Launch of Pico Balloon K9YO-22, October 3rd 2025

October 7, 2025 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO

We gathered for the launch of Pico Balloon K9YO-22 on Friday October 3rd 2025 in Libertyville, Illinois. The tracker didn’t report until the next day over Nashville, Tennessee. Now 4 days later, our balloon is near Europe. This isn’t the 22nd launch of K9YO, we use a number after the callsign to help track our balloon which will be described below.

The current flight information will be updated daily on our Locate and Track page, feel free to bookmark this page.

Pico Balloon K9YO-22 asleep at 17:28 UTC

This is the last report of Pico Balloon K9YO-22 before going to sleep. The track starts near Nashville Tennessee on October 4th. The Gridsquare HI51hi tells us the last reported location. The code QF8DHI gives us additional information, the second letter “F” tells us it’s getting 5 volts of power, the letter after the number in this case “D” shows the tracker is actually getting 5.3 volts. B=1, C=2, D=3, E=4, F=5 etc. The track shows red when it’s reporting, green when asleep or not reporting if there are no amateur radio stations receiving and reporting.

Our balloon last reported flying at 12,480 meters or 40,944 feet in altitude, flying at 134 miles per hour. The time showing 12:28 is our local time, Central Daylight Time. In UTC, the balloon last reported at 17:28 UTC (5 hours ahead of CDT)

Below is the projected trajectory over the next 84 hours. The different colors represent 10 different altitudes in 20 meter increments. This is from the Sondehub site, Float link, described below.

Pico Balloon K9YO-22 Projected Trajectory from October 7th 2025 thru October 11th 2025

Throughout this post we will have links in blue to help you navigate our website and the links we use to track our balloon. We will be able to see how many people received and opened this email and have clicked on various links to show us your areas of interest. We won’t know who clicks on a link.

We are the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, formed on June 9th 2021, We build and launch Pico Balloons as part of the amateur radio hobby, our home page is https://nibbb.org/

On our website you can read about our project with pictures through the years. I added a webpage to highlight special projects from our Blog which can be found here Highlights of the NIBBB

Once you get to our home page you’ll be able to follow our project, and learn how to build and launch Pico Balloons.

This is the first time we’re flying our newest in-house designed NIBBB tracker and solar panel package. For this launch the tracker was modified with a supervisor chip to help regulate the voltage before transmitting (pictured below). Our future NIBBB trackers will have a supervisor chip built in.

This tracker is launched vertically with the solar panel package sitting on the tracker like a hat, two solder joints connect the solar panel package to the tracker. With the added supervisor chip and wires, the total package of tracker, solar panels, and 33′ dipole antennas weighed in at 18 grams.

The balloon is a 32″ diameter silver SAG balloon purchased from Balloons Online. The balloon was pre-stretched to 32″ by Ken Daniel prior to the flight. We used Helium filled to lift 18 grams plus an additional 6 grams of free lift.

The solar panels are polycrystalline cells each 2″ x 3/4″ in size. We’re using 8 cells for this solar panel package. We were so concerned about the safe launch of this solar panel package, that Jim Janiak, NE9JJ designed a device to hold the tracker off the ground with a wireless release when the winds were calm. Luckily we were launching in very mild winds, Jim was ready to deploy the tracker launcher (name pending). Look for the upcomming video of Jim demonstrating his tracker launcher.

To get our package to the launch site safely, Michael Seedman, AA6DY is using a coffee can with the plastic lid cutout to hold the tracker/solar panel package in place, and a cardboard flap to hold the coffee can and antennas.

Below are pictures from the build and launch

Ken Daniel, K9YO wating with the balloon — Ken Daniel, K9YO

Joining us for the launch were Ken Daniel K9YO, Michael Seedman AA6DY, Stewart Spies KB9LM, Jim Janiak NE9JJ, Cary Willis KD9ITO, Don Whiteman KK9H and David Detelfsen K9EAD

With everything in place here are pictures of the launch

Traacker and Solar Panel package in flight — Balloon and Tracker package in flight

For tracking our balloon we use several websites that are available on the Locate and Track page of our website. For your easy viewing we have the links below and an explanation of each link.

