NIBBB Update April 17th 2025

April 17, 2025October 7, 2025 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO

We’ve added some followers here at the NIBBB and it’s time to share what’s new. We hope that you’ll head back to our website and check out our new page, Highlights of the NIBBB which are highlights from our Blog posts.

We will be celebrating our 4th year of the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade on June 9th 2025. We have some pictures through the years on our home page https://nibbb.org/ that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

From our original group, Elizabeth Ziemer KD9ORR who wrote the Fram2Ham article will be graduating college next month. You can read about Fram2Ham on our Highlights page.

Pico Balloon KD9ORR was our 8th flight on December 22nd, 2021, which occurred when Elizabeth returned home from her Freshman year in college for winter break. Pico Balloon KD9ORR was our first long flight which can be viewed here https://nibbb.org/2021/12/24/flight-2021-12-22/

We’ve been trying to launch several balloons for quite some time. Due to some unforseen situations, a few little crashes here and there. We were only able to get one balloon up and reporting for longer than 24 hours, some reporting longer from their final destination. We have one balloon now flying for 55 days.

Before we get to that balloon, we have some other information to share.

Recently we’ve had three balloons report for one day then go silent. We also had a few break before or during the launch. While we can easily see a failure when the polycrystalline solar panels come crashing to the ground, we don’t know what happens after a launch until the balloon reports, or not.

While we figure out whether it’s a balloon or tracker issue, I’ll report on what we have flying.

For those in the Pico Balloon community, we’ve been flying the Yokohama valved and valveless balloons and the clear SAG balloon.

Although we used Hydrogen for some of our earlier flights, we’re back to Helium. No one objects to having a helium tank in their homes, we have two that are refillable.

We invite you to learn more about our hobby on flying Pico Balloons by visitng our Technical Page which include the FAA regulations, that we must follow. We also invite you to join the worldwide pico io.group at this link https://groups.io/g/picoballoon

There was a post today on the io.group asking if anyone was having issues with their balloons, which we found very interesting. Our last long flights of 5 days and 130 days were launched on April 13th 2024.

Cal Knowles KD9WNU and his Mom Janet Knowles KD9WVO had built and tested their trackers and solar panels with Ken Daniel K9YO over a two week period. Pico Balloon KD9WNU was flown with a valved Yokohama balloon and flew for 5 days to Ukraine, lost altitude and continued to report for several days. Pico Balloon KD9WVO was flown with a valveless Yokohama balloon flew for 130 days and seven times around the world.

We had purchased newer Yokohama balloons after those launches. We launched Pico Balloon KE9LSI and Pico Balloon KD9TVR with a Yokohama balloon that flew for one day from Northbrook, Illinois to Ohio where they landed in farm fields about 10 miles from each other. These balloons continued to transmit for about a week. Kelsi KE9LSI, and Gordie KD9TVR are sister and brother, and two of our younger members.

We’ve also had some failures with the clear SAG balloons. We still need more time to test all these balloons.

The Pico Balloon community often talk about how they pre-stretch their balloons. Stewart Spies KB9LM created a rig which he named “The Stretchinator”. Stewart invited our group into his home to show us how it works. We show these projects on our Highlights page but you can fast track it here. https://nibbb.org/2024/01/31/the-stretchinator-hasta-la-vista-balloon/

We report all daily activity on our Locate and Track page, feel free to bookmark this page.

We launched on April 8th and April 12th 2025 with one balloon reporting for one day KE9LSI on April 12th. Unfortunately we broke the solar panel package for KD9TVR which went back to the shop for a new panel. We’re now testing KD9TVR which is shown on our Locate and Track page. We’ll be launching their trackers again very soon.

Now, back to our current flight. Pico Balloon KD9ITO was launched on February 21st 2025 from Willow Hill Golf Course in Northbrook, Illinois.

Below is a slideshow from the launch on February 21st with Pico Balloons KD9ITO and KE9LSI with KD9ITO still flying.

