Tag Archives: Near-Space

May 23 2014

Surrey EARS make newspaper front page

Surrey EARS in Surrey Advertiser May 16

Surrey EARS in Surrey Advertiser May 16, 2014

The Surrey Electronics and Amateur Radio Society (EARS) 434 MHz balloon flight was the top news story on the front page of the Surrey Advertiser newspaper.

On Sunday, May 4, the Surrey EARS team launched a High Altitude Balloon from Cambridgeshire carrying University of Surrey mascot Stevie Stag. The balloon had a flight time of around three hours, reached almost 100,000 feet and travelled just over 70 miles including a portion of the ascent right over the city of Cambridge. The transmissions from the balloon on 434 MHz were received in the UK, France, Netherlands and Germany.

After the launch EARS auctioned Stevie Stag, the only Stag to fly to the edge of space, on eBay to raise money for the mental health charity Mind.

Read the story Space traveling stag auctioned for more than £200
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/university-surrey-mascot-stevie-stag-7115040

Watch Stevie Stag Goes to Space! High Altitude Balloon Flight Video

Surrey EARS on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/surreyEARS

Mar 10 2014

434 MHz XABEN and other balloon launches go ahead today

High altitude balloon 434 MHz trackers made by Chris M6EDF

High altitude balloon 434 MHz trackers made by Chris M6EDF

Steve G8KHW planned to launch five balloons XABEN64-68 carrying 434 MHz payloads from Elsworth on Wednesday, March 12. The permit for them arrived at the last minute on Wednesday morning. Technically the flights need a permit despite being 100g balloons as they are on a line rather than mounted in the neck.

The balloons may have a range of 200-500 km so should be receivable on a SSB (USB) radio over much of the UK or can be received World-Wide using the SUWS WebSDR

Steve says: The plan is to launch 5 identical payloads on 5 identical 100g balloons as near identically filled as I can manage in order to see the sort of spread of burst altitudes. The balloons will be launched as quick as I can fill them and launch them – so its likely that all 5 balloons will be in the air at the same time.

With all those flights I’m going to need some help tracking them – so lots of listeners would be appreciated. Callsigns and Frequencies to follow on the UKHAS Mailing List – but all will be on 434 MHz with standard 50 Baud 470 Hz 7N1 RTTY.

SSDV picture from a PIE balloon - Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI

SSDV picture from a PIE balloon – Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI

XABEN64-68 Callsigns and Frequencies (USB):
– uX3 434.250
– uX0 434.350
– uX1 434.400
– uX2 434.450
// skipping 434.500 to avoid BALYOLO
– uX5 435.550

There should be a launch from Westcott, Buckinghamshire on Wednesday at 12.00 Callsign: BALYOLO Frequency 434.500 MHz.

Project Ascend are launching Wednesday at 0900 from Cockermouth,Cumbria. They say please listen out for us on 434.450 MHz USB,  Callsign HAB55331. Further information at http://projectascend.co.uk/

Dave Akerman M6RPI/M0RPI says he’s planning to launch at around 2pm on Thursday, it’ll be a regular payload up-burst-down, probably with 2 trackers. The launch will take place from the field behind Dave’s new house just north of Ross-On-Wye, so receivers in the west of England will be particularly welcome. No SSDV just 50 baud RTTY telemetry. There will be live video streaming of the launch and chase at http://www.batc.tv/streams/m0rpi_chase

The two payloads are BUZZ and ZURG.  Both 50 baud 7 bits no parity 2 stop bits, 480Hz shift. BUZZ is on 434.600 MHz and ZURG on 434.650 MHz.  Former is an rfm22b and latter an NTX2 so they will drift somewhat.

On Thursday, March 13 Adam Cudworth will be launching HABE 12 from Worcestershire on 434.200 MHz.

James Coxon M6JCX launching a PICO balloon on 434.301 MHz USB

James Coxon M6JCX launching a PICO balloon on 434.301 MHz USB

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

Online real-time tracking of balloons
http://spacenear.us/tracker/

Listen to the balloons online using the Southampton University Wireless Society (SUWS) 434 MHz WebSDR located near Basingstoke (51.294N, 1.131W)
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/12/28/websdr-for-434-and-1296-mhz/

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

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

Dec 20 2013

Santa uses 434.075 MHz during sleigh test

Mark and Cassie of STRATODEAN

Mark and Cassie of STRATODEAN

BBC TV News has reported on the 434.075 MHz STRATODEAN balloon carrying Santa and Rudolf that was launched from Coleford, Gloucestershire, UK.

The BBC say that amateur scientists Cassie Phelps and Mark Ireland, from the Forest of Dean, successful launched Santa and Rudolf into near-space 30 km above the Earth.