Sondehub Balloon Tracker To follow all Pico Balloons flying around the world
K9YO-22 APRS.fi To see where our balloon is reporting, the altitude, and the travel over the last 7 days of flight. Click on the balloon to open the info page as seen above.
K9YO-22 on Sondehub similar to the sondehub link above, this will only show K9YO-22. On the left hand side you will see information on this balloon, click on Floats to see where the balloon is headed (Projected Trajectory) over the next 84 hours. Click on Plots to see more data received on this balloon and if you really think this project is cool, you can click on Share which will allow you to share the page by email
K9YO on WSPR Spot Database To see the Amateur Radio stations that report on our location and the distance from their station to our balloons location by km and miles
National Hurricane Center Weather systems over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that may affect the direction of our balloon’s travel
K9YO-22 on lu7aa site Provides more detailed and interactive information on our balloon with additional links. Click on 12 Km winds will open Ventusky which will show the Jetstream at the altitude and location of our balloon. Zoom out, hover your mouse over the area to see the wind speed. Clicking on play will fast forward the jetstream over the hours and days. You can also get other weather information all over the world. This site also shows other Pico Balloons by callsign.

Please play around with these various links, and share with people you know.

To be added as a follower of the NIBBB and recieve these posts when published, send me an email at this link Contact Us or find me on QRZ

We are now flying over darkness and not transmitting. With the current wind speed at 120 mph, we should expect a wakeup in about 8 hours.

We have so many people to thank for supporting our program and our Pico Balloon hobby.

To Douglas Malnati, KD2KDD and for his continued support for the Pico Balloon worldwide Community. For information on his Traquito project please visit https://traquito.github.io/

When we first started our NIBBB project in 2021 we followed his site https://www.picoballoons.net/ by Doug Malnati KD2KDD and Mark Malnati KN4IUD

Please share your comments and questions,

73, Cary KD9ITO

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

Surface-Mount Soldering Session, June 17th 2023

June 17, 2023March 1, 2024 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO

This was a beautiful Saturday morning. Some of our NIBBB members gathered at the Northbrook Library’s Makerspace and learned how to solder surface-mount chips to prepare for more launches this year.

Our teacher today was Michael Seedman, AA6DY one of the Co-Founders of the NIBBB. Our Pico Balloon tracker pictured below is a 2 sided surface-mount soldered tracker weighing 1.6 grams. All the chips are soldered to pads on the board. The 6 pin connector used for programming the board are through-hole soldered with the small pins soldered on the oppposite side of the board. Once the tracker is programmed with a callsign and tracking code, the 6 pin connector can be broken off.

Our two hour session was with practice printed circuit boards and digital microscopes. Below is a 2 picture slideshow of the 103 Resistor (103 is for 10 and 3 zero’s after), 10,000 Ohms next to a dime shown on a digital microscope. It takes a steady hand and a lot of patience to get these chips in the right place on the board.

A roll of 1,000 10k resistors cost $10. Which is a good thing because they’re easy to lose
103 Surface-Mount Resistor up close

Michael demonstrated how to solder using a Flux pen for smooth flow of the solder. Below is the digital microscope and practice printed circuit boards. With today’s practice session and our home sessions, we’ll be more comfortable soldering our actual trackers.

Digital Microscope
Blank practice circuit board

We then broke into groups and practiced our newly learned skills

Calvin and Janet Knowles, Kyli, Kelsi and Gordie Mulley
Cal Knowles, Doug Mulley, Stewart Spies, Jim Janiak and Loren Pollack
Gordie Mulley KD9TVR with his Dad, Doug Mulley KD9TPM
Loren Pollack, AD9AY came by today to try his hand at soldering with our members Stewart Spies, KB9LM and Jim Janiak KD9UQB
Michael Seedman, AA6DY helping Cal Knowles KD9WNU and Janet Knowles KD9WVO, Doug Mulley KD9TPM working with his son Gordie Mulley KD9TVR with Kelsi Mulley KE9LSI and Kyli Mulley
Kyli, Kelsi, Gordie and Doug Mulley
Stewart Spies, KB9LM, Jim Janiak KD9UQB, Michael Seedman AA6DY, with our guests Loren Pollack AD9AY and David Auerbach W9KRP

Cal Knowles KD9WNU and Gordie Mulley KD9TVR are the youngest members of the NIBBB, who will be entering the 7th grade. Kelsi Mulley KE9LSI will be starting her Junior year in High School. Not pictured are Mikaela Streicher KD9VIW who just graduated High School and will be attending the Colorado School of Mines, Noah Berg KD9RDT starting his Sophomore year in High School and Henry Fiely, KD9SRZ starting his Freshman year in High School.

Cal Knowles, KD9WNU with his new radio, the Yaesu FTDX10. Cal passed his Amateur Extra license and his Mom, Janet KD9WVO passed her General license on June 3rd 2023.

