http://leobodnar.com/balloons/
more reading
Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#12Whenever I see things like this in light of the various threats to amateur radio (usually from various interests who would like to get the frequencies sold at FCC auction for commercial use), I'm reminded of the tremendous value this hobby adds to engineering education. So many of the engineers I know who work with radio got started by tinkering with amateur gear.
Related discussion from yesterday:
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#13Why is the UK (in the unusual company of Yemen and North Korea) an important "do not transmit zone"?
Airborne transmissions of this sort are not legal over the UK, North Korea, or Yemen. Guessing it's a leftover rule from WW2 in the case of the UK, not sure.
These transmitters typically have geofencing routines that turn off the transmission when flying over these countries.
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#14Why is the UK (in the unusual company of Yemen and North Korea) an important "do not transmit zone"?
Airborne transmissions of this sort are not legal over the UK, North Korea, or Yemen. Guessing it's a leftover rule from WW2 in the case of the UK, not sure. These transmitters typically have geofencing routines that turn off the transmission when flying over these countries.
But in my brief attempt to answer my own question I only found pages detailing pico balloon launches from the UK.
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Airborne transmissions of this sort are not legal over the UK, North Korea, or Yemen. Guessing it's a leftover rule from WW2 in the case of the UK, not sure. These transmitters typically have geofencing routines that turn off the transmission when flying over these countries.
But in my brief attempt to answer my own question I only found pages detailing pico balloon launches from the UK.
I'm sure people in the UK are doing launches, but it's illegal for them to transmit when flying in UK airspace.
In reality, it's an almost unenforcable law to begin with. Most of the WSPR transmissions are on the order of 10mW (probably similar to the Bluetooth output of your cell phone). It's not unusual for these transmissions to be heard several thousand miles away, which is quite amazing!
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#16This is the coolest thing I have seen this year. I think I always wanted to do such a thing, circle the earth with a balloon — had no idea it was within reach. I love all the ways in which they shaved weight on the payload.
I suppose having heard about the gas-powered model plane that crossed the Atlantic decades ago started my obsession. Then learning about the Japanese fire balloons that crossed the Pacific in WWII....
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#17http://leobodnar.com/balloons/ more reading
I love Leo Bodnar's stuff. I made a 'flight sim' joystick and pedals from one of his boards
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#18What's the purpose of that capacitor?
As the other person responded, basically a battery back-up.
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#19The tracker is very cool: http://habhub.org/
It’s a crowdsourced set of antennas around the world that upload data to central server (think Flightradar24 for high altitude balloons). It’s been running for 15 years or so.
Various bits of more reading if you’re interested in this stuff: http://picospace.net/ https://ukhas.org.uk/
Re: Tracking Pico Balloons Using Ham Radio [pdf]
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
But in my brief attempt to answer my own question I only found pages detailing pico balloon launches from the UK.
I'm sure people in the UK are doing launches, but it's illegal for them to transmit when flying in UK airspace. In reality, it's an almost unenforcable law to begin with. Most of the WSPR transmissions are on the order of 10mW (probably similar to the Bluetooth output of your cell phone). It's not unusual for these transmissions to be heard several thousand miles away, which is quite amazing!
Yeah unfortunately the uk amateur radio licence (at all levels) prohibits airborne use of the licence.
I know for other amateur balloon experiments such as weather balloons, they often use the ISM bands instead in the UK.