Museum Ships Weekend Special Event Station KK5W Satellite
Operations

The Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club (BVARC) will participate in the
Museum Ships Weekend Event on June 1-2, 2013 from Pelican Island
(IOTA NA-143) near Galveston, Texas.

Currently 90 ships worldwide are registered to participate in the event and it is expected that additional museum ships will register before the event begins. In 2008 the BVARC satellite team was the first museum ship to use OSCAR satellites. Last year at least a half dozen museum ships joined us on the OSCAR satellites.

This year the KK5W team will launch a balloon on Saturday morning,
June 1, 2013. Previous balloons launched by the South Texas Balloon
Launch Team have reached an altitude of over 111,000 feet and have
traveled as far east as South Carolina.

This balloon will carry a 70cm to 10m linear transponder with center frequencies of 433.500 MHz and 28.600 MHz. The balloon can be tracked on http://www.aprs.fi by entering the identifier N5BPS-11 (the USS Cavalla's wartime call sign was NBPS). Working the balloon transponder is just like working a satellite but with no Doppler shift.

BVARC plans a full 2-day operation on the HF bands. Operation on OSCAR satellites is planned for daytime passes on Saturday, June 1,
2013. The BVARC satellite and balloon team consists of AMSAT members
Andy MacAllister, W5ACM, Allen Mattis, N5AFV, Charlie Keng, K5ENG,
Carl Hacker, WC5WM, Thomas Krahn, KT5TK, and Mike Scarcella, WA5TWT.

We encourage any interested satellite operators to volunteer to operate on the OSCAR satellites if you live near a participating museum ship. Join in and be part of this worldwide event.

If you hear KK5W on during MSWE 2013 give us a call.

QSL with SASE to KK5W, Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club, PO BOX 2997, Sugar Land, TX 77487-2997.

Additional information:
http://www.nj2bb.org/museum/index.html

Thanks to ANS and Allen F. Mattis for the above information