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Fall 2003 Issue |
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The Flight of El Fenix |
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This past summer members of the Lockheed Martin ARC decided it was time to launch a high-altitude ham radio balloon. Here is how they dealt with the changes that had occurred since their last flight, five years ago. By Doug Howard, KG5OA, and Tommy Davis, W5TCD
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 Filling the balloon with helium. |
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During the summer of 2002, the members of the Lockheed Martin Amateur Radio Club (LM ARC) in Fort Worth, Texas were busy preparing to host the 20th AMSAT-NA Space Symposium and Annual Meeting held November 7–11, 2002 at the Lockheed Martin Recreation Area. This was the third AMSAT Symposium held in the Fort Worth-Dallas area, but it was still an event that required a lot of coordination. As happens at many planning meetings, sometimes there is a lull in the activities. During these lulls sometimes ideas that are completely unrelated to the agenda at hand seem to come out of the synergism taking place.
Such was the case at one of the coordination
meetings for the AMSAT-NA Symposium. Tommy Davis, W5TCD, asked Doug
Howard, KG5OA, if he would be interested in doing a high-altitude amateur
radio balloon launch after the symposium was over. It had been almost five
years since the North Texas Balloon Project had launched its ninth mission
under the direction of Bill Davis, KG5IE. Tommy and Doug agreed that it
was a project that needed to be revived. Thus, the planning of what would
ultimately become the flight of El Fenix began.
A balloon project is a very large undertaking.
To be successful, team effort is required. It is a great project for an
amateur radio club, because there is something that interests almost
everyone. Tommy is very good at organization, and he arranged for us to
have our first coordination meeting in February 2003. In an effort to
increase involvement, we wanted folks to be in charge of different parts
of the project. Tommy and Doug agreed to be project coordinators. Bill
Penny, WM5U, decided to help Doug with payload development and
integration. Mark Felton, N5UWM, headed the direction-finding (DFing)
operation with John Newman, KA5WAL. Billy Mason, KD5KNR, would fly in the
recovery aircraft. Tommy was in charge of FAA FAR Part 101 rules
oversight. Bill, WM5U, volunteered to order balloons. David Forbes,
KC5UYR, would get the helium for us. Bill, KG5IE, would arrange for a
launch site.
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