Jonathan Trappe KJ4GQV crossing the Alps in his cluster balloon – Image credit Jonathan Trappe

Radio amateur Jonathan Trappe KJ4GQV attempted to cross the Atlantic in a cluster balloon carrying beacons on 14.0956 MHz and 144.390 MHz.

At around 1200 UT on Thursday, September 12, 2013 Jonathan KJ4GQV took to the air from Caribou in Maine in a lifeboat suspended by some 370 helium balloons. His flight came to a premature end when he had to land in Newfoundland reportedly near Blow Me Down Provincial Park.

Cluster Balloon Payload – Jonathan Trappe KJ4GQV

The 14.0956 MHz beacon was just above the WSPR frequency (approx 1880 Hz in the waterfall display) and runs 110 Baud ASCII RTTY, 8-bits, no parity, 1 stop bit with the callsign NG0X.

The multi-mode transmitter transmitted at 10 minute intervals at: 00, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes.

APRS on 144.390 MHz FM was transmitted while over the US/Canada using the callsign KJ4GQV.

A Real-Time Track of NG0X on 14.0956 is at http://spacenear.us/tracker/?filter=NG0X

USA/Canada APRS track is at
http://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=13&call=a%2FKJ4GQV&timerange=86400&tail=86400

Further information at http://www.clusterballoon.com/

See updates on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.r.trappe.1