Australian pico ballooner honoured The Wireless Institute of Australia has recognised the record breaking achievements of Andy Nguyen VK3YT by naming him in its WIA Merit Award program, while one of his pico party-type balloons VK9WI flew at high altitude. Andy VK3YT was given the WIA Technical Excellence Award for his work with the pico space balloons, including one that circumnavigated the Southern Hemisphere nearly three times. In the middle of 2015 pico balloon PS-46 floated more than 110,800 km before descending into the Indian Ocean due to bad weather. Additionally Andy VK3YT while on a working holiday also floated and tracked two solar powered pico balloons that he launched in the USA. The prestigious WIA Technical Excellence Award was granted amid warm applause by those at the annual general meeting held on Saturday May 28 on Norfolk Island. Andy VK3YT who was unable to be at the AGM was later very humble in receiving the award for what many see as pioneering work and a new era for small solar powered balloons carrying Amateur Radio payloads. The PS balloons have sparked a lot on interest among trackers throughout the world, and is known to have given a few radio amateurs a new challenge. For the occasion the balloon PS-64 was launched that included a greeting message to the WIA AGM using the VK9WI callsign for its tracking telemetry, but it was brought down by poor weather. However, Andy was ready with a back-up the VK9WI balloon and launched PS-65 that initially headed south to Tasmania, then across to New Zealand and at last report moved southerly toward South America. Like his recent balloon that latest PS-65 has a 25mW transmitter using WSPR and JT9 on the 30m band. Jim Linton VK9PC http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2016/june/australian-pico-ballooner-honoured.htm
Smashing Andy!!! You are to be commended for this very scientific experiment! And to think our FAA (Federal Aeronautics Administration) won't allow our private drones here in the States over 500' and 3 miles of an airport. Hi=Hi. Keep up the good work Andy,Vy 73 Greg-W2MYA West Caldwell,New Jersey USA
