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Cornell Grad Students Go Ballooning (Again)
ballooner writes "A group of Cornell University graduate students are attempting to break the Amateur Radio Ballooning duration record this weekend. The project is a continuation from last year when some other Cornell grad students broke the altitude record. The progress of the team can be tracked via their Twitter feed or by monitoring their APRS beacons. For all the HAMs out there, downlinks are available on a 30m wavelength, too."
And the next time a natural disaster hits your area, and your internet, cell phone and every other form of communications is down, say thank you to the "fags" who set up and get the information in and out of your area. 73's KB0GNK
Apparently there's probably some real research going on. While breaking the record for the sake of breaking the record (and the beautiful pictures) is probably an OK reason, it looks like the grad students are making contributions to research regarding the optimal fuel and material composition for balloons (or, since it's /., "balloons")
It's pretty cool of Lockheed Martin to sponsor the project -- being that high up in a balloon has to be the experience of a life time.
What would be really neat is an ATV downlink on UHF so we could watch it. I've always wanted to see the transition where the blue sky disappears.
FYI, APRS is pretty much text messaging for amateur radio. The most popular use is reporting your position (which is what the balloon does), but it's an easy way to pass short digital messages....or even send an email if you're near one of the gateways.
Off topic, but semi-related because of APRS: AT Golden Packet Event. An APRS packet is relayed up the entire Appalachian Trail.
Disclaimer: IAAH (I Am A Ham). dit-dit.
It's really cool and all, but these guys are being paid to do this by an aerospace company (Lockheed) and are graduate researchers. Calling them amateurs and students is slightly insulting (I realize the amateur part is just the way these ballooning things are described, to separate them from NASA, but it's still an unfortunate word in this case).
These guys need to present themselves as professionals for their own sake. Part of the reason school administrators do stupid things like raise grad student tuition and cut grad student benefits is because they do not realize how much on-campus research is done by graduate students. I spent several years when I was in grad school trying to explain to deans, chancellors, and regents that graduate "students" were not just older undergraduates (some of these people were shocked to find out I only took classes for 2 out of 6 years of grad school... they had no idea what science and engineering graduate students do all day).
This kind of stuff drives me crazy. These guys did a great thing, and to play it off as "look what this group of students did" implies this was a small side project done in their spare time, or something a more senior person taught them to do, when this was well funded research which will likely go toward their degrees (and obviously has not been done before). Incidentally, Lockheed Martin's press release uses the phrases: young engineers, early career engineers, and employees. The word "student" is not present, only referenced by "employees' graduate studies." They get it.