Tag Archives: High Altitude Balloon

Oct 23 2013

South Charleston High students to launch satellite

South Charleston High School - Near Space Satellite

South Charleston High School – Near Space Satellite

The Miami Herald reports on the education work of radio amateurs Jeffrey Imel K9ESE and Joseph Oliver AA4KK. They are helping high school students to develop a balloon launched satellite.

Educators generally agree that hands-on activities are the best way to get kids interested in these disciplines, which are becoming increasingly important in the 21st century.

Tiffany Grigsby, an 11th-grader who is working on the satellites, is one of the students who needs no convincing. She wants to go into aerospace or aeronautical engineering in college and maybe work for NASA. For her, the satellite project is the ideal science project.

“I love outer space,” she said. “The unknown is so interesting. You don’t know a lot about it, and I’m here to learn … building a satellite is the perfect thing.”

Grigsby is a self-professed hands-on learner. She doubts she could learn how to build a satellite from a book, but she knows she’ll emerge from this class with those skills.

“And then it’s not just that you know what’s in there, it’s that you understand what’s in there.”

Read the full story at http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/23/3706377/south-charleston-high-students.html

The class is using crowd sourcing to raise money to purchase equipment for the project. To donate, visit http://indiegogo.com/projects/near-space-project

IARU Region 2 band plan recognizes Near Space Stations https://amsat-uk.org/2013/10/22/new-satellite-segment-in-iaru-region-2-bandplan/

Oct 22 2013

New Satellite Segment in IARU Region 2 Bandplan

IARU_LogoFollowing the IARU Region 2 (the Americas) meeting in September at Cancun, Mexico, the new Region 2 bandplans for all allocations from 137 kHz to 250 GHz have now been published.

There is a new allocation for the Amateur-Satellite Service from 144.000-144.025 MHz

There is also a reference to NSS – Near Space Stations in the definitions section. This is believed to be the first mention of High Altitude Balloons in any amateur radio band plan document. It says

NSS – Near Space Stations:
Equipment located in temporary Near Space Stations (such as those carried by High Altitude Balloons) can transmit carefully on any frequency; exceptions are the segments with “exclusive” usage where “NSS” are not applied. NSS must follow the BW and mode restrictions of the segment and observe carefully the usual occupation of the band on the related region to avoid harmful interference. For longer missions and NSS crossing international and regional boundaries, extra care must be observed in harmonization of different allocations.

See the new IARU Region 2 bandplans at
http://www.iaru-r2.org/documents/explorer/files/Plan%20de%20bandas%20%7C%20Band-plan/R2%20Band%20Plan%202013.pdf

Read the IARU Region 1 paper Increased Amateur Satellite Service 144 MHz Usage
https://amsat-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/vie13_c5_03_increased_amateur_satellite_service_144mhz_usage.pdf

Oct 22 2013

CubeSat Balloon Launch

Archive CHASE-I image Josh Neel KB3VTP center flanked by Bob Bruninga WB4APR and Pat Kilroy N8PK

Archive CHASE-I image Josh Neel KB3VTP center flanked by Bob Bruninga WB4APR and Pat Kilroy N8PK

GIS User reports on CHASE-II a CubeSat balloon launch by Captain Josh Neel KB3VTP.

The CubeSat, callsign KB3VTP-11, was planned to be launched as part of the Civil Air Patrol’s Maryland Wing Rocketry Day on Sunday, October 20, 2013 using APRS on 144.390 MHz FM.

This was the second mission for the Civil Air Patrol, High Altitude Stratospheric Experiment or C.H.A.S.E. The first mission CHASE-I had the goal of capturing images of the stratosphere.

The goal for the second mission CHASE-II is to repeat the success of the first mission in CubeSat form with additional sensors. The second CHASE mission also seeks to exceed 30480 meters in altitude. However, the main purpose of the mission is to be a Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math (STEM) Aerospace Educational activity for Civil Air Patrol cadets.

Read the full GIS User story at
http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/31216/2/

Oct 20 2013

Indian Record for Tracking Ham Radio Balloon

A high altitude balloon launch - Image credit Dhruva Space

A high altitude balloon launch – Image credit Dhruva Space

Global Brands Magazine features the High Altitude Balloon work of Dhruva Space and Indian radio amateurs.

