Third HABEX Tom Fly on
18 December 2010

The HABEX team will be launching a third high altitude balloon on 18 December 2010. On board will be a controller board with APRS tracking as well as a 40m CW beacon, 70cm Parrot repeater, 70 cm APRS and a GSM APRS.

To track the balloon,  go to the following URL which is “APRS.FI” and search for “ZS6SCI-3”. From here the view can be exported into Google Earth as a “kml” file where the path and altitude can be followed.

To listen into commentary and chase teams, the following has been arranged.

The team will be utilising the Klerksdorp repeater where the commentary will be relayed into Echolink. This will be transferred to Johannesburg where connections can be made to node number 412196

The Highveld radio club will be  transmitting the signal on  HF on 7 180 kHz and 3. 680 kHz

From Klerksdorp, ZS6SCI will be on the air and taking call-in's on 7140KHz. In the event of alternative communications for the recovery teams failing, they will also utilise this frequency enabling listeners to keep up with the recovery.

To find out more information on the flight, go to www.habex.za.net. Click on “flights” then on the 18-12-2010 menu. Available is an information sheet, payload plan and communications document.

HABEX Flight on 25 September 2010