Almost 1 year ago, Kelsi and Gordie Mulley received their Official FCC General license on August 23rd 2022. We’ve been planning their Pico Balloon launches since last January. Now that summer vacation has started and the weather is more favorable, we hope to launch soon

Our next sessions will be programming our Pico Balloon tracker and pre-stretching the balloons.

73, Cary KD9ITO

While we’re flying, we’re still working

September 11, 2022September 12, 2022 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO / 2 Comments

We’re still meeting, and building while AA6DY is flying.

Some of our members were able to gather on Saturday September 10th at the home of the Berg’s, who hosted our build session.

One of the most difficult parts of our Pico Balloon Project is building the solar panel package. The Polycystalline solar panels are so fragile, that a sudden touch can break a panel. Jim Janiak, KD9UQB designed a template to hold a single solar panel in place for ease of soldering. Once one side is soldered, it’s then glued to the plate, then soldered and repeated.

Each solar panel is glued to the styrofoam plate and soldered in series. The wires from negative to positive are stripped before soldering. After working on several renditions of this package, Jim KD9UQB had designed our current board. Jim was our Elmer and Guide who patiently worked with each of us.

Joining us for this session were, The Berg’s; Noah KD9RDT, Bob KD9RDU, and Wendy KD9RDV, Ken Daniel K9YO, Cary Willis KD9ITO, Mikaela Streicher KD9VIW, The Mulley’s; Doug KD9TPM, Kelsi KE9LSI, and Gordie KD9TVR. We also had the support of Winston close at hand.

Jim started out with an introduction to the tools, parts and a step by step instruction. We then broke into groups and started cutting out the styrofoam template. We had four soldering stations spread around five tables.

We ended with 3 complete solar panel packages weiging around 4.7 grams each, tested and ready to fly. This session added to the two other solar panel packages that Jim had completed

We’re looking forward to flying Pico Balloons for our three younger Generals, Kelsi Mulley KE9LSI, Gordie Mulley KD9TVR and Mikaela Streicher KD9VIW.

We’ll be updating our Technical page which will provide instructions on how to build and launch Pico Balloons, hosted by Ken Daniel K9YO. You’ll also be able to read and follow Ken’s future Pico Balloon launches here at the NIBBB.

Please enjoy this slideshow from yesterday’s session

Jim KD9UQB, Gordie KD9TVR, Doug, KD9TPM, Kelsi KE9LSI, and Mikaela KD9VIW
Cary and Bob in the back
Up front, Noah KD9RDV cutting out the template and some ot the others
The Mulley’s on the left, Kelsi, Gordie and Doug and Mikaela on the right and Winston under the table
Gordie KD9TVR and Mikaela KD9VIW working on their respective packages
Noah KD9RDV soldering his solar panel assited by Cary KD9ITO
Gordie KD9TVR and Doug KD9TPM working together
Mikaela KD9VIW and the finished product
Mikaela testing the voltage assisted by Doug KD9TPM
Mikaela, Doug, Gordie and Kelsi
Kelsi KE9LSI, Doug KD9TPM and Gordie KD9TVR
Gordie with the panel and Doug testing with the Multimeter
Testing 4.05 volts with a 7 solar panel package
Gordie KD9TVR with the final package

August 14th, 2022, KD9TPM, MIA

August 14, 2022August 23, 2022 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO / 1 Comment

KD9TPM was launched on July 30th from Willow Hill Golf Course in Northbrook, Illinois and came alive on July 31st over Canada. We last heard from our balloon on August 10th over the North Pacific Ocean. KD9TPM had flown 10 days and 16 hours and we now declare it Missing In Action.

KD9TPM travel map from July 30th 2022 to August 10th 2022 courtesy of WSPR.Rocks

We are in our planning stages for our next launch and will keep an eye out for KD9TPM

Our Technical Team is working on building our Solar Panel and Antenna packages and look forward to many future launches.

73, Cary KD9ITO

August 4th 2022, asleep, 16:22 UTC Grid KO45ko, Belarus

August 4, 2022August 5, 2022 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO / 2 Comments

WSPR Rocks has KD9TPM over Belarus at Grid KO45ko near Karpeki Belarus. We slowed down a little bit during this leg of our flight. On our 6th day, around 5 days and 2 hours of flight. We’re at 10,240 meters, just over 33,500 feet in altitude. This has been pretty consistent throughout our flight.

The image below is from HabHub, which shows we have some company in our area. KD9TPM is center top on the Belarus/Russian Border.

