Objectives: Check ham radio voice repeater and APRS digipeater

EVA Team:
EVA Commander: Doug
EVA Navigator: John
EVA Crew: John, Heidi
Hab Comm: Kyle

Planned Route: MDRS - WPT 094 - Family Crest - MDRS

Timeline:
Suit up: 1220 MST
APRS Batteries die (and are replaced): 1232 MST
Reach WPT 094: 1247 MST
Digipeater deployed: 1309 MST
APRS signal lost: 1403 MST
APRS signal reacquired: 1428 MST
EVA returned to hab vicinity: 1550 MST
Ingress: 1544 MST
Enter Hab: 1555 MST

New Waypoints Established (Details See Excel Database):
WPT 169: Laura's Turnaround (named in honor of John's fiancee)

Narrative: The primary objective of this EVA was to test the functionality of the voice ham radio repeater on the balloon and a ground-deployable APRS digipeater. The EVA team headed north along Lowell Highway towards Family Crest. Along the way we stopped at WPT 094 to gather elevation information. A short distance after that, we stopped at WPT 149 (Mount Nutella) to drop off the digipeater for increased APRS range (see the gallery for a picture showing how much our APRS range was improved). We then continued north before making a wrong turn at a fork in the road. After a short distance (about 800 m), we came to a nice clearing that functioned as a good turnaround point (we dubbed this location Laura's Turnaround). After finding our way back, we continued north to Family Crest. When we arrived at our destination, Steve (from WXIA Atlanta) took some footage of us around the canyon. We were especially happy that the APRS functioned throughout our trip to Family Crest, thanks to our repeaters. After a few pictures, we headed straight back to the hab. It was getting late and we were all hungry (we hadn't had lunch due to the balloon launch).