Tag Archives: High Altitude Balloon

Apr 27 2013

Three 437 MHz ham radio balloons to launch from Poland

sp9uob_frontTomasz Brol SP9UOB plans to launch three High Altitude Balloons to near-space this week carrying amateur radio payloads on 437.600, 437.595 and 437.615 MHz.

At maximum altitude the 10 mW signal from these balloons could have a potential range of up to 700 km.

Thomasz posts:

I’m planning on launching 3 balloons from Gliwice Glider Airport [Upper Silesia], with ultralight (36-40 grams) payloads.

First launch on Wednesday, May 1 at 9:00 UTC – under 100g kaysam / Helium – just for hardware check 437.600 MHz

Second on Saturday, May 4 at 9:00 UTC – 1600 g Hwoyee / Hydrogen – 437.595 MHz

Third on Saturday, May 4 at 10:00 UTC – 1600 g Hwoye / Hydrogen – 437.615 MHz

RTTY, 470 Hz shift / 50 baud / 7n1

The IARU Region 1 site carries this report on the May 4 balloon launch:

On Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 9:00 UTC (11:00 am – local time), the team from the club SP9PDF – directed by Tomasz, SP9UOB – will launch an unmanned stratospheric balloon. The current record of flight altitude is 44,376 feet above sea level.

The balloon named SEBA-1 will be launched from the Aero Club of Gliwice within the project “From Gliwice to Space”, started in June 2012.

A telemetry transmitter (its power – 10 mW) will be  placed in a capsule, the balloon will operate on RTTY on the frequency 437.600 MHz USB (+ / – thermal drift of about 10 kHz), 50 baud, 470 Hz shift, 7N1. To receive telemetric data, you should use the dl-fldigi program.

Detailed instructions for configuration of the software can be found at: http://sp9uob.verox.pl/rtty_tracking.html

The capsule has a total weight of just 37 grams, including: the electronic circuits – 8 grams, the power (R6) – 14 grams, the antenna – 3 grams, the thermal insulation – 12 grams.

Such light weight load, combined with a giant balloon (2 kg of latex filled with hydrogen) should result, at least, in approaching the world record.

We invite everyone to track the flight of the balloon by listening on the indicated frequency, or  at the following website: http://spacenear.us/

Source of information: SP9PDF Club Team – IARU Region 1 http://www.iaru-r1.org/

Beginners Guide to Tracking using dl-fldigi http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:tracking_guide

To get details of upcoming balloon launches subscribe to the UKHAS Mailing List by sending a blank email to this address: ukhas+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Twitter #ukhas https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ukhas

Tracks of balloon launches can be seen at http://www.spacenear.us/tracker

Apr 13 2013

UK 434 MHz balloons over Central Europe

A Raspberry Pi computer board

A Raspberry Pi computer board

On Saturday, April 13 at 1000 UT, two balloons both carrying 434 MHz transmitters were launched from Cambridge, UK . One transmitting video images from a Rapsberry Pi computer board, the other carried a 144.800 MHz APRS beacon M0UPU-11 in addition to the 434 MHz beacon.

The first balloon PIE5 is flying a Raspberry Pi computer board which transmitted live Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) images back to the ground by a pair of transmitters to double the bandwidth. The data was RTTY 300 baud 8N2. The frequencies used were 434.070 and 434.074 MHz. The balloon call sign was $$PIE.

The second balloon AVA flew a 70cms tracker on 434.450 MHz 50 baud 7N2. Additionally once it entered air space where the airborne use of APRS is permitted a second APRS transmitter was enabled (the APRS frequency is 144.800 MHz) with the call sign M0UPU-11.

The balloons had been expected to head for Poland and on Saturday evening they were over Germany but by early Sunday morning PIE5 was over Switzerland and AVA was over Austria.

The 434 MHz downlinks  on the balloons are generated using Radiometrix NTX2 transmitter modules, the batteries were expected to last 24 hours.

A third balloon callsign XABEN transmitting on 434.350MHz, 470Hz shift, 7N1 was also launched. Tthis was configured to have a short lifetime, going straight-up until the balloon burst rather than floating at 30km across Europe.

Live video of the launch was streamed by the British Amateur TV Club (BATC) at http://www.batc.tv/

Tracks of both balloons are at http://www.spacenear.us/tracker

Direct link to M0UPU-11 APRS track
http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FM0UPU-11&timerange=86400&tail=86400

Images from the PIE5 Raspberry Pi balloon transmitted using SSDV can be seen at http://ssdv.habhub.org/

To get details of upcoming launches subscribe to the UKHAS Mailing List by sending a blank email to this address: ukhas+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Twitter #ukhas https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ukhas

Beginners Guide to Tracking using dl-fldigi http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:tracking_guide

Digital Slow Scan Video http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:ssdv

Jan 9 2013

Radio Hams BBC Stargazing Live Balloon Picture

BBC Sky Balloon image received by Graeme 2I0WGM and Philip MI0VIM

BBC Sky Balloon image received by Graeme 2I0WGM and Philip MI0VIM

Graeme 2I0WGM and Philip MI0VIM got some publicity for the Mid-Ulster Amateur Radio Club by submitting a picture received from a BBC balloon on 434.650 MHz.

It was a BBC Stargazing Live experiment to send a balloon to the stratosphere that would tweet data from near space. The SWIFT balloon carried a transmitter on 434.650 MHz that sent pictures using 300 bps FSK and reached an altitude of 18.982 km.

