Here's the link to the story produced by Christina from KCUR during her visit to the launch at GPSL. - Bill WB8ELK Below is the link to the web story with the audio piece I made on the GPSL. http://kc

I didn't know that show was now available on Netflix, it was originally aired on the National Geographic channel. I'll have to check it out !!! I demonstrated using balloons to establish communication

Wow....I think that was Mike Bogard's KD0FW first flight from Kansas City. I'll forward to Mike and let him know. - Bill WB8ELK

I'll have one tracker on 144.39 - Bill WB8ELK

Also keep in mind that the UV-3R has a tendency to lock up continuously on transmit when using an external audio/PTT cable. The fix is to put a cap across the PTT pin to ground inside the radio (requi

My personal favorite receiver is the Alinco DJ-C7T....the old standard before that was the DJ-S11T if you can find one on eBay or a hamfest. If you do find an S11T you'll have to remove the dummy-load

Just launched a balloon this morning from Kennard Elementary in Indiana. There is a FindMeSpot and one of my Iridium payloads onboard for tracking. The Iridium payload sends me an email with the posit

I've actually AM-modulated this module with both RTTY and also DominoEX. It is weaker than just the carrier but since it drifts a lot due to antenna motion, temperature and voltage the AM-modulation h

We saw some early bursts this week and last with 1200 gram Hwoyee's....around 83,000 feet and normally would expect 92,000 feet or more for similar weights. Also the ozonesonde has been reporting very

Alan, I've done a number of non-APRS flights with different modes such as RTTY, DominoEX, Hellscreiber and CW to name a few on HF, VHF and UHF frequencies. When I do one of these flights we use the Sp

At first glance this might be a window of opportunity for doing some balloon drop remotely piloted (or autonomous) vehicles in the US without worry of FAA fines....At least until the FAA responds to t

Same experience here with a local welding supply company (a Mom and Pop business) but my cost was $38 for the tank of hydrogen but no tank fees like AirGas does. - Bill

We'll be holding the BalloonSat Forum on Friday at the Dayton Hamvention again this year....If any of you attending the Hamvention would like to give a talk about their balloon group activities...plea

I'll have to do it from home tonight but I think Keith has control of the domain name now?....if not, I can do it tonight when I get home if Keith thinks it is OK to do so. - Bill

I recommend and have flown this one from Honeywell that will work up to 10 mbar (approx 98,000 feet) and you'll still get readings higher than that. Many sensors have a lower limit that they can measu

Ryan, I've used three layers of small-cell bubble wrap quite effectively for daytime flights. I mount the boards onto a piece of foamcore and then wrap it with the bubblewrap to get a greenhouse effec

I refined the location of my long duration balloon at sunrise today (Sunday Oct. 6th). After some calculations the hard way since NOAA HYSPLIT is shut down. I am estimating that the balloon will be ea

The long duration forecasting tool HYSPLIT is shut down due to Washington craziness so I can only do a rough estimate based on a float altitude of 8800 meters. It would be great if some folks on the E

Launch at 1700 UTC Saturday Oct. 5th Vette City Hamfest. Bowling Green, KY 36.97 -86.43 Single 36" mylar balloon 433.88 MHz AM modulated DominoEX16 (can also be heard on Wideband FM). Every 5 minutes

I have used the logic-level gate RFP12N10L FET (less than a buck from Digikey) for nichrome cutdowns (and other things) quite successfully for years now activated by a microcontroller output. It is no