Subject: Multicast updates from the round-the-world balloon flight

From: Ross Finlayson <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 02:37:10

FYI, I'm currently multicasting low-bandwidth data updates from balloonist
Steve Fossett's latest attempt to circle the globe in a hot-air balloon.
(Thanks to Washington University in St. Louis for making this data available.)

Details:
The data is being multicast to group address 237.34.178.4, port 61914, at
an average data rate of around 300 bps.  The data format is MAFP (v3), with
the data including the following attributes:
	timeUTC, timeLocal, latitude, longitude, altitude (in meters),
	groundSpeed (in km/h), heading (in degrees),
	distanceTraveled (in km), elapsedTime
(For a description of the MAFP data format, see
<http://www.live.com/mafp.txt>)

Those of you who are running the "multikit" multicast session browser
(available at <http://www.live.com/multikit/>) can automatically view the
balloon's progress graphically on a map of the world.  (See the program
announcement in the "Public Grab Bag" directory.)

(For more information about the balloon flight itself, see the mission's
web site at http://solospirit.wustl.edu/)

	Ross.