brainwagon

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a balloon launch, perhaps carrying a full GPS and radio transmitter payload, but I think it would behoove me to get some experience attempting to find payloads that cost only a few bucks before risking hundreds of dollars. This would appear to be the answer: the Cricketsat. [...]

If you’ve listened to some of my satellite audio, you’ll notice that in addition to the callsigns, people are exchanging things that sound like “Delta Mike 41″ or “Charlie Mike 87″. These are Maidenhead gridsquares: a system of rapidly transmitting your rough location. The kind most commonly heard are the ones that are 4 characters [...]