We’re flying an in-house designed tracker and larger powerfilm solar panels. We’ve been having issues with the reporting of this tracker, so this is the first and last flight of this tracker. I suppose the good news is that we finally have a balloon circumnavigating the world since last year. We’re using a clear SAG Balloon and Helium.

Tracker and Solar Panels, a 3D printed cylinder holds the antennas and line to launch site
Stewart Spies KB9LM holding tracker package
Stewart releasing balloon
Jim Janiak, NE9JJ holding the tracker
and releasing the tracker
the launch

Pico Balloon KD9ITO made it’s first circumnavigation on March 8th 2025 after 15 days of flight, the 2nd circumnavigation on March 25th 2025 after 31 days of flight, and the 3rd circumnavigation today on April 17th 2025 after 55 days of flight. Our balloon went missing for a short time while visiting the North Pole. Our balloon is now asleep over Hudson Bay, Canada in a slow moving pattern heading east.

Below is the location of Pico Balloon KD9ITO on April 17th 2025 at 20:22 UTC.

Once we have the latitude, longitude and altitude of the balloon, we can plug that information into the NOAA Balloon Trajectory software that will give us a projected trajectory for 84 hours.

Below is the projected trajectory for KD9ITO from April 17th 2025 to April 21st 2025 flying at 11,340 meters, just over 37,000 feet altitude. From Hudson Bay, Canada to along the Newfoundland and Labrador coast.

We also track the Jetstream of our balloon at altitude and where it may travel beyond 84 hours. This balloon has stayed pretty steady at around 11,000 meters. When it reports correctly on 4 different time slots, we’re able to receive the location within 15 square miles, the temperature and humidity at altitide.

This site Ventusky.com has been very helpful on following the Jetstream and weather near our balloon. Clicking on the link will show where our balloon is at todays report and the windspeed at altitude. On the bottom left hand corner you can click the play button and the map will move forward through the hours and days up to a couple of weeks ahead. This information is changed as the data changes. As the Jetstream moves, you can compare Ventusky to the NOAA Hysplit.

Feel free to play with the site, change the location, look at weather, radar, clouds, storms, cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes and of course wind and temperatures at different altitudes.

We can decide which addtional sensors we want to add to a tracker. More on that on future posts.

Amateur Radio stations on the ground receive and report our data on WSPR (Weak Signal Propogation Reporter) database and we decode the data that is reported. These stations don’t know we’re a balloon unless I send them an email thanking them for receiving and reporting our balloon, and some of them have joined here as followers. They receive a location and distance from their station to ours as if it were on a map at ground level.

We’ve highlighted the links in this post to various sites on our website and others that we use. We also track which links have been used from this email. We receive which countries visit our website and which links they click on, no information is received on any individual person.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please click unsubscribe at the bottom of the email.

Thank you for following the NIBBB. If you enjoy our project, feel free to share it with others. If you know someone who’d like to become a follower and receive these emails when posts are published, please send me an email at this link Contact Us with their email to be added. Feel free to send questions or comments.

73, (Best Wishes), Cary KD9ITO

May 27th 2024 Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade update

May 27, 2024June 28, 2024 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO

We started the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade on June 9^th 2021

Without any previous knowledge of this project. We spent the summer researching, and began launching Pico Balloons, 3 months later.

We will be celebrating our 3^rd Anniversary in a couple of weeks on June 9^th 2024. In our 3 years we launched over 35 Pico balloons.

In our early months we were launching on a regular basis, sometimes two or three times a month. With some successes along the way. We had our 1^st long flight in December of 2021, of Pico Balloon KD9ORR that flew 19 days, crossing the International Date Line twice in the same day. Once going east, dropping out of the Jetstream and then going back west and spending 8 days around the Marshall Islands. It was fun watching and reporting on that balloon. We started our website during the flight of KD9ORR. Click here to follow our 8^th launch of Pico Balloon KD9ORR

We had three flights in 2022 that made multiple circumnavigations. Pico Balloon AA6DY launched in September, for 83 days of flight and three times around the world, Pico Balloon K9YO launched in October for 123 days of flight and seven times around the world and Pico Balloon KD9UQB launched from Antarctica in November for 100 days of flight and seven times around the world.

