BACAR to be launched from private airfield

BACAR will be launched from a private airfield near the Hartbeespoort dam in South Africa.

The airfield was chosen as it outside of the Air Traffic Management (TMA) and SFR area.

The surrounding area is flat and ideal for a balloon launch. The expected prevailing wind is likely to take the balloon further away from air traffic lanes.

The payload includes an APRS system operating on 144,800 MHz which will be switched on 2 minutes before launch and allow APRS stations to follow the flight of BACAR.
The callsign of the APR beacon is ZS6SAT. A VHF beacon on 144,825 MHz will be operating every 2 minutes for the first 30 minutes of the flight on voice, MCW and CW, for the following 119 minutes every 5 minutes and then revert to every 2 minutes.

A 40 metre beacon will be operating on 7 022 kHz with telemetry information every one minute. The information includes the inside and out temperature and the pressure in millibar. Visit www.amsatsa.org.za for more information on the flight.

Get a certificate.
Radio Amateurs submitting a telemetry line of the 40 metre transmission together with details of their location will be awarded a BACAR certificate of participation. Telemetry details must be sent to bacar@sarl.org.za on the day of the launch.

Ground control will be situated at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre where the flight can be followed on a video display. If you are not planning to physical tracking BACAR, you are invited to the NARC and participate in the activity from there.

Learners will be invited to visit the centre and participate in various tracking and telemetry experiments. The NARC will be operational from 07:00 with the launch expected between 08:00 and 08:15.

The South African Radio League