Help combat the fake Chinese spy balloon gap threat – join SF-HAB!

HabHub has been provided by Anthony Strik since 2011 – thanks Anthony! The HabHub Tracker, Predictor and Curst Calculator are now located on SondeHub. Thanks to Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) for supporting SondeHub!

https://github.com/projecthorus/sondehub-amateur-tracker/wiki/Guide-for-HabHub-Users

Beau, K6EAU
Rikke, KN6KZF
Steve, K6WW

Bio:

Beau, Rikke, and Steve will share their experiences and antics of chasing WX balloons. There are thousands of balloons launched twice a day, at the same time, from sites all over the world, carrying radiosondes to capture and transmit weather data to ground stations. During their roughly two-hour flight, their diameter grows to over 25 feet and they rise to above 100,000 feet when they burst and drop back to earth. Since the radiosonde transmits a tone on UHF, just under the ham band, for about 8 hours, chasing and recovering the payload has become the ultimate T-hunt. 

Amateur Operators KN6KZF & K6EAU (a.k.a. Rikke & Beau) enjoy cruising the air waves as a conveniently socially distanced hobby. They have enjoyed reaching out from lighthouses, mountain tops, national parks and even via the International Space Station. Combining the fun of geocaching, balloons and radios has led to a great way to spend time together and get outdoors both launching and recovering various devices. Most recently that involved running Ground Control for Parachute Mobile Mission 42 while 3 skydivers made successive jumps to make both VHF and HF radio contacts while descending from over 10,000 feet under chute. 

Steve Wilson, K6WW, is a native Californian who has lived in the SF Bay Area for the last 33 years. Steve’s godfather, Alan Young (SK K6KLL), a former broadcast engineer, got him into the hobby in 2001 when Steve got his Technician license. He upgraded to General in 2010 and Extra in 2016. He’s a former ARES Emergency Coordinator for Fremont and former President (2014-2016) and current Vice President (2023) of the South Bay Amateur Radio Association (SBARA). He’s also a member of the Parachute Mobile support team.

For more info PAARA – Home Page

Most latex balloons are used to rapidly ascend to burst altitude and land gracefully with a parachute (aka burster, pop & drop, etc.) We tried something different. Last Sunday we tried a latex balloon for a high altitude float: K6RGG-14. It was a 100g Hwoyee with 5 g of net lift. The payload was 20 g due to heavier antenna wires. It took off with a ~ 2 m/s and gradually leveled out at ~50 K’. Next time we’ll use APRS to keep tabs better. One possibility for a next flight is adding a valve to release gas once a vertical altitude is reached. Note on the second day it traveled much less as it was higher up. Latex balloons can carry a much heavier payload which will allow more interesting contents like a crossband repeater and other fun instruments.