Mission 42 QSL cards

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Holiday.
QSL cards were placed in the mail yesterday so those of you who made a contact during Mission 42 should be getting it soon. As much as we try to record/log all contacts there are always a few that get missed. If you don’t get your card in the next few days email me at kc6tyd@gmail.com.
Parachute Mobile will be taking a break until Spring, but we’ll still male occasional posting here.
-Rob, KC6TYD

Mission 42 is a success!

A big thanks to all those that participated. If you made a contact with a skydiver, please let us know by sending us an email to skydivinghams@gmail.com.  This way we can send you your QSL card. Give us a couple weeks to complete this task.
We’ll be on a break until Spring, however there may be some prompto radio jumps now and then. If that occurs, we’ll be sure to post that on the website and on our Facebook page so check back now and then.

Mission 39 is a GO!

Look for updates here on the webpage or on Faecbook starting around 9:30a.m. or earlier. We’ll also make QSTs on the W6CX (Mount Diablo) repeater at 147.060+100

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Mission 42 Log-Of-The-Day

1500 – Michael Gregg, KF6WRW, is safely on the ground. YAY! That’s a wrap! Due to the winds picking up, we will not be able to do any additional jumps. Thanks for your participation and support! 73! ~Steve  K6WW

1352 – Michael Gregg, KF6WRW, is on board and on his way up for a VHF jump on 147.57. He should be out in approximately 15-20 min.

1330 – Rob, KC6TYD, is safely on the ground! YAY!

1318 – Rob, KC6TYD, is out of the plane and under canopy.

1300 – Rob, KC6TYD, is on the plane and on his way up. HF – 14.289. Should be out in about 20 min.

1250 – 12:50pm – Next jump will be Rob, KC6TYD, on HF 14. 289. Time is TBD.

1210 – Mark is safely on the ground. Got good video. YAY! Next jump mode and time…TBD.

1113 – AF6IM, Mark, on board and on his way up. Zoom link is: https://coupa.zoom.us/j/99411979956

0745 – Good morning everyone.  It’s cold at the DZ! Brrrrr.  Where is my coffee?  At the moment our video crew is setting all their equipment and putting up antennas.  Check back later for more updates.

Mission 41 QSL Cards have ben mailed!

You should have received your Mission 41 QSL card by now. If not, sorry, we must have missed you in the log. No worries, email me at skydivinghams@gmail.com and let me know the which jumper and the approximate time of the contact. There were a few pile ups and some callsigns could not be deciphered even though the the call was recognized.

Mission 42 is Scheduled for October 15 in conjunction with Pacificon, ARRL’s Pacific Division Conference. More details to come.

-Rob, KC6TYD

Mission 41 QSL card update

Big apologies to all those that have been waiting for their Mission 41 QSL cards.  The weekend after Mission 41 was Field Day and I was in charge of coordinating that for our club, so that kept me busy.  During most of July I was busy with as seasonal job that had me occupied during the weekends.  Anyway, enough with my excuses.  I have been going through the Emails from those of you who sent me confirmations as well as the audio recordings.  It appears there was a recording glitch on the last jump of the day, jump 4, and no one sent me email confirmations during that jump so I have no contacts for that jump at all.  You can still email me at skydivinghams@gmail.com if you did indeed make a contact with me during jump 4.  I’m hoping sometime next week I’ll have all the QSL cards printed up to send out.

Mission 42 was originally scheduled for August 20, but there was not enough time to plan for that so it will now take place on October 15 in conjunction with Pacificon.

There is a possibility I’ll be making some practice HF jump between now and Pacificon.  I’ll try and post an announcement if that happens, but it could be a very short notice.  Things happen fast out at the Drop Zone.

73,

-Rob, KC6TYD

Mission 41 completed

Well, that’s another mission in the books.  So many good things and so many bad things.  But that seems to be what makes these missions so interesting.  Kind of “…never know what you’re going to get.” theme.  I do want to remind everyone that if you made a contact please email us at skydivinghams@gmail.com so we can be sure to get you your one-of-kind QSL card.

