BalOon

[edit] High altitude balloon

The amateur radio people from ChaosWelle have launched a hydrogen balloon during the afternoon of Day 4.

We received no message since 17:34, the recovery team is on the way, looking for the balloon.

First unsuccessful try this morning. The string connecting the balloon to the payload broke, and the balloon went up alone -snif- ;-)
Second start at 16:35 in front of shelter bar.
The payload contains:
- A digital photo camera
- A GPS which sends its position every 30seconds using APRS (reception not trivial though...)
- A Cell phone as a backup to send the position through SMS text messages
- A parachute
The balloon is supposed to pop in high altitude, and the payload would descend with the parachute.

update - it looks like that we lost the package close to the last tracking point. It is probable that the bad weather together with a too low climb rate is the cause for an early pop. We hope that somebody finds it and calls the number noted on the package - the possible touch down area has a size of about 1 sqare Mile