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For a launch The time and place to launch your picoballoon is important. Things to consider are location, surface wind, cloud cover, the path the balloon will follow during ascent and the path it will follow one at float altitude. Consider the things that can go wrong. The balloon can drag across the ground, snagContinue reading “Choosing the time and place”

We tried a new style balloon – a 32′ spherical balloon composed of two plastics. Robert K6RGG and I attempted to launch, but the prepared balloon got away.  I had a micro-swivel between the balloon and the upper dipole. The top of the string came back with a knot so the cheap Chinese swivel must have failedContinue reading “The mighty flight of K6RGG-13”

Several of our recent launch’s have been troubled with tracker problems. The issue seems to be fake microcontrollers that don’t operate well in cold temperatures. The symptom was the tracker worked great on the ground but intermittent in the air. Using spray “Super Cold” located the the problem. A new batch of microcontrollers were usedContinue reading “W6MRR-24 away.”

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 dueContinue reading “W6MRR-23 Lights Up for Second Day”

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.

Despite the wonky transmitter, W6MRR-22 did get a few reports out. W6MRR-22 Position

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.