Our Antarctica launch was conducted by Todd McKinney, KN4TPG a student with the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Our other partner on this launch was Tom Medlin, W5KUB who we continue to consult with on our launches.

We launched two Pico Balloons on April 13^th 2024 for Calvin Knowles KD9WNU and his Mom Janet Knowles KD9WVO. Below is our group who participated in this launch. The slideshow of our launch is on our home page https://nibbb.org/

Both balloons stayed pretty close to each other for their flight, but we lost Calvin’s balloon over Ukraine after 5 days of flight. We believe it was a weather that brought the balloon down. Calvin likes to tell his friends that it was shot down.

Janet’s Balloon KD9WVO-11 has been doing very well, now over 43 days of flight and preparing for its 3^rd circumnavigation very soon.

Since our last launch on April 13^th 2024, we also lost communication with Pico Balloon NE9JJ-2 that was carrying a weather sensor built by Todd McKinney, KN4TPG with the University of Alabama in Huntsville. NE9JJ transmitted for 44 days, and 4 times around the world gathering weather data that Todd found very useful. NE9JJ is Jim Janiak who’s callsign was KD9UQB for the Antarctica launch and some others.

Although I haven’t written here in over a month, you can follow our balloons in flight which are updated daily at our Locate and Track page at this link https://nibbb.org/links-to-locate-and-track/

Our website header shows our balloons sharing the skies with other Pico Balloons flying around the world. It’s a big world and a small part of the hobby of Amateur Radio.

Tracking worldwide Pico Balloons is provided by Sondehub which is the 1^st link on our Locate and Track page.

All the pictures from our last launch and group projects have been moved to our home page https://nibbb.org/ Our home page also has group pictures of our NIBBB members through the years, and slideshows of our launches and build projects that I hope you’ll visit and share with others.

We have close to 190 followers here at the NIBBB that receive emails when posts are published. Our most recent followers are from Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany.

We look to our worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators, to help track our balloons, receiving our packets and report the data. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t know where we were, wouldn’t receive important data of our location, and altitude, additional data such as temperature, humidity and pressure at altitude, and how our trackers are behaving during the flight.

Our followers can point their antennas where we’re projected to be, by going to our Locate and Track page for our reported location and the forward trajectory NOAA Hysplit Model, as shown below for Pico Balloon KD9WVO. NOAA provides us with an 84 hour projected trajectory that we update daily.

I’d like to also thank our members of the NIBBB for their dedication, and time.

We’re looking forward to our launches in June for Gordie Mulley KD9TVR and Kelsi Mulley KE9LSI, who’ve been waiting a long time for their launch. Mikaela Streicher, KD9VIW will be launching sometime after June.

Calvin Knowles KD9WNU and Gordie Mulley KD9TVR are finishing the 7^th grade in a week or two. Kelsi Mulley KE9LSI just completed her junior year in high school. Mikaela Streicher KD9VIW just finished her freshman year in college. Elizabeth Ziemer KD9ORR with our original group just finished her junior year in college. Henry Fiely KD9SRZ from our original group is finishing his freshman year in high school and Noah Berg, KD9RDT from our original group is finishing his sophomore year in high school. Congratulations to our younger members of the NIBBB.

We’ll be sharing information very soon on our new tracker which we hope to start launching in July. For now, the group is working on a development board testing the chips and software.

Thank you to everyone around the world who have shared our project with us.

73, Cary KD9ITO

March 23rd 2024, Pico Balloon NE9JJ-2 with Weather Sensor makes 2nd circumnavigation

March 23, 2024April 13, 2024 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO

Pico Balloon NE9JJ-2 was launched on March 2nd 2024 from Grayslake, IL. Pico Balloon NE9JJ-2, makes its 2nd circumnavigation around the world today, after 20 days and 18 hours of flight. Information on this flight, launch pictures, location and 84 hour forward trajectory is updated daily on our Locate and Track page.

This launch was conducted in partnership with Todd McKinney, KN4TPG with the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The tracker designed by Ken Daniel, K9YO, 3 panel 12 cell solar package designed by Jim Janiak, NE9JJ to hold the new tracker and weather sensor by Todd McKinney, KN4TPG completes the tracker package weighing approx. 19.3 grams.

