Pico Balloons
.
Construction. Launching, and Monitoring of Pico Balloons
Brian, N6CVO, and Jed, N6JED have successfully launched several Pico Balloons over the last few years. Through Amateur Radio you can track the progress of the balloons and watch how they travel around the globe. In 2022, Tom, WA2IVD, provided this video of a launch at the Quartzfest event in Arizona.
At Quartzfest 2024, Brian, N6CVO, and Jed, N6JED, launched three pico balloons during the course of the event. All three are transmitting location data on WSPRnet and can be tracked on a number of websites.
Recent Flights
KJ6CPU, 10m, CH412, WSPR
- Launched 24-Jan-2024, Quartsite Arizona USA
- Yokohama Balloon with hydrogen lifting gas.
- Traquito Jetpack tracker
- PowerFilm 4.8-150 set at a 45-degree angle to the horizon. 12" long carbon fiber rod with neodymium magnet to point panels towards the south like a compass.
- TL431A shunt regulator added to the Jetpack board to limit voltage to 5.0v
- Spun slowly upon ascent but must have stabilized at altitude where it started reporting in on WSPR.
N6JED, 10m, CH419, WSPR
- Launched 24-Jan-2024, Quartsite Arizona USA
- Yokohama Balloon with hydrogen lifting gas.
- Traquito Jetpack tracker.
- Two folded PowerFilm 4.8-150's arranged in a square. Looks like a cube-sat.
- No diode isolation (tested and no drain from panels that are not in full sunlight).
- TL431A shunt regulator added to the Jetpack board to limit voltage to 5.0v
- Started reporting in as soon as it got a little altitude even with the sun low on the horizon.
N6CVO, 20m, CH388
- Launched 26-Jan-2024, Quartsite Arizona USA
- Yokohama balloon, U4B Tracker, low power startup program.
- PowerFilm 4.8-75 set horizontal with a 5.0v shunt regulator.
- Full 20m dipole from 0.006" piano wire
- Good launch but payload spun excessively upon ascent and may have tangled up as spots are very sporadic.
Balloon Update - 7/31/2024
Update 31-Jul-2024
All three Pico-balloons we launched in January at QuartzFest 2024 have completed their mission and are no longer reporting in. Each of the three balloons made 7 to 10 circumnavigations around the earth before lost. That's a cumulative 329 flight days and 26 circumnavigations around the earth!
These three balloons have some interesting stories to tell:
N6JED flew for 114-days and made 9-circumnavigations around the world. It flew over eastern Canada where it got kicked due north and flew within a couple hundred miles of the North Pole and then straight down into northwestern Russia where it picked up the easterly winds. As it neared northern Siberia, it got caught in a weather system that is common this time of year. The pressure system took the balloon in a big loop back north into the Arctic Circle, then west, and finally back down again over northwestern Russia and eventually into China. As it crossed China it developed a leak and went down near Shenzhen. This was the best reporting tracker we have ever flown. It reported in 3,875 times and was spotted well over 10,000 times!
KJ6CPU flew for 76-days and made 7-circumnavigations around the world. While flying along at 41,000' over Texas on Monday April 8th, it entered the path of the Solar Eclipse. As the balloon experienced darkness, the signal was lost as expected since the solar panel was no longer producing power. We waited as the sun came back but the balloon was never heard from again. We don’t know what actually happened to it but it is very unlikely that an alien spacecraft took it. What we did find was an incredible amount of aircraft traffic in the area with commercial and private jets changing their flight paths to experience Totality, or even flying directly along the eclipses path. So, our best guess is the balloon went down due to wake turbulence from the aircraft traffic which destroyed the fragile balloon.
N6CVO flew for 134-days and made 10-circumnavigations around the world. From the start it had transmitter problems so the spots and tracks are very erratic. Often times we had to use the wind and weather reports, as well as flight prediction software, to fill in the missing spots. It did complete a rare event and a first for our balloons by crossing into the southern hemisphere where it completed multiple circumnavigations before disappearing near Tonga.
73, BrianB N6CVO
Gallery
