Good morning all. AA6DY woke at Grid EM18 at 14:52 UTC, 9:52 am CDT Between Withita and Topeka Kansas. It took us some time to receive our 2nd packet. At 15:44 UTC we received Grid, EM28FI and a 48 hour projection from NOAA for direction. Our current altitude is 14,160 meters, 46,400 feet. Let’s start celebrating our 1st circumnavigation over Southern Illinois around 2:30 p.m today
AA6DY has had a nice flight today, waking up near Willits, California at 16:02 UTC and looks like will be going to sleep for the night at 23:42 UTC near Winnemucca, Nevada Grid DN11ib.
I was expecting based on the NOAA Hysplit model that we would drop in altitude during the day, that did not happen. We started at 13,900 meters and ended the day at 14,100 meters, 46,200 feet.
Below is the NOAA Hysplit Trajectory Model which we can use for direction, it looks like we’ll be waking up over Kansas.
AA6DY woke at Grid CM89IL at 16:02 UTC, 11:02 am CDT. Our altitude is 13,900 meters or about 45,600 feet. A little about Willits, is about 20 miles north, northwest of Ukiah at an elevation of 1391 feet.
Though I don’t expect to be here long, as we’re traveling in a Jetstream of about 60 mph. For those sticking around, there will be a North Coast Comedy’s Fall Comedy Series at the Coyote Valley Casino at 7:30 p.m. local time.
While we’re enjoying the flight of AA6DY, having broken our record of our longest flight in duration, altitude and distance and still flying, we’d like to wish Roberta Seedman a Happy Birthday.
From the NOAA Hysplit 48 hour Trajectory below shows us moving quickly across the United States. The model shows a sudden drop in altitude and rising higher then when we started.
All we can say is a balloon is gonna do what a balloon is gonna do, and we’re happy to enjoy the ride.
Our Links to Locate and Track tab has been updated for Ventusky Jestream, NOAA Hysplit, Sondehub World Wide Balloon Tracking and APRS tracking for AA6DY.
For this 24th Flight and for all our future launches, we’d like to thank all those that have made us what we are today, as we prepare to circumnavigate our first Pico Balloon. What better place to be as we fly our Co-Founder’s balloon, Michael Seedman, AA6DY.
We offer special thanks to our friends and mentors, especially, Tom Medlin, W5KUB and Ken Daniel K9YO and the group we follow Pico Balloon.io and a very special thanks to Kari and Kent Knebelkamp of the Willow Hill Golf Course in Northbrook, IL who have given us a wonderful launch location high on a hill.
Look for part 2 of today’s flight where we go to sleep
73, Cary, KD9ITO
AA6DY woke at Grid CM10HH at 16:52 UTC, 11:52 am CDT at 13,960 meters, 45,788 feet in altitude. Our first packet received at 16:52 UTC showed a 43 dBm power giving us 12,900 meters in altitude. Our 2nd packet received at 17:04 UTC showed 53 dBm power giving us an additional 1,060 meters for just under 46,000 feet.
Our general direction is now northeast towards California.
Below are three images, 1) from QRZ Gridmapper, showing our location CM10HH at 16:52 UTC, 2) the NOAA Hysplit Trajectory model over 48 hours and 3) is from our new site listed on on Links to Locate and Track tab from Sondehub for Amateur Radio showing our projected float path and the other balloons around our location. Sondehub for Amateur Radio shows all the current Pico Balloons that we track.
If you happen to negotiate around our website, please visit Links to Locate and Track All the external links will open a new tab making it easier to come back to our site.
NOAA Hysplit for 48 hours, September 22nd through September 24th 2022
Sondehub for Amateur Radio Projected Float Path
AA6DY woke at 17:12 UTC, 12:12 pm CDT at Grid BM78QJ flying at 14,160 meters, 46,400 feet.
After spending so much time over the North Pacific Ocean, it’s finally nice to see land. It still looks like our general direction will be southeast for today, then start to move northeast later this evening. The updated NOAA Hysplit Trajectory model for 84 hours is below.
This is the part that will make for an interesting conversation amongst our group. Below is the NOAA Hysplit Trajectory model, the star is where we are as seen above. Looks like we’ll be waking up close to Santa Rosa California on September 23rd near the end of the day. As we travel over the western United States, we may be dropping in altitude to 12,000 meters, that’s still close to 40,000 feet and may only be a temporary drop.