As our tracker transmits, amateur radio stations on the ground receive and report our callsign, altitude and location in 2 transmissions 2 minutes apart, the 3rd transmission sends temperature, humidity and pressure at altitide using the weather sensor designed by Todd McKinney weighing 1.6 grams, seen in more detail below.

Weather Sensor by Todd McKinney, KN4TPG from the University of Alabama in Huntsville

Todd had launched our Pico Balloon KD9UQB also flying as W5KUB-115 with Tom Medlin, from Antarctica on November 23rd 2022 which flew for 100 days and 7 times around the world. Jim Janiak formerly KD9UQB, now NE9JJ designed both solar panels, the Low Sun Angle, High Power solar array used for the Antarctica flight and the one above for our current flight.

Here’s the article from the University of Alabama which was written on Todd’s Antarctica project https://www.uah.edu/news/news/uah-graduate-student-transforms-balloon-hobby-into-successful-antarctic-experiment

We’re excited to be part of Todd’s new project, receiving weather reports at altitude for longer flights. Please click on this link for more information on The Pico Balloon Archive by Todd McKinney

Below is today’s location for Pico Balloon NE9JJ-2 at Grid EL69TA flying at an altitude of 40,387 feet after 20 days and 18 hours of flight.

Pico Balloon NE9JJ-2 making its 2nd circumnavigation on March 23rd 2024 after 20 days and 18 hours of flight.

Below is the 84 hour projected trajectory for Pico Balloon NE9JJ-2, from March 23rd thru March 27th 2024

Waiting for good weather for our upcoming balloon launches for Gordie; KD9TVR, Kelsi; KE9LSI, Cal; KD9WNU, Janet; KD9WVO, and our other members. So many balloons, not so great weather here in Chicago.

Standing from left to right, Ken K9YO, Stewart KB9LM, Gordie KD9TVR, Jim NE9JJ, Cary KD9ITO, Doug KD9TPM, and kneeling, from left to right, Janet KD9WVO and Cal KD9WNU from our Stretchinator session

73, Cary KD9ITO

The Stretchinator – Hasta La Vista, Balloon

January 31, 2024March 1, 2024 / Janet Knowles / 2 Comments

This past Sunday the group gathered at the home of the industrious (and illustrious) Stewart Spies, KB9LM to do some brainstorming, run some tests, and most importantly to enjoy some delicious grub together. Oh, and gadgets. Always new and fun gadgets!

Stage 1: Behold! The Stretchinator Demo

We started the session with Stewart demonstrating The Stretchinator™, his aptly named and turns out, reliably accurate, invention for stretching balloons.

Stewart KB9LM explaining the inner workings of his invention. The gravitational acceleration sensor is attached to the arm as indicated in this image.

The Stretchinator is an assemblage of custom software, hardware and physical infrastructure all built and devised by Stewart Spies, KB9LM. The frame is primarily constructed with PVC pipe and wood. It acts in part as a frame to keep the balloon stable and largely immobile, but also serves as a mount for the gravitational acceleration sensor. This sensor arm, which allows for pitch rotation, is attached to one of the PVC pipes that stands perpendicular to the ground. Simply put, when the arm is parallel to the ground, the sensor’s gravitational acceleration reading will equal 0.

An Arduino controls the input of the hardware with an aquarium pump, the trusty inflator. As the balloon is filled with air, the sensor arm will slowly rotate upwards. When gravitational acceleration reaches zero, the Arduino will then shut the aquarium pump off and no further inflation can occur.

