Amateur Radio Balloon Transcontinental and Transatlantic Attempt in Progress

A great achievement, a pity these isn't someone on South Georgia to confirm it's position. My congratulations go out to all involved. Job well done.

Frank G4HBI

 

If you make aprs.fi to show last 6 days you see that is one of its blips

Glad its finally been seen

Shame it seems to be going out of range of the Spanish stations, maybe that will be recified if it gains some altitude?

 

About what would it cost an individual to launch this project?

 

High-altitude explorers (those that have a flight of about two hours or so) can cost around £350 ($564) and of course it all depends what you use to record the flight information.

A long distance floater using ham radio, I would have thought would possibly cost more because of the electronics needed but is a smaller package.

The balloons themselves degrade due to exposure from UV so if someone can find a way of protecting that then it would increase the range.

Unfortunately it unlikely that we will ever know just how far this balloon went, I'm guessing its over Algeria now but the balloon won't last much longer.

[video=youtube_share;gfgOYsWnisk]http://youtu.be/gfgOYsWnisk[/video]

 

Judging from thealtitude data with the last bit of what is shown on aprs.fi, the balloon went down over Morocco. Also the track information supports that scenario too as it is similar to the descent tracks of other payloads. It would be very interesting to have an hf beacon that reported the data more often. We would have seen where it was out over the middle of the Atlantic. Might even be able to find the landing spot and retrive the payload packages. Wonder what the folks out there in the hinterlands of Morocco will think of the payload if they stumble across it?

 

Does one have to get permission from the FAA, or other .gov to launch a balloon like this?
(I picture covered airplane windshields and satellite collisions.)

Is there a FAQ or step-by-step online? I haven't found anything modern and complete yet.

 

Not sure about the US but in the UK you have to let the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) know so they can issue a NOTAM (although I think balloon launches maybe forbidden in the Greater London area).

Another bit of advice for anyone launching balloons in Europe (UK in particular) is to get insurance, if one crashes into National Grid/Network Rail power lines then it could get a bit expensive (Insurance is available for Balloon launches)

 

Next time!

 

Too high for airplane; too low for satellite. UFO is only concern.

 

I met her. I wasn't a ham back then, so I didn't have any thought to convince her to get a license. Is someone ever going to do that?

 

K6rpt-12

Updated: 2012-12-06 13:20:41z (10h49m)
Position: 34°25.75' N 3°58.96' E

 

So who is on the next plane to Algeria? Great job on the launch of your balloon! Very exciting to watch the balloons progress via APRS. Hopefully someone in the hobby tracks it down and sends you pictures of the recovery. Or maybe you will see it on headline news, USAF drone has gone down in Algeria!

 

Dixon from UK posted on my youtube upload, "you folks created much transatlantic interest"

Which I replied this is one of the secondary objectives, I'm sure this flight put a twinkle in eyes of many who are thinking "How can I do this? How can it be done better? Fly farther and higher?" For all we know, some children following this activity will become the new Elon Musk's, Jeff Greason's... Or simply take interest in science and engineering.

Alrighty, for you all on east coast, Europe, etc. Why not launch a floater such as this? At least get a headstart, so far it appears 60 hours is the max time for these balloons. Incidently there have been recent problems with brand of balloon used, other aeronauts found latest production lots are not as durable.

Speaking of floaters, I am sure many others are thinking (at least I am) of a around-the-world balloon flight. It's been done (or almost) with manned balloon but unmanned? Just think how cool it would be to see your callsign plotted across a global map. Some may ask why, what is the purpose, what value does it add. My answer is wrong question, you cannot treat this like a BUSINESS with plans, objectives, ROI studies, etc.

Incidently this idea was seriously pursued by the USAF in later 1940s. A floater with cameras launches from US soil, travels way high and while drifts over USSR, camera takes recon photos. Balloon will continue to drift and then when out of Soviet airspace, balloon is retrieved. But one of those test balloons launched from Holloman AFB landed in Roswell. USAF quickly retrieved package, clammed up on what its real mission was. Then 40 years later a gossip rag picked up an old newspaper story... and a new sci-fi genre was created!