Julie and I just arrived on-site. Pinger is still going, so that's a relief! For some reason we didn't pick it up with the first radio that I used, so that was a fun little scare. We're going to do some large-scale triangulation, then get out on foot and see what we can find.
-Jimmy
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Back At It
Monday, June 13, 2016
Home....for now....
We're all home and showered and working on being fed and hydrated. It's been a long day, folks. Tomorrow is forecast to be another long, hot day but we're hopeful. We're trying to work smarter for the field tomorrow and looking at the data, triangulating and doing the things that are much easier when you're on a computer and not in the woods. I'm nursing a doozy of a headache.
As hectic and frustrating as it has been, I am still so thankful for my team. We got the balloon off the ground, we chased it down and we hunted for it together as friends. As Ryan says, "Maybe the real payload of this project was friendship."
As hectic and frustrating as it has been, I am still so thankful for my team. We got the balloon off the ground, we chased it down and we hunted for it together as friends. As Ryan says, "Maybe the real payload of this project was friendship."
Hopefully we find it tomorrow!
Arthropod Update
UPDATE: Julie says she DEFINITELY has a bug in her underpants. This is not a euphemism.
-Jimmy
Ne C'est Pas un Restaurant
It is massively surreal to drive past the Burger King where we first laid eyes on our burst photo and past the tree we climbed to grab our first payload.
Also, we all smell like lilacs and jasmine and vanilla and not even a hint of sweat. Julie thinks she has a bug in her underpants.
-Jimmy
End of Day 1
We're losing daylight and pretty knackered. Packing it in for now to return early tomorrow morning.
In related news, we are looking for volunteers! The plan is to strategize tonight and build a more informed search plan. We are very short on bodies; anyone who would be willing to come be a set of eyes would be very much appreciated. Also, if anyone has a drone we could borrow that would be swell.
Please drop me a line if you can help! Thanks! KESTREL at GMAIL.
-Jimmy
Break time
Still no luck. We are taking a quick break and are going to listen with better equipment. Concerned that we may need to come back tomorrow with more people and more equipment. Hopefully the pinger holds out long enough.
-Jimmy
Thorns and Bugs
We have been stomping around in the woods for over an hour chasing the signal of the Pinger. The fact that we can hear the short-range Pinger means that it came down at least somewhat intact, and that it still has power. However, it is hot, the woods are very dense, and we don't have an exact fix for this device. Our directional antennas are not being very helpful, as the signal we're trying to chase is apparently too strong.
Going back to the cars for some water, some long pants, and a machete.
-Jimmy
Landed?
We lost track of the balloon from our telemetry's perspective. Current projections have us within 1 mile of our previous landing site. For those of you following along at home, let me remind you that last time we launched from Hickory, North Carolina. This is weird.
-Jimmy
Burst and waffles
The balloon has burst. It's been all over so we're eating waffles while we wait for landing.
METERS
We're pretty sure this corroborates our theory about the feet / meters thing. We did the numbers. They check out.
-Jimmy
Pop!
Balloon peaked over 30000 meters. We are watching it descend right now. 9000 meters and falling. I'm hoping for Barbecue, NC, which is apparently a real place.
-Jimmy
-Jimmy
About to break 30,000... units.
So we're having some confusion. The APRS standard for reporting altitude is feet. However, because we wanted to keep this project all in metric for consistency's sake, I set our GPS to report in meters. We don't actually know if the data that we're getting is in feet or meters. APRS says it's in feet, but we think (and hope) it's in meters.
There's really no big difference, right ?
Anyway, either way, we're about to pass 30000... units. If it's feet, then our payload is going in the drink. If it's meters, then we're right about to pop.
-Jimmy
I think it heard us.
All of that shrieking "DON'T GO IN THE OCEAN AAAAAAAGH" paid off. Made a hard right turn and it's heading almost due west. I'm also spamming the Midatlantic APRS network, so... oops.
-Jimmy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)