A few months ago Ham Radio Dude put out the idea of doing a Hot Air Balloon flight with radios. I reached out to one of my contacts in the aviation world and we decided to make it happen. The initial plan was to do an hour to hour and half flight so we could do VHF,HF. Little did we know, things don't always go as planned in the balloon. The flight was cut short to 30min, but were were able to make some great memories and get some contacts in the log.
What an interesting adventure. A lot of lessons learned for sure. I thought about the antenna whoas a little and have a few ideas why we had issues, you hit on the bend or kinks a little, as the polystealth is thin. The other antennas I had would have been good for 20, if they were not wound the wrong way. Looking forward to discussing this all with you Tomorrow evening (Thursday 9/30) during our livestream. Thanks again for the Texas Hospitality..... Next adventure, San Francisco.
Provided you are on the west side of the big pond - our licence terms and conditions explicitly forbid any airborne operation. Martin (G8FXC)
As to Brazil, such transmitting would surely command some six months administrative hassle, being that even /M needs a separate, paid, licensing. If only were that rich, captivating flying experience, but to be carried on during a whole day/night, don't you think? Oliver
L'idée de le faire est tout à fait dans l'idée du Radioamateur, juste creuser un peu pour dépasser ces problèmes...Bravo
I did that back a couple years ago. I had my HT with me and we were up at around 300' agl and I put my call out on simplex (146.520) and a friend (WA7ARK) who has his radio installed in his Cessna 182 happened to be monitoring .52 at about 6000', over 100 miles away and heard me. My 1st air-to-air VHF contact!
I didn't have HF capability with me that time, but maybe next time, with a battery and my IC-706MkIIG........ 1st picture was taken from across the lake from another balloon in our group (flight of 3)
Maybe APRS would be enough, between piloting and enjoying earth views, no point in being distracted by A-R, or only if fully auto mode. Oliver
Nice video and balloon trip. A calm and makeable adventure in tbe air. There should be more YLs and OMs, to go up there with their handhelds or mobile stations to be aeronautical mobile for a while.
Many the the Around the World high altitude record balloon flights over the years had Amateur HF radio onboard. Flying and Amateur radio is fun. 73 from the, K0UO Rhombic Antenna Farm is located at the Kansas QTH with over Two miles of Wire, I'm in the Air or On the Air daily, “The RF Gotta-Go-Somewhere"!
Does no one realize that the unit, hot air balloon, is mis-named ? The balloon rises after propane and oxygen from the Earth's atmosphere is burned to make hot carbon dioxide. It takes thousand of cubic feet of COtwo and the balloon is refilled every few minutes as it cools quickly. During an Albuquerque balloon fiesta, over a trillion cubic feet of oxygen in the air is lost as it becomes carbon dioxide. Some of those folks actually believe they are both "balloonists" as well as "environmentalists". And don't bother, they are not educatable. The carbon dioxide increase is apparently not important in New Mexico
The Hindenburg was more environmental-compliant, up to a (flash) point. Radiowise, gave us the Zep. Oliver
