High Altitude Balloon Carrying Amateur Radio - Burst!

Yeah, I know. But you also don't want components to overheat, either. That's possible when you have some small, high power stuff embedded in styrofoam, especially if you just stuff in a bunch of uncontrolled hand warmers.

I'd like to find some simple way to actively regulate everything. Because the air gets very thin at altitude, ideally you'd not depend on convection but fasten everything to some sort of conductive "cold plate" and then regulate the temperature of that plate. On short flights you can use a thermostatically controlled electrical heater if the heat requirements aren't too great, but getting rid of too much heat can be a problem. I'd like to find some sort of "thermal switch" that would connect the cold plate to an external radiator (e.g., a thin sheet of aluminum covered with thin Kapton tape to increase the emissivity, i.e., make it look black in the far IR). Thermal switches do exist for spacecraft but they're rather new and, like everything else for space, very expensive. I wonder if there's some cheap and innovative way to accomplish the same thing.

 

We have not had any problems using hand warmers. We put them on the cameras just before launch and they take some time to build heat. By the time they are warm, the balloon is up several thousand feet and its cold. The approach works well and is very lightweight.

 

Aww

 

And I thought the earth was flat. Damn

 

You hit the dome. Nothing can go past the dome.........Yes I'm just kidding before someone tries to give me a lecture...

 

That happened to Truman once...

 

In regards many of the balloons we're talking about in this thread, you're quite wrong. We're talking about total weight in the ounce region, which are not regulated in any way

 

Me too, but free people do free stuff. Go build a balloon (I'm going to)

Have fun. Ham radio is a hobby subject to all sorts of antics, if done correctly.

John K5MO

 

I truly believe some people wake up every morning hoping there are kids on the lawn just so they can get pissed and scold them.

 

And remember to maintain that freedom! There are folks out there that would like to suppress it...and they are not limited to HOAs!