Amateur Radio Ballooning in the Bay Area
Last Sunday Kazu AG6NS and I tried putting up a tethered pico balloon up flying Kazu’s SSTV code on a ESP-32. It was sending “Martin-1” mode SSTV directly modulating a Si5351 clock generator chip. Due to slow but steady light winds it spent most of the time flying horizontally. We will have something ready to fly soon – stay tuned!
We’re trying something new this time: floating a tethered balloon with an ESP32-CAM that will transmit SSTV images on 20m, frequency 14.236MHz USB Mode Martin-1. This is a project that Kazu AG6NS has been working on recently, with some help from Martin W6MRR.
To see this in person, go to the northern area of the Berkeley Marina as indicated around the position identified on the map link below:
For those who are unable to make it, see if you can decode some of the images!
Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 11:00AM pacific time.
After a series of failures to send after launching, there seems to be an intermittent problem with the same tracker. It is alternating on 20 and 40 m, with most of the 40 m transmission lost. We test on the ground prior to launch and never have problems. It may be temperature related problem due to counterfeit parts.
Track W6MRR-23
We’re launching a pico balloon this Sunday morning, February 27th at 9:00AM pacific time.
Additionally, there may be testing of a separate SSTV camera equipped payload.
The launch site is on the south-west side of the Berkeley Marina. See the map below for the position.
We’re launching a pico balloon this Sunday morning, January 30th at 9:00 AM pacific time. If you’re in the area and would like to see the launch, please join us at the Berkeley Marina on the north side on Marina Blvd. See the map link below for the location.
There were a few final position reports on 2021-12-23. The balloon had not crossed the Intentional Date Line but has gotten further than previous attempts. The last signals were received by CA stations so at least my signals circumnavigated.
Dr. Michael Lustig, a professor at Cal, launched a balloon (NU6XB) with his students about the same time. We are are catching up.
We were exchanging pix of HABs bursting. Here are a few.
The transmitter/antenna is having problems. It is sending WSPR on 20 m and 30 m. Today was the first day receiving 20 m reports. May not have great tracking over much of flight.
SF-HAB