[bars] NEST Balloon Launch Saturday

Sun Jul 23 18:12:46 EDT 2023

Hi All,

Yes, I had a contact with W1U, my first balloon QSO!!  Hopefully all of my info was received correctly.  According to tracking online, I think they were over Worcester, about 35 miles distance from my QTH and 14000 m altitude.
I heard KC1RET in there.  I only have my Comet GP3 vertical in the attic for VHF/UHF.  I did set the frequencies in a channel the night before on my Anytone 578 dual band radio, and was running 20-25 watts.
My first mistake was not turning off squelch on the radio.  Of course I couldn’t hear a thing. 😊
I saw all the APRS telemetry available, but I haven’t done anything with APRS yet although my radio has the capability.
Even after my contact, I listened to other contacts and watched the online tracker which was fascinating in itself.

Thanks to Jim for helping out with the project.  The first I heard of it was back in February when I went to NE SciTech on a Sunday to take my Extra exam in person.  There were probably 5 high school students there working on payloads as our guide described the weather balloon project.  Very cool!!

I too am interested in in the results for the picotracker Eric, as well as results for the other payloads.  Hopefully that will be published on the NE SciTech site.

73,
Shawn – N1CVO

From: bars <bars-bounces at w1hh.org> On Behalf Of Tim KC1RET
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2023 1:49 PM
To: Jim Idelson <jim at k1ir.com>
Cc: BARS Reflector <bars at w1hh.org>
Subject: Re: [bars] NEST Balloon Launch Saturday

Thanks, Jim!

I had no trouble hearing the repeater using only the Arrow 70cm handheld antenna (7 elements).  It was full quieting most of the time despite being indoors and aiming through heavy tree foliage in the direction of the balloon.  There were some deep, fast fades that someone mentioned was likely caused by the balloon antenna twisting/flipping.

I'm curious about the details of the ground station - what antennas?  how did you track it? (az+el or just az?)

Also, interested to hear about the results of the other payloads.

Thank you for your efforts towards the success of the project!

73,
T.
On 7/23/2023 13:30, Jim Idelson wrote:
Congratulations on making that contact, Tim! I was an assistant at the main NEST location, helping assemble the ground stations and making a few of the contacts. My conclusion is that the whole thing was a big success - due in great measure to the efforts of some super enthusiastic young people.
73 Jim K1IR

On Sun, Jul 23, 2023, 1:21 PM Tim KC1RET <kc1ret.radio at gmail.com<mailto:kc1ret.radio at gmail.com>> wrote:
Awhile back I purchased an Arrow 70cm/20m handheld satellite antenna.  After reading up on the HABGAB project I thought it would be a perfect first use.  Well, it turns out that the antenna uses BNC connectors rather than '259s and I was one adapter short of hooking it up through a duplexer to my HT.  RATS!

After a few moments of disappointment while watching the live feed on Youtube I realized that they were sending the downlink audio on the livestream.  Ah HA!  I'll just use the HT for the uplink (no duplexer required) and listen to the downlink on the live stream.  I forgot about the delay. I did hear myself but it was several seconds delayed, far too long to complete a QSO with W1U.

Finally, I stuck upon the idea of using my main station 2m radio as the uplink and listen to the downlink on the HT with the Arrow antenna.  It was a bit of handful pointing the antenna in the general direction of the balloon with one hand and keying the mic with the other but I got them (W1U) on the first call!

Joy!  My first balloon-repeater QSO!

I did hear at least one other club member, N1CVO, Shawn in Lowell, on the downlink.

Congrats to Eric and the rest of the team!!

Eric, I am curious how well your picotracker payload performed.   I didn't try tracking it.

73,
Tim - KC1RET
On 7/19/2023 11:56, Eric L. Johnson wrote:
Below is a notice from the New England Sci-Tech Club (NEST) for the upcoming (weather permitting) high altitude balloon launch.
Following the link https://nescitech.org/habgab will get you all the details, including instructions for using the HABGAB repeater during the
flight.  We are encouraging Hams across New England to listen to or contact the HABGAB repeater.
I have been involved with this club over the past few months, and have attached a small pico-balloon payload which we
will use at a later date to attempt an around-the-world flight.

Thank You,
Eric Johnson KC1OAV

============================================================================================
HABGab 2023 Balloon Launch
presented by
New England Weather Balloon Society

Weather forecast is looking great for the weekend.  Still on for Saturday.  Keep in mind, the ways to participate include:

Launch Site: Current predictions are placing it in Eastern Connecticut, and we'd aim to be there at 9am to start setup.  Final launch site will be sent out the morning of launch very early.

HABGab HQ NEST Event: NEST will be hosting people interested in watching the flight remotely, doing makerspace activities, and getting help from Joe Fitzgerald K1MP, an engineer who works with satellites and satellite tracking, to make contact with the balloon repeater from the radio room and earn a special event QSL card.

Recovery Efforts: Help out your fellow team by tracking the positions of the payloads on https://amateur.sondehub.org/, and reporting the landing locations here on groups.io<http://groups.io/> for others interested in helping with recovery of payloads.  Join us at one of the 3 payload landing sites to help with onsite efforts to retrieve the payloads.  Come prepared for heavy wilderness exploration (thick pants, heavy boots, long sleeve shirts, tough gloves, hats, bug spray, flashlights, water, snacks, etc.).

Participate from Home: Track payloads online, watch the livestream, contact or listen to the repeater, join the Discord<https://discord.gg/ZWnvCbVymg> conversation.  Instructions all at https://nescitech.org/habgab.

=========================================================================================
--
Eric L. Johnson
ericlee.johnson at gmail.com<mailto:ericlee.johnson at gmail.com>

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IMPORTANT: This email is intended for the use of the individual addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is confidential privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humor or irrational religious beliefs. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email is not authorized (either explicitly or implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social fauxpas. No animals were harmed in the transmission of this email, although the mutt next door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you.

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