Graeme 2I0WGM and Philip MI0VIM submitted their picture to the BBC which can be seen at
https://twitter.com/BBCSkyBalloon/status/289016211143016448/photo/1

Continue reading →

Oct 21 2012

434.301 MHz PICO Balloon Reaches Sweden

James Coxon M6JCX launches PICO a 434.301 MHz USB RTTY balloon – Image Credit David Bowkis M0MDB

PICO, a single foil balloon was launched by James Coxon M6JCX on Saturday, October 20, 2012 from Suffolk in the UK. It carried GPS and a miniature radio transmitter sending RTTY (ascii-8) on 434.301 MHz USB running 10 mW output.

During the 19 hour flight it crossed the North Sea and landed somewhere in central Sweden.

Continue reading →

Oct 17 2012

AMSAT-LU Stratospheric Amateur Radio Balloon Video

On May 19, 2012 a high altitude amateur radio balloon was launched from La Pampa, Argentina, reaching 34 km. It carried a 430 MHz to 144 MHz band 4 watt CTCSS activated FM repeater, APRS lu7aa-11, Robot-36 live SSTV, CW, and 40/20m CW telemetry beacon with 2 video cameras. (Total weight 970 grams).

It also provided a practice run for the upcoming LUSEX satellite.

Continue reading →

Sep 1 2012

Cambridge University Space Flight at EMF 2012 Milton Keynes

EMF 2012 badge of attendee Graham Shirville G3VZV

EMF 2012 badge of attendee Graham Shirville G3VZV

The technology camp EMF 2012 being held at Pineham Park, Milton Keynes runs from Friday August 31 to Sunday, September 2. BBC TV reports that two 20m high masts linked by microwaves have been erected for the event, one at the campsite and the other in the car park of a data centre 2.5 km away.

Among the weekend of presentations are some by radio amateurs such as Adam Greig M0RND (formerly M6AGG). Adam is a member of the UK High Altitude Society (UKHAS) and Cambridge University Space Flight (CUSF) and will be talking about High Altitude Ballooning. The balloons use 434 MHz for the telemetry and video image downlinks.

Continue reading →

Aug 30 2012

HamRadioNow interview with Erin King AK4JG

Erin King AK4JG being interviewed by Gary Pearce KN4AQ of HamRadioNow

Erin King AK4JG, a 17-year-old from Columbus, Georgia, was named Amateur Radio Newsline’s Young Ham of the Year for 2012. She re-founded her high school’s radio club and then built a ham radio-carrying balloon that got to 91,000 feet (27.7 km), recovered the flight data and used it to produce a truly striking video of the flight.

She’s just starting her Freshman year at MIT. Yes, she’s exceptional, but she exhibits the qualities we like to see in every young ham.

In this video she is interviewed by Gary Pearce KN4AQ at the Huntsville Hamfest.

Continue reading →

Jul 18 2012

PongSats – 1000 Student Projects to the Edge of Space

A PongSat

On September 22 it’s planned to send 1000 student projects built into PongSats (ping pong balls) to the edge of space.

These experiments and projects are made by those in kindergarten, university professors, high school science classes and home schools kids.

PongSats on the Edge of Space – Image credit JP Aerospace

Projects range from plant seeds to filling a PongSat with a marshmallow. At 100,000 feet (30 km) the marshmallow puffs up completely filling the ball. Then it freeze dries. The student gets to hold in her hand the direct results of traveling the top of the atmosphere.

The launch of the PongSats will take place from the Black Rock desert in Nevada. The vehicles that carry them are called High Rack. They are made of foam and carbon fiber. There are four separate telemetry links to the High Rack tracking it during the flight. At the end of the flight the balloon is released and the High Rack descends by parachute.

It will take four High Racks, each with its own balloon to carry the thousand ping pong balls.

Watch PongSats

This project is using Kickstarter to raise donations http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1569698176/1000-student-projects-to-the-edge-of-space

More on PongSats and MiniCubes at JP Aerospace, a volunteer-based DIY Space Program http://www.jpaerospace.com/

Kickstarter is also being used by the satellite project SkyCube http://www.uk.amsat.org/8955

Jul 17 2012

PIE1 – Raspberry Pi Sends Live Images from Near Space

A Raspberry Pi

Dave Akerman has used a Raspberry Pi computer board as the flight computer on a High Altitude Balloon (HAB) and sent back live images from near space at an altitude of almost 40 km.

Image credit Dave Akerman

The balloon, appropriately called PIE1, was launched from Brightwalton, in Berkshire on July 14, 2012. The images were transmitted on 434.650 MHz (300 bps, 600 Hz shift) in the amateur radio 70cm band using the Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) standard.

PIE1 reached an altitude of 39,994 metres and images were received as far away as Northern Ireland (that’s over 500 km, not bad for just 10 mW on 434.650 MHz!).

See the images sent by PIE1 http://sanslogic.co.uk/ssdv/live

The full story and pictures are on Dave Akerman’s website http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=592

Read The Register article http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/17/pi_ascent/

Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:ssdv

UK High Altitude Society http://www.ukhas.org.uk/

High Altitude Balloons have featured at a recent AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford.

You can watch a video online of the presentation that Cambridge University Spaceflight gave called “Teddy Bears in Space” at http://www.batc.tv/channel.php?ch=1
In the Archive List category box select AMSAT then click Select Category then in the stream box select Teddys and click on Select Stream

Or download a copy of the video at http://www.batc.tv/vod/Teddys.flv

This years AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium takes place Sept. 15-16 details at
http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium/twelve

Image credit Dave Akerman