STRATODEAN report that when Santa finished off the modifications to the 2013 sleigh like all good engineers he opted to test the new changes before rolling it out into production and went to STRATODEAN for help! (It’s been a very well kept secret that they provide technical facilities to all their famous mythical friends. The Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny are already well established customers.)

They were given a clear project remit – to take him up and down on their payload to allow him to test the new handling abilities of his sleigh. Apparently the cost of reindeer propulsion (magic flying dust) has skyrocketed in the last few years and he can only justify the once a year purchase for Christmas due to Mrs Clauses’ bingo habit and the increasing Elf wages. Furthermore, for this test he can only bring Rudolf as the other reindeer are getting on a bit and they need to save their knees.

Watch the STRATODEAN video of the flight

Mark and Cassie with a STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon

Mark and Cassie with a STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon

The telemetry downlink from the balloon was on 434.075 MHz using 50 bps 350 Hz shift FSK with ASCII-7 code, 2 stop bits and no parity.

Watch the BBC TV news story – Amateur scientists attach a model of Santa Claus to a weather balloon
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25470809

Read The Telegraph story at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/christmas-videos/10529615/Santa-and-Rudolph-spotted-in-orbit.html

STRATODEAN
Web http://www.stratodean.co.uk/
Twitter https://twitter.com/stratodean

A video of the STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon Presentation given by Cassie Phelps and Mark Ireland to the annual AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford last July can be seen at
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/07/22/video-of-stratodean-high-altitude-balloon-presentation/

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

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/

Sep 12 2013

14 MHz beacon on radio hams’ trans-Atlantic balloon flight

Jonathan Trappe KJ4GQV crossing the Alps in his cluster balloon - Image credit Jonathan Trappe

Jonathan Trappe KJ4GQV crossing the Alps in his cluster balloon – Image credit Jonathan Trappe

Radio amateur Jonathan Trappe KJ4GQV attempted to cross the Atlantic in a cluster balloon carrying beacons on 14.0956 MHz and 144.390 MHz.

At around 1200 UT on Thursday, September 12, 2013 Jonathan KJ4GQV took to the air from Caribou in Maine in a lifeboat suspended by some 370 helium balloons. His flight came to a premature end when he had to land in Newfoundland reportedly near Blow Me Down Provincial Park.

Cluster Balloon Payload - Jonathan Trappe KJ4GQV

Cluster Balloon Payload – Jonathan Trappe KJ4GQV

The 14.0956 MHz beacon was just above the WSPR frequency (approx 1880 Hz in the waterfall display) and runs 110 Baud ASCII RTTY, 8-bits, no parity, 1 stop bit with the callsign NG0X.

The multi-mode transmitter transmitted at 10 minute intervals at: 00, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes.

APRS on 144.390 MHz FM was transmitted while over the US/Canada using the callsign KJ4GQV.

A Real-Time Track of NG0X on 14.0956 is at http://spacenear.us/tracker/?filter=NG0X

USA/Canada APRS track is at
http://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=13&call=a%2FKJ4GQV&timerange=86400&tail=86400

Further information at http://www.clusterballoon.com/

See updates on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.r.trappe.1

Sep 1 2013

Long duration 434.5 MHz balloon launched

A small foil pico balloon - Image credit Leo Bodnar

A small foil pico balloon – Image credit Leo Bodnar

Late Sunday afternoon, September 1, Leo Bodnar launched a long-duration pico balloon running DominoEX 16 on 434.500 MHz USB. It is expected to travel across Europe.

The balloon was launched from Silverstone and aims to test some solar power modes and check for altitude stability.

The expected flight path is at http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/hypubout/15224_trj001.gif

Downlink data contains of two lines of telemetry every ~2 minutes during the daytime and ~5 minutes in the night.  The time between data is filled with beeps at 3 sec intervals.

Flight name: B-11
Frequency:   434.500 MHz, USB, DominoEX 16
Balloon:     36″ foil Qualatex, Helium
Launch site: Silverstone Circuit, UK

Pico balloons are proving increasing popular with amateurs. The small foil party balloons can only carry ultra light balloon payloads, typically weighing less than 100 grams. This presents a challenge to the builders to produce a transmitter, GPS, batteries and antenna that are small and light enough to be carried.

Balloons such as these do not go to extremes of altitude but can float at between 3,000 and 7,000 metres for an extended period. The 434 MHz transmitters can have a radio range of 300 km.

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

Real-time track of B-11 and other balloons http://spacenear.us/tracker/

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

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

UKHAS Balloon Conference Saturday, September 7, London – live web streaming
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/08/14/amateur-radio-foundation-exam-and-nb-tv-at-ukhas-conference/