SkyQuest 2 Bulletin #5 Saturday, 05/28/98 I'm too tired and running out of time to do justice to several topics, but with the thought that something's better than nothing, here goes. The sonde now has a time stamp. Every minute at about 55 seconds it does dits for the number of quarter hours elapsed. If it's over an hour elapsed, there is a dah preceding the dits. Example: elapsed time 1 hour 35 minutes dah dit dit dit This will be synchronized to the start of the sonde, which will be just a little before liftoff. I'll note the exact UTC. There are three different ID sequences repeating at 15 minute intervals (one for each 5 minutes). Between time stamps and IDs, in afew minutes you can tell the exact elapsed time. Quick tone info: altimeter now switches through three tones of aprox. 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, and 3000 Hz. Most of the time it will be 1000. There can be as many as 100 altimeter tone shifts this flight. Decoding is much too involved to go into now. I have just a few few temp. points for you right now: 77 F 2750 Hz 32 F 1770 Hz 9 F 1080 Hz Using the approx. 1000 Hz altitude standard tone as a comparison, by ear you can at least tell when either of the temperatures approaches or goes below about 0 F. The outside temperature will fairly quickly drop to -60 F. I have no idea what the inside will do, but I sure hope it doesn't go much below 20 or 30 F. Another easy measurement to make without special equipment is the max. altitude. The altimeter transitions will get slower and slower as the balloon rises due to the nature of the aneroid and to the variation of the density of the atmosphere with height. When the balloon burst at 60,000 to 90,000 feet, the radiosonde will descend very rapidly despite having a parachute because of the scarcity of air at that altitude. So now, for at least a little while, the altimeter transistion wil quicken, thus marking the time of maximum height. This will be interesting to see. About telemetry, everyone who can should tape as much of the signal as possible so you can go over it later when more of the proper tables are derived. Weather is expected to be fair with northwest winds. Winds can be a problem with balloons this size because they have such a large area. Check out the website to see a few hypothetical tracks the balloon might make. Note that most tracks I have illustrated go near or over the Cape. Good for DF bearings (and signal strength). That's all for now. Good Dxing everybody. Oh, don't forget HF SkyQuest Net Control at W1AW operated by Steve Ford. He should have word of liftoff within a few minutes. I'll also let him know about any serious delays. Hank