May 5 2014

Asian Trek for B-47 Party Balloon

8-Day flight path of the B-47 party balloon

8-Day flight path of the B-47 party balloon

A solar-powered foil party balloon, B-47, transmitting telemetry on 434.500 MHz USB using the amateur radio data mode Contestia 8/250 was launched on Monday, April 28, 2014 from Silverstone in the UK by radio amateur Leo Bodnar M0XER.

The balloon’s eight-day journey took it over the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, North Korea before flying over Japan at an altitude of 11860 metres on Monday, May 5.

Typical 434 MHz solar powered payload - Image credit Leo Bodnar M0XER

Typical 434 MHz solar powered payload – Image credit Leo Bodnar M0XER

Depending on the altitude, the balloon can have a radio range of 300-500 km. See the current track of the balloon at http://spacenear.us/tracker/?filter=B-47
APRS backup: http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FM0XER-7

Balloon: 90cm Qualatex foil party balloon
Payload: 12 grams solar powered tracker

Telemetry: 434.500 MHz, USB, vertical polarisation, Contestia 8/250
Transmission contains two lines of telemetry every 4 minutes and lasts about 1 minute
Time between telemetry data is filled with beeps at 3 sec intervals.
Enable RxID (RSID) to automatically track the signal drift

Leo Bodnar M0XER balloons
http://www.leobodnar.com/balloons/

You can see online real time tracks and frequencies of balloons at http://spacenear.us/tracker/

Typical party balloon with tiny solar powered 434 MHz transmitter - Image credit Leo Bodnar M0XER

Typical party balloon with tiny solar powered 434 MHz transmitter – Image credit Leo Bodnar M0XER

Download the dl-fldigi software from
http://ukhas.org.uk/projects:dl-fldigi

Listen to balloons online (when in range of south-east UK) from anywhere in the world with the SUWS 434 MHz WebSDR (select USB) https://amsat-uk.org/2013/12/28/websdr-for-434-and-1296-mhz/

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

Check the #highaltitude IRC channel for chat about launches. A web client is available at
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=highaltitude

To get up-to-date information on balloon flights subscribe to the UKHAS Mailing List by sending a blank email to this address: ukhas+subscribe@googlegroups.com