Left to right: Jim NE9JJ, Cary KD9ITO, Cal KD9WNU, Ken K9YO, Stewart KB9LM, Kelsi KE9LSI, Gordie KD9TVR, and Doug KD9TPM — Left to right: Jim Janiak NE9JJ, Cary Willis KD9ITO, Cal Knowles KD9WNU, Ken Daniel K9YO, Stewart Spies KB9LM, Kelsi Mulley KE9LSI, Gordie Mulley KD9TVR, and Doug Mulley KD9TPM (not pictured Janet Knowles KD9WVO)

Stage 2: OMNOMNOM

With The Stretchinator doing its stretchinating best, we took a break to feast on some yummy subs and sides courtesy of Cary and homemade guac by Stewart. We finished off with a few plates of homemade and store bought cookies that somehow traversed to the end of the table where our younger NIBBBers were sitting. Hmmmmm… anyways, back to stretching!

Stage 1.5: Behold! The Stretchinator Demo… CONTINUES!!

Stewart uses a laser range finder to confirm The Stretchinator’s calculation of the diameter of the balloon, which in this case should be just about 32 inches. The transparent Yokohama balloons are at an advantage over the mylar SAG balloons in this sense, as the LRF can cast a laser from through the Yokohama to check The Stretchinator’s accuracy.

The results:

LRF : 31.875 inches
Diameter: 31.83 inches
Circumference: 99.996 inches

Say whaaaaaaat!? Nice work Stewart! Fortunately we were able to spare a few moments to congratulate Stewart on the success of The Stretchinator.

Stage 3: Testing makes Besting

The third item on our agenda, after The Stretchinator Demo and the all-important Eating of Cookies, was to test out sealing mechanisms for the balloons. For this step we used an Impulse Heat Sealer that, while purchased new, resembled a giant office stapler from the 50s. Typically, used to seal polyethylene and polypropylene bags, we had more diabolical plans for it: to try to achieve a secure seal at our balloons’ inflation points.

The SAG balloons and Yokohama valved balloons are self-sealing, meaning that when at full altitude, they will automatically seal themselves. Because we launch the pre-stretched balloons, partially inflated, below full altitude, sealing them before they go up is mission critical to ensure no gas escapes. This is where the heat sealer comes in.

Gordie, practicing with the sealer by making tiny and adorable plastic bags.

Our objective was to test if the sealer could adequately seal the balloons. If the heat sealer is set at too high a temperature, the seal could destroy the material and create a hole. If the sealer is set too low, then a seal cannot be made. We were trying to determine what the goldilocks zone was, and if one was even in existence.

We started off by testing sealing balloon material alone using scraps cut from each type of balloon. The sealer made quick work of both mylar and polyethylene. Then we tried to seal the actual balloon’s valves. The SAG balloons have a problematic paint lining on the interior on the valve, which we determined was unsealable. A few potential solutions were thrown around, such as removing the paint with acetone, aka nail polish remover, or just leaving them unsealed, as Stewart pointed out that those balloons had performed quite well. After filling the balloons and before launch, we had been placing a small piece of either Kapton or 3M Shipping tape over the valve to prevent the gas from leaking. The Yokohama requires a nylon washer at the end of the valve opening held by tape to secure the tracker solar panel package.

Deflating doesn’t have to be bad

Somewhere during the testing, Ken had to leave so he and Stewart deflated the pre-stretched and ready-for-launch SAG balloon (thank you, The Stretchinator!). Using a Dyson hand vacuum and a weak seal with tubing inserted into the valve, Stewart literally vacuumed the air out of the balloon so it could be safely transported to Ken’s home. The process had a watching-the-paint-dry quality.

We all wish this was how long it actually took to deflate.

Wrapping up

With a few minutes left before everyone needed to leave, Jim revealed the new solar panel that he is developing. He also unveiled the new weather sensor package developed by Todd McKinney KN4TPG from the University of Alabama in Huntsville https://www.picoballoonarchive.org/home. We’ll post more on the weather sensor in a future post, so Stay Tuned!

Jim Janiak, NE9JJ new solar panel with a green mock-up of Ken Daniel, K9YO tracker (left). Todd McKinney, KN4TPG’s weather sensor package (right).

Cary sent each of us home with new and very attractive rose gold-colored mylar SAG orb balloons for us to practice on so we didn’t have to leave empty-handed.

For more information – please visit us at NIBBB.org!

Until next time – happy Pico-ing!

73,
Janet KD9WVO & Cal KD9WNU