To the Edge of Space - Slowly

The use of party balloons for flights to an altitude of about 8 km, just under the cruising altitude of most jet airplanes, has been covered here with the experiments of VE3KCL and VK3YT but other hams (and non-hams) are getting their kicks by aiming much higher with larger high-altitude balloons.

The Skies over Lake Michigan from a Weather Balloon

These types of flights are more complicated and expensive than the party balloons but no prohibitively so. Aeronautical regulations are not onerous even with a fairly sizable balloon with a weighty payload, as long as there are mechanism to slow the descent when the balloon bursts and to be able to detach the payload on command. Typically, although not necessarily required by law, air traffic control is informed of the flight and sometimes they even track it using on whatever web site is reporting the progress of the experiment.

Flights generally do not cover the same great distances as the party balloons, which makes them less exciting from the standpoint of seeing which way they will wander but allows for more interesting payloads, such as cameras and transponders using VHF and UHF communications. Typically the flights are much shorter in duration, rising rapidly to their maximum altitude then bursting and dropping by parachute.

The High Altitude Balloon Challenge web site lists some of the results achieved during their contest period in the Spring. The highest altitude achieved was 42895 m (140,732 ft), and the longest track 1,000 km (although it was disqualified as it was not achieved during the contest period).

A group of amateurs in Alberta who call themselves BEAR (Balloon Experiments in Amateur Radio) have been launching HABs over a period of 15 years and regularly achieving altitudes of 100,000 feet or more. They use APRS tracking rather than the custom system used by the party balloons, which makes sense when you have greater altitude and smaller distances.

AMSAT lists many different amateur groups doing high altitude ballooning projects on their web site.

The other big difference in the high altitude experiments is the far greater expectation of actually getting the payload back, by using chase cars and trying to engineer the recovery on farm land.

YRARC's 2015-2016 Season Blasts Off

The first meeting of the new YRARC year is behind us. Even though the summer seemed all too short, it was great to see everyone again as well as see some new faces and especially some guests who were looking to get their ham licences.

Thanks to Dave VE3OOI for his informed and interesting presentation on model rockets and (fortunately!) static display. They were impressive home-built vehicles.

Next meeting will feature Paul Delaney. Don't miss it!

Members assemble for the Meeting

Pause for Refreshments - Steve VE3EZ and Nick VE3NJV

Geoff VA3GS looking for a lucky winner

Alex VA3ASE, Trevor VE3SLT & John VE3IPS

Chris VA3DXZ and Anthony VE3HIS

Alf VA3BLE signs up a member

Terry VE3ODM and Brian VE3IBW

The picture on the left of +Barry Byrom VA3LLT and +Bill Reid VA3QB clearly shows that we have diversity on the club's board and membership, while on the right Dave VE3OOI talks rockets with Doug VE3ATP.

Dave VE3OOI Introduces his Topic

Links of the Summer

July and August have been slow months for the submission of interesting links so I've combined July and August. If I've missed any that are still in my inbox then I will include them next month.

73,
Chris VE3NRT

1. Canadian Amateurs Receive the Order of Canada: ARRL Article; Southgate News Article; The original RAC link, submitted by Steve, VA3SRV, was broken in their web site move. Google to the rescue!
   
2. UK APRS Balloons Circle Globe [Patrick VE3WST]
   
3. Bringing down a 380' Cell Phone Tower [Steve VE3EZ]
   
4. Info on VE3PIC repeater. Steve VE3EZ is interested in receiving signal reports for both the current and future location of this repeater. It is located in Durham but provides coverage in York.
   
5. Field Day Press Coverage [Barry VA3LLT]
   
6. ISS on Field Day [Steve VA3SRV]. As many of you know from the last meeting Brad VE3HII managed to contact several of the astronauts on Field Day, prior to his computer packing it in due to a power surge.
   
7. The Open Repeater Project. This project based on Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone single board computers is in its early stages. [Steve VA3SRV]