We now have a nice following in this group, please feel free to comment and put your predictions in. Our Links to Locate and Track has been updated for your tracking pleasure.
AA6DY woke at Grid BM22IV at 18:12 UTC, 1:12 pm CDT north of Maui, Hawaii. Our current altitude has been steady at 14,240 meters, 46,700 feet. Our general direction for today and tomorrow will be southeast.
Below is the NOAA Hysplit Trajectory model over 84 hours bringing us close to the California Coast by September 24th. The star is where we are, the larger triangles represent a new day in UTC starting at 00:00, the smaller triangles represent 6 hour increments in UTC, our altitude will remain steady.
We will continue to monitor our position and update our Links to Locate and Track tab with any changes.
Please click here Links to Locate and Track tab has been updated and all links are current.
AA6DY woke at 19:12 UTC, 2:12 pm CDT at Grid AL49GA, our altitude is 14,240 meters or 46,700 feet. Our general heading is northeast, though we may be traveling around Hawaii over the next 84 hours.
We’ll be watching our balloon as we travel near Hawaii. Will AA6DY be heading to Los Angeles or another trip around Hawaii? Our Links to Locate and Track have been updated. Find our location on APRS.fi, other Pico Balloon locations on Sondehub, the 84 hour NOAA Hysplit model and the Jetstream on Ventusky. On the lower left hand corner of the Ventusky link, you can change the calendar date and scroll the time to look at what lies ahead.
AA6DY woke at Grid AL18BO at 19:32 UTC, 2:32 PM CDT at 14,160 meters or 46,400 feet in altitude. We’ve been receiving both packets during this leg of our trip but from only 3 reporting stations, two in California and one in Australia. Our visitors to our website find us by looking up the balloon we’re flying. Today we had visitors from Spain and yesterday from Germany and Japan.
It’s hard to get a reference where we are, as we’ve been hanging out over the North Pacific Ocean for a while. From the image below, we woke up just northwest of Midway Atoll with Hawaii southeast of us at the bottom right of the image.
At the time of this writing, we are directly over Midway Atoll at 21:52 UTC. I like to give updates to our projected direction based on current altitude. For the rest of this evening and overnight we are expected to travel in a southeast direction. Around wakeup tomorrow, we’re expected to be traveling northeast at our same altitude, from the NOAA Hysplit Trajectory model below.
The Links to Locate and Track tab Locate and Track has been updated with current Jetstream, tracking Pico Balloons around the World and our tracking via APRS. Clicking on the Ventusky Jetstream will show that we may be headed to Los Angeles, I’ll be updating that information daily.
We had an early start today, AA6DY woke at Grid AM02ES at 19:22 UTC, 2:22 pm CDT. We are still flying high at 14,440 meters or 47,200 feet altitude. From the image below, you can see we’re at the International Date Line.
Our general direction will be south then east over Hawaii as seen in the Hysplit model below and maintaining our same altitude.
Our Links to Locate and Track tab have been updated for Jestream and other data Locate and Track
We’re hoping when we start moving east again, we’ll be in a faster Jetstream. Meanwhile, we’re enjoying our flight.
AA6DY woke at Grid RM64 at 20:12 UTC 3:12pm CDT. We’re still waiting for the 2nd packet. With just the 1st packet we have the 4 Grid Maidenhead and the power of 47dBm which gives us at least 14,100 meters over 46,000 feet. As we’re heading east, our wakeup will be coming earlier tomorrow.
I’d like to put a shout out to the members in attendance at the W9DXCC Convention in Naperville, Illinois who were in attendance for our Pico Balloon presentation by Michael Seedman, AA6DY whose balloon we’re flying.
We’re receiving two Amateur Radio Stations that are giving us our 4 Grid Maidenhead, 1st AI6VN/G Robert from Half Moon Bay California who also has a home in Maui is reaching us 3,228 km or 2,074 miles from our balloon and VK4CT a station from Australia 7,169 Km or 4,455 miles from our balloon at 10mW.
We do have a change on our NOAA Hysplit Model at 14,100 meters, over a 48 hour period showing us heading east and maintaining altitude, I’ll continue to monitor this when we get our 2nd packet.
Our Links to Locate and Track Tab have been updated with today’s information.
As we celebrated Michael’s Birthday last week on day 7, I’m happy to be celebrating my Birthday today on day 14.
73, Cary KD9ITO