W5SJZ-11 on 144.390 MHz and RDF (fox hunting) to recover the payloads.

Set up will begin at 7:00 am prior to launch the HF Launch Net on 7260 +/- 5 kHz LSB starting at 8:00 am. The cross band repeater uses an uplink at 445.800 MHz and downlink at 147.560 MHz.

Saturday 23 Aug 08
10:00CDT 15:00UT

Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport
Houston, TX

List of Main BLT-24 Payloads:

Live Main Payload Color ATV = 1255 FM 900 mW
Crossband FM Repeater Uplink = 147.435 & Downlink = 446.000
APRS GPS Downlink = 440.950 W5ACM-9 250 mW
Backup APRS GPS Downlink = 445.925 W5ACM-8 300 mW
Digital Camera with a picture every 15 seconds
Small Rocket for a low-altitude launch - APRS GPS Downlink = FRS Ch TBD
Remote Control System for Rocket Launcher
Audio Beeper