Our next mission is scheduled for August 20.  So much to do, so little time to make improvements.  One last minute change was the use of Zoom for our streaming video.  Our viewer count went way up from previous missions.  We’ll probably stick with that for now.  I need to work on some video cabling issues….again, and figure out why I couldn’t hear anyone on my HF jump.  I plan to make some practice jumps before the next mission.  When I do I’ll post that here and on Facebook.

73 for now,

Rob, KC6TYD

Parachute Mobile Coordinator.

Mission 41 Log

10:50 am – We are about to manifest for our first jump for Mark AF6IM for a VHF jump. Tentative jump time will be ~40 min.

11:31 AM – Mark AF6IM is out of the plane and under canopy. YAY! 147.570.

11:42 AM – Mark AF6IM is safely on the ground. Once Rob returns we’ll get a sense of when the next jump is.

1:15 pm – Rob KC6TYD is manifested for the next load in 15 min. He should be under canopy in about 25 min. for HF on 14.289.

1:34 pm – Rob is on board and on his way up. This is an HF jump: 14.289. He should be in the air in about 10 min.

2:03 pm – Rob KC6TYD is safely on the ground. YAY!

2:11 pm – Mark AF6IM will be suiting up for another VHF jump.

2:51 pm – Mark AF6IM is suited up and manifested. Plane should be departing in ~20 min. and he should be out and under canopy in another 10 or so.

3:29 pm – Mark AF6IM is in the air. He should be under canopy in around 10 min. VHF: 147.570

3:52 pm – Mark AF6IM is safely on the ground.

4:17 pm – Rob KC6TYD is manifesting for the next run. There is no departure time yet. Will keep you posted. Will be a VHF jump: 147.570.

4:28 pm – 19 min. to departure

4:37 pm – Here is the Zoom URL: https://coupa.zoom.us/j/94920887517

4:51 pm – Rob KC6TYD is aboard and the plane has departed.

5:27 pm – Rob KC6TYD is safely back on the ground after having to cutaway his main chute. We are thankful for reserves!

5:54 pm – Thanks to some very good directions, I was able to drive out to the end of the road, hop a gate, walk a hundred yards or so, and retrieve Rob’s chute. YAY! Got my steps in for today. Thank you all for joining us today. That’s a wrap! 73! ~Steve K6WW

—–MISSION 41 IS A GO—–

The weather for Mission Day is looking great!
There are some changes to take note of:

• There will only be two Jumper’s (skydivers) for this mission.  Mark, AF6IM, and Rob, KC6TYD.  Michael, KF6WRW, was not able to make it.
• Please note that the over the last couple of missions we have been using new frequencies for both FM and HF contacts.  Our 2 meter jumps will be on 147.570 simplex, and the HF jump will be on 14.289.  Yes, that is an odd frequency.  Trying to avoid frequencies that end in a zero or a 5.  Hopefully there wont be anyone camped out there.  Carlos, KD9OLN, Parachute Mobile, Illinois, is going to round up some big guns to hold the frequency.
• The live streaming video service we’ve used four years seems to be having some issues and it doesn’t appear that we’ll be able to resolve it in time for the mission.  So, we going to “Share” the video downlink in Zoom.  I think most of the world is now familiar with that.  Her is the link:    https://www.google.com/url?q=https://coupa.zoom.us/j/94920887517&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw3peAuaGniGv5VElrXnWbWr, and should be live starting at 10a.m. pacific time.
• To find the jumpers on APRS simply search for Mark’s and Rob’s callsigns with NO SSID number at http://aprs.fi.
• Even though we have onboard recoding, we still get a few missed calls.  If you make a QSO, or even a broken one, please send us an email to skydivinghams@gamail.com and tell us the time of the contact and which jumper it was, this way we’ll be sure to send you a QSL Card.
• We will be shorthanded for this mission which means our social media updates might be delayed.  Sorry.  Parachute Control will be up on Mount Diablo on 145.570 simplex starting around 9a.m. to provide you with updates and answer questions throughout the day.
• We hope to get our first jumper in the air sometime around 10:30a.m. pacific time.

That’s it for now.  More updates later so check back.