Thomas Jefferson

[Frank Gentges]

Paul and the group

I have been looking at some web pages and there seems to be a fair amount 
of ongoing work.  My main concern now is whether we can expect to recover 
launches from our area without there being blown over the Chesapeake Bay 
or worse yet the Atlantic Ocean.  Another thought is that there may not 
be that much unplowed ground to do pioneering work with.  A brief review 
of the high points....

Goddard has a SIMSAT program aimed at helping schools 
on this type of thing. >>http://garc.gsfc.nasa.gov/~simsat/<< 

Kansas State University (my alma mater I might add) has a Near Space
Project.  >>http://www.ksu.edu/humec/knsp/<< 

The graddaddy which I found an early paper on in your office was the
"Franklin Project" which has become the WINDTRAX project.
>>http://www.windtrax.org/<< I talked to one of the Windtrax people on the
phone last night and they are very active at present in working with the
schools.  

I also found that the US Navel Academy had launched one balloon
several years ago.  >>http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/balloons.html<<
I suspect Bob Bruninga had something to do with this judging from the URL.

There seem to be a number of amateur launches these days and there is a 
web site that seems to be keeping track of most of them 
<<http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3161/hablic.htm<<

Frank

On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Paul L. Rinaldo wrote:

> Frank,
> 
> Maybe all this happened before your time in AMRAD, but we have a package
> designed to go aboard SkyStation and doesn't appear to be flown. Sandy
> constructed it and can give you the details.
> 
> 73, Paul, W4RI
> 
> At 04:15 1/5/99 +0000, Frank Gentges wrote:
> >I looked at some material that Paul had at the ARRL office on some 
> >Educational Workshops conducted by ARRL.  One article described balloon 
> >borne packages to include ham transmitters, receivers, weather sensors 
> >and TV cameras as a school project to interest the students in all sorts 
> >of technology and amateur radio.
> >
> >I was impressed and think it might be a good option for our students at
> >Thomas Jefferson.  I am thinking of something simple like a single channel
> >repeater, GPS reporting and not much else for a first try.  Launch would
> >occur prior to the end of the school year.  It would require some help
> >with others from AMRAD and perhaps elsewhere to make a go of it.  Does the
> >group like the basic idea and would you be willing to support the effort? 
> >
> >Frank
> >
> >
>