National balloon foxhunt in Netherlands

On 15 September, Dutch radio amateurs are holding the 35th national balloon foxhunt in the Netherlands. During the event, a radiosonde will be sent up to reach an altitude of about 19 miles. Local foxhunters will home in on the sonde in contest with each other as it comes down. Due to the high altitude, the radio signals can be received over a wide area. The radiosonde holds three transmitters: a 2m beacon for the foxhunters; a 70cm to 2m transponder for amateur communications and a 13cm ATV transmitter showing pictures. There will also be a special event station on the air from 0900UTC until about 1600UTC. The balloon will be launched around 1200UTC. The radiosonde beacon is on 145.450MHz, the crossband transponder is in on 432.550MHz and out on 145.475MHz and the ATV transmitter is on 2330MHz. The 40m special event station, PI4RCG, will use 7.077MHz ± QRM. More on www.ballonvossenjacht.nl.

Category: GB2RS Headlines