ITA-4 UP, DOWN, LOST, FOUND !

ITA-4 took off today (Sunday Sept. 17 2000) at 1606Z from Rifton, NY and started moving east right away. We jumped in a car and headed for the estimated touchdown point, Waterbury CT, about 60 miles to the east. We copied the signal until a bit after 1800Z, but after LOS we did not locate the downed payload, though we drove around the area for an hour. Not surprising, as the region is very hilly and wooded.

Anyhow, the telemetry was recorded and will be analyzed tomorrow. It was a pretty good flight, all things considered.

FLASH UPDATE 11:00 EDT Tuesday, Sept. 19 - BEACON HEARD !

This morning I got an email from Steve Ford WB8IMY, QST Managing Editor, saying they just copied the ITA-4 beacon at W1AW in Newington, CT. What is more, they had a good bearing on it at 132 degrees true. We will see how this develops, but the ITA-4 payload is obviously alive and well, almost 48 hours after launch!

UPDATE 13:00 EDT Tuesday, Sept. 19

An additional beam heading of 195 degrees true from near Tolland, CT places the ITA-4 payload near Haddam Neck, CT. More reports are expected after work hours today, and possibly some mobile hunters will drive through the area as well. The battery is expected to last into tomorrow, so there is still time to hunt.

UPDATE 11:00 EDT Wednesday, Sept. 20

A third beam heading has come in, from W1AGP on the south edge of New Britain. He gets a 120 degree heading, just about dead on with the previous two headings. The area of uncertainty is rapidly shrinking. Also, W1AW operators copied some telemetry which indicated a primary battery voltage of 8.43V, which means we still have a couple of days before the beacon stops.

We decided to give the payload capsule a name: Endurance Near-Space Craft.

UPDATE 11:30 EDT Thursday, Sept. 21

W1AW operators forwarded to us this data frame from the still-beeping payload:

  DE KA2QPG BALLOON ITA4 F3C O1C4 I1B7 BCD

Also today, a new series of beam headings collected by Paul K1PL puts the location of the downed capsule farther north, near South Glastonbury. We will see if this lead proves helpful; Keith N1XTK drove along 196 in the southern area last night without hearing anything.

UPDATE 15:30 EDT Friday, Sept. 22

Some good news and some bad news... the good news is that Paul K1PL and some of his friends got groundwave signals from the Connecticut River bridge in Glastonbury, CT last night. This narrows the search area down to a few square miles, on the east bank of the river.

The bad news is that the signal is fading. From an S1 this morning at W1AW, it is now fading into the noise, which may mean that the battery is finally giving out. This morning at 9:00 EDT it was reading 6.41 volts, on the steep part of the discharge curve, but I thought we would get another 12 hours at least before the signal faded away. Joe AA1GW from ARRL is in the area trying to get additional lines of position so that folks can search even after the signal dies out.

UPDATE 10:30 EDT Saturday, Sept. 23

This morning Joe AA1GW and a few others are out hunting again. Last night they did a great job of narrowing the gap, probably coming within a half mile of the beacon. Even with its dying battery, they were picking up the 5th harmonic on 143.180 MHz, which tells me they were very close. Today should be the culmination of the week-long search effort. I sure hope their efforts are rewarded!

UPDATE 16:30 EDT Saturday, Sept. 23 - PAYLOAD RECOVERED !

I just got a call from a Paul N1TUP in Connecticut, saying they had the payload package in hand! Wow, what a relief. It was high in a tree, as suspected, and about 3/4 mile off the nearest road. And it was STILL transmitting telemetry, though feebly. I knew there were folks out there hunting today, and it would have been a big disappointment if they had not found it. Congratulations to the intrepid foot hunters, Paul N1TUP, Wayne W1KI, Paul K1PIC, Bill N1SSM and Joe AA1GW, to all who submitted beam headings and mobile reports during the week, and to Steve WB8IMY for getting it all started.

Flight data:

Desgination:  ITA-4
Envelope:     300g Kaysam latex balloon
Payload:      PIC 12C671 controller, OAT, Payload temp, Battery sensor
CW downlink:  28.636 MHz
Callsign:     KA2QPG
RF power:     20-30 mW output (under 5vpp to a 72 ohm dipole)
Launch:       1606Z Sunday, September 17, 2000

Data format:
DE KA2QPG BALLOON ITA4 F01 O01C I0F4 BE6 dahhhhh
  where:
F01  = data frame number, sequential hex 00-FF then rolling over
O01C = outside air temperature in 1/16 degrees, hex, 01C = 1.75 deg. C
I0F4 = payload temperature in 1/16 degrees, hex, 0F4 = 15.25 deg. C
BE6  = battery voltage, 00=0v; FF=10v

Telemetry Results

Telemetry - raw format
Telemetry, processed
Temperature graph