Dhruva Space in association with Indian Institute of Astrophysics is gearing up to observe comet ISON when it passes earth on November 28, 2013 using a high altitude balloon platform.

Weekly test flights are in progress as part of the preparations for the ISON observation. On one such flight on October 13, the balloon which was carrying a 5 kilograms payload containing various sensors reached a peak altitude of 21 km and it traveled over 600 km into the Arabian Sea. What makes this test flight special is that the ground station at Bangalore and the two mobile payload recovery teams were able to receive the 145.765 MHz FM APRS radio signals from the balloon for over 12 hours without any disruption.

Hyderabad based National Institute of Amateur Radio which is one of the program partners has provided immense support in successful post-flight payload recovery.

Ham radio operators in Karnataka and Goa in India, and Middle East and Africa were able to receive encoded APRS signals containing real time location, altitude and other operating conditions of the flight.

Read the full story at
http://www.globalbrandsmagazine.com/dhruva-space-sets-record-in-telemetry-tracking-in-india/

Dhruva Space http://dhruvaspace.com/

National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR) http://www.niar.org/

High Altitude Balloon to Study Comet ISON
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/09/28/high-altitude-balloon-to-study-comet-ison/

Real-time balloon tracker http://www.spacenear.us/tracker

Oct 17 2013

Ham radio operators set to help in tracking comet

Hindustan Times October 17, 2013

Hindustan Times October 17, 2013

After helping the Odisha government in disaster relief during cyclone Phailin, amateur radio operators will now help astrophysicists track a comet.

The Hindustan Times reports that astrophysics experts are joining hands with ham (amateur) radio operators to track and read data comet ISON, scheduled to pass nearest to the earth on November 28, 2013.

Scientists of Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics will send a balloon 40 km into the atmosphere to get data on the comet.

As the instruments drop with a parachute it will be a team of ham radio operators, who will track the APRS packet radio signal and retrieve the balloon.

Read the story at
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/kolkata/Post-Phailin-relief-HAM-radio-operators-set-to-help-in-tracking-comet/Article1-1136224.aspx

TNC-Pi APRS packet radio review https://amsat-uk.org/info/tnc-pi-raspberry-pi-packet-radio-board/

Oct 15 2013

High Altitude Balloon launch at BATC Convention

BATC Logo SmallThe British Amateur Television Club (BATC) convention takes place on the weekend of October 26-27 at the Finningley Amateur Radio Club facilities near Robin Hood airport in Yorkshire.

On the Saturday at 16:00 BST if the weather is suitable Philip Crump M0DNY will be giving a live demonstration of a High Altitude Balloon launch. There should be 3G Streaming Video at up to 1000 metres and possibly Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) images on 434 MHz above that altitude if the hardware is available in time.

Other highlights of the program include:

• 10 GHz ATV equipment and operation.
• Ku band LNB developments and the use of PLL LNBs on 10 GHz.
• How to get going on 437 MHz and 3.4 GHz DATV and experiences to date.
• HAMTV on ISS – introduction and how to receive it.
• Digital update – including the latest from the Digilite and DATV express teams.
• Narrow band modes below 432 MHz – presentation and discussion.
• Talk and demo of DTX1 transmitter system.

As well as the talks program, there will be plenty of time for meeting other ATVers from across the country and visit the other activities on site including:

• SMD soldering workshop where you can buy, build and test equipment – we will be selling kits for the G4DDK PGA103 amplifier (see CQ-TV 241).
• Demonstration area – featuring member’s demo including M0DTS showing his integrated MK808 Digilite system.
• Comprehensive RF test and measurement equipment up to 10 GHz.
• Selected RF and video suppliers.
• Members bring and buy area.
• Antenna test range (Sunday only & weather permitting).
• BATC shop with stock of all items currently on sale

The talks program and  agenda for the weekend has now been published see http://www.batc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=3178

If you are coming to CAT13, please register on the Finningley Radio Club site see http://www.batc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=3292

There will be a group dinner on Saturday night but you do need to book ahead with the hotel – so far no-one has emailed a menu request so the hotel are asking if they should cancel the booking!

See http://www.batc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=3293 for details and also details on nearby hotels.

We look forward to seeing you all in 2 weeks time

Regards

Noel G8GTZ
On behalf of the BATC committee