Gulf of Mexico

June 23rd Day 4

/ Cary Willis, KD9ITO / Leave a comment

W9BLN had awaken south of Pensacola over the Gulf of Mexico at 11:58 UTC 6:58 am CDT at Grid EL66ln and now is heading west about 270 km south of New Orleans. W9BLN will be flying over the Gulf for most of the day heading towards Monterey Mexico. The wind speed is close to 18 knots or 20 miles per hour.

I’ve updated our Links to tracking for Jestream over the Gulf of Mexico for today at 9,000 meters

While I was writing this, we received a Maidenhead for KB9LM, Grid DL88 in the General area of San Miguel, Mexico first reporting at 13:42 UTC 8:42 am CDT. KB9LM will be travelling over Mexico for most of the day at 18 mph, looking to travel near Baja, California, this evening.

We are seeing both of our balloons, they’re about 1400 Km apart. One of the great tools on WSPR.Rocks is the map and ruler tools. Click on the map in the menu bar, right click on the balloon and a menu pops up, click on show ruler and place spot A on one map point and spot B on another map point and play away. Send me a note if you need assistance setting up the WSPR.Rocks program. This is one of the tools we use when we play the “Guess the Grid Square on Awakening” hope to get that started soon.

Clicking on our Links to Locate and Track will bring up WSPR.Rocks for KB9LM.

Until this evening, 73, Cary

June 22nd Looking for direction and some speed

/ Cary Willis, KD9ITO / Leave a comment

Good morning, W9BLN had awaken at 12:08 UTC, 7:08am CDT over Birmingham Alabama at Grid EM63rf. While we were in this low pressure system, we came around nearly where we were yesterday. KB9LM woke at 12:42 UTC, 7:42 am CDT over the Gulf of Mexico Grid EL38. Our balloons and trackers are powered by polycrystalline solar panels. The sun powers the GPS chip and board, and when we’re heard from another Amateur Radio Station our tracker registers the time and our location.

We’re looking at the wind speed at 9,000 meters altitude, and find the general direction our balloons will be travelling today, KB9LM towards Mexico/Texas border and W9BLN following behind. With the wind speed picking up, we should be close to the Pacific Ocean by this evening, (fingers crossed)

This is from Ventusky looking at wind direction from Birmingham Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico as of now. As the day progressees we’ll get a handle on what may change. If you open up the link to Ventusky on our Links to Locate and Track, hover your mouse over the map, you will see the wind speed for that area.

To follow our balloons, please click on Links to Locate and Track at the menu tabs on our website.

73, Cary