eHam.net News

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Chi-Hi Physics Students Launch Balloon with Camera into Stratosphe

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 04:30 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/31743


A few years ago, Chi-Hi physics teacher Nick Gagnon watched a video of an
amateur ham radio operator launching and tracking a high-altitude balloon.
He thought a project of NASA proportions that could be done for cheap would
be an educational and rewarding project for the students.
One of the GPS units was a SPOT locating transmitter that uses a chip to
send a location to communication satellites. Those messages are sent every
10 minutes to satellite antennas that send the message to a specific
network. The other GPS unit was a ham radio APRS station built by former
Cray scientist Gale Sorum, a retired ham radio operator. "Without Gale, we
probably couldn't have done this," Gagnon said. Sorum designed the GPS
connected to the ham radio that sends out a signal every 90 seconds on
144.390 MHz. Different ham radio stations in Wisconsin pick up the signals
and broadcast that information on the internet.


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Solar Flares Caused Magnetic Storms On Earth:

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 04:29 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/31742


Baku. Konul Kamilgizi -- APA. Solar flares caused strong enough magnetic
storm on the Earth on February 16. Chief of the Sun and solar-terrestrial
relationship Department of Shamakhi-based Tusi Astrophysical Observatory
Namig Jalilov told APA that magnetic storm with high average power affected
the people's health. He said that magnetic storm lasted for 6-7 hours, then
calmed down and now is quite calm: "Magnetic storm started on the night of
February15 to 16 and lasted till the morning. This process stopped in the
morning. Solar flares hit the Earth's magnetic fields. This process didn't
lead to technical failures. However, people with heart failure, high blood
pressure diseases felt it."