Balloon Launched Yesterday morning carrying Amateur Radio.

[n1wbd]

Had a interesting morning yesterday (Sat.) I was informed of a balloon launch called EOS-1 (W1LWT was the call) carrying a ham radio payload from Lisbon Falls,ME and they were looking for signal reports from their 1 watt 2 meter beacon the payload also had a 2 meter and reported signal strength and position reports to the EOS-1 info net on 75 meters. Well I started listening to the beacon as the balloon drifted over the Atlantic and was tracking it on www.findu.com as it had a APRS setup on board. I was getting 40 over S9 signal here in Grafton NH (about 200 miles away) and watched as the altitude climbed to almost 60,000 ft then the beacon quit for awhile I believe because of the cold at that altitude. Then the balloon burst and when the payload dropped to about 30,000 ft we started to get a signal again as the payload thawed and we followed it till splashdown in the Atlantic approx 40 SE of Rockland ME. Believe it or not the payload was recovered by a Tuna boat.

Total flighttime about 4 hrs. As I understand it the balloon was 16ft in diameter and filled with a mixture of hydrogen and helium. Unfortuneatly the planned ATV payload (Amateur TV) had to be scrubbed do to weight issues.

Thought this was a interesting story to pass along. Just another form of satellite communications via ham radio.

73
Bob N1WBD

 

[Cascade]

Things like this make me kick myself for getting rid of my AOR.
Bob, did you manage to get this on a vertical?

 

[n1wbd]

Things like this make me kick myself for getting rid of my AOR.
Bob, did you manage to get this on a vertical?

Yes I did, I have a 5 element quad for 2 meters plus everyone else that cked in to the net were listening on verticals. If you want to read more about EOS-1 goto www.yahoogroups.com and search for EOS-1 group and you can read more about the launch. makes you want to get your ham ticket does'nt it?

73
Bob N1WBD