Mission 34 is over!

Thank you to all those that participated in Mission 34.  We had some of our regular contacts as well as new ones.  If you made a contact please email us at skydivinghams@gmail.com and let us know the jump number, the skydiver, and the time of your contact.  Please provide you callsign so that we can send you your QSL card.  Addresses will be obtained via QRZ.com unless you indicate otherwise.

Next mission is May 25!

Mission 34 Mission Day Updates

0922: Our ground grew has arrived and we are completing the setup of our Ground Control station at the Drop Zone. We hope to have a time for our first jump in about an hour. Yep, running behind a bit

9:27 Good morning everyone Happy Mission day #34 Today is going to be a great day. I’m Christine KK6PNV on logging today. I will be keeping you all updated as much as i can. Right now everyone is setting up and getting ready. We will be having a team briefing soon and I will be back for an update.

10:00 Briefing done, assignments assigned to team members, Mark Jumper 1 is getting ready for his first jump. Almost ready for Mark to manifest for his first jump.

10:42 Mark Jumper 1 is manifested and is on the board~No time yet to jump

10:50  11:10 for Mark to load plane

11:09 Mark loading plane

11:14 Plane departure Jumper 1 Mark in the air

11:23 Make sure to send an email to skydivinghams@gmail.com so we can make sure you get your QSL card

11:37 Jumpers away!!!!

11:40 GO SEE THE LIVE STREAM OF MARK AS HE FLYING THROUGH THE AIR AND MAKING CONTACTS

http://ustream.tv/channel/mfwright

Its awesome!!

11:48 Mark preparing for landing

11:52 Mark landed safe & sound

11:55 Be back in a bit with info on next jump with Rob Jumper 2

12:23 Rob manifested no time yet on jump

12:30 Rob to load plane @ 1300

12:50 Rob loading the plane KC6TYD Jumper 2

12:56 Plane take off

13:38 Echolink NE6RD-L

1310 11,800 ft  Rob

1313 Jumpers away Rob out of plane

1315 Make your QSO with Rob KC6TYD

1328 Rob landed safe and sound

1339 Be back in a bit getting Mark ready for his jump

1449 Changing of the guard here. 🙂 Sorry for the gap. Prepping Mark for an HF jump is always time consuming. He is still getting suited up. Will let you know when he is manifested for a jump as soon as I am able.

1519 Mark is manifested for the next load. It’s a fuel load, which means they will take a little extra time to fuel up the plane. We estimate his jump to be in approximately 30 minutes (~1550).

1540 Mark is on board and the plane has taken off. Expect him to jump in approximately 15 minutes.

1547 Mark will be transmitting on 14.250 MHz. If time allows, he will also be on 146.430.

1555 Jumpers away! This will be the last jump of the day. The next two loads are full. 😦

1615 Mark (AF6IM) is safely on the ground. Sorry we won’t get a fourth jump in today. That’s a wrap! Thanks for participating!

Mission 34 starts tomorrow!

We’ve been busy getting ready for our first mission of the year.  Looks like great weather to come.

UPDATE:  We will have our EchoLink node up and running after all!  Search for NE6RD-L. Only 10 listeners can be on the node at a time. When longged in take a look and see how many other users are also logged in. If it’s 7 or more we ask that you disconnect if you’ve already made a contact to make room for others.

Scroll down for all the other mission notes.

Check often for updates.

Mission 34: March 16, 2019

Here is your opportunity to make a QSO with a skydiver and receive a one-of-a-kind QSL card.

For 9 years a small groups of hams, and a few skydivers who are also hams, have come together to bring you this fun, exciting, and unique way to make a ham radio contact.  The skydiver will jump out of a plane from approximately 13,000 feet and deploy his canopy right away to utilize the altitude.  Attached to the skydiver is a payload jam packed with amateur radio equipment.  Not only will you be able to make 2 meter simplex contacts but you will also be able to track each skydiver via APRS but watch it all unfold from live steaming video.

Here all the details:

Date

March 16, 2019

Where

Bay Area Skydiving, Byron Airport, Byron, CA

What time

We hope to have the first jump sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 A.M.

Frequencies

2 meter: 146.430

HF: 14.250 USB

APRS

Simply search AF6IM or KC6TYD depending on who is jumping at the time.

Steaming Video

Ustream.tv/channel/mfwright

Updates

Our Parachute Control crew will be up and running to make updates, QSTs, and to answer any of your questions.  They will be monitoring 146.430 MHz simplex from the summit of Mt Diablo.  They will also be monitoring the W6CX repeater at 147.060 +100.  We will also have a running timeline on this website providing updates as well.

We make every attempt to log all the contacts for the day, however, due to the nature of the event some calls are lost or undecipherable.  If you make a contact please email us at skydivinghams@gmail.com.

This event is subject to delay or cancellation.  We have no control over the weather or of the jump plane.  Please check for updates here or on our facebook page.