To follow where we’re headed, links to WSPR.Rocks, HabHub, Ventusky etc. click on the “Links to Locate and Track” tab on our website. Sunrise is around 5:30 am where we’re headed, add about another hour for our solar panels to wake up our tracker. Wake-up will be around Midnight our time.

I’ll take your Grid Square guesses until 9pm this evening. Winner will be announced tomorrow morning. Click on Contact Us or send me an email. 73, Cary KD9ITO

July 31st 2022, KD9TPM & KD9UQB

July 31, 2022July 31, 2022 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO / 1 Comment

We launched two balloons on Saturday July 30th from Willow Hill Golf Course in Northbrook, Illinois. We were waiting to see any life of our balloons and feared they were lost. On Sunday July 31st we heard from KD9TPM at 6:42 am CDT over Canada at Grid EN88LL near Agate, Ontario, Cananda moving slowly north, will be heading east and then south to join the faster Jetstream over the Atlantic. KD9TPM, altitute is about 32,000 feet.

Below are graphics on where KD9TPM is heading, and down a little further is information from yesterday’s launch.

We’ll be monitoring this launch for KD9TPM and KD9UQB

KD9TPM is showing nice movement now in Grid EN98LL near Preston, Ontario Canada at 8:22 am CDT

Saturday July 30th 2022

Many different parts came together for today’s launch. Michael Seedman, AA6DY has been working for months on redesigning our tracker. Our Technical Team has been working on reducing the size and weight of our package. We rely on the support of our larger Pico Balloon community to share information and help in problem solving. We’re very grateful for all the assistance from our many supporters.

We’re meeting at Willow Hill Golf Course in Northbrook, Illinois for the launch of two Pico Balloons, KD9TPM for Doug Mulley and KD9UQB for Jim Janiak. In preparation for this launch, Jim Janiak, KD9UQB designed and built the solar panel packages we’re using for today’s launch. We started using the Polycrystalline Solar Panels used by Tom Medlin, W5KUB. Tom is currently flying W5KUB-112 coming on 49 days in flight. You can follow his flights at W5KUB

Below is the preparation of the balloons, tracker and solar panels for this flight

7 Polycrystalline Solar Panels and the Tracker on piece of Styrofoam aproximately 4″ square
Wiring of the Solar Panel Package on the backside
Solar Panel, Tracker, wired with fishing line, total weight 7 grams
Total weight of Package 9.2 grams plus 6.5 grams of Excess Lift, total lift required 15.7 grams
Balloon 16.13 grams of total lift
2nd balloon 15.76 grams of total lift
Balloon is prepped with glue and weight the day before launch.

It’s a beautiful sunny day here at Willow Hill Golf Course in Northbrook, Illinois.

Willow Hill Golf Course, Northbrook Illinois Mild Day with a still Flag

We had a nice gathering this morning, with a couple of new visitors. Joining us today were Loren AD9AY, Chris KD9TVT, George KD9TLS, Jim KD9UQB, John W9BLN, Michael AA6DY, Stewart KB9LM, and Cary KD9ITO. We officially used the Icarus Device for our two launches. The Icarus is a Timer on a PCB attached to a Pico Servo with a lever, a battery and a 30 foor pole. We push the timer and raise the pole, after 10 seconds the lever is tuned and the balloon released. We have 10 seconds to raise the pole for the balloons release.

June 28th, 8 days and 23 hours into flight 11:58 UTC 6:58 am

June 28, 2022June 28, 2022 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO / Leave a comment

W9BLN was awake at Grid FM05sb near Salemburg, North Carolina at 11:38 UTC, 6:38 am CDT. Over almost 9 days we took a nice trip over a big circle over of the United States and we’re ready to move on. W9BLN is now heading east near Kenansville, North Carolina, about 70 miles to the Atlantic Ocean.

We’re going to be watching this carefuly today, expecting to move a little south over the ocean then change direction and go northeast towards Paris, France or Southeast towards Casablaca. As we are getting closer to the Atlantic Ocean, we lost a little altitude and are now rising to 22,000 feet.

Tomorrow morning’s Jetream looks a lot smoother over the Atlantic Ocean which you can view here June 29th 7:00 a.m. Jetstream over the Atlantic Ocean

After my report last night, we were seeing some activity for KB9LM, at 00:32 UTC June 28th, that was 7:32 pm June 27th, still in the Grid of DL79 over northern Mexico, but reporting up to 6,000 feet in altitude. We are still watching KB9LM. The reporting started closer to 10:00 am yesterday, so we’ll be watching for more activity from KB9LM later this morning.

Till this evening, 73, Cary

13th Launch, KK9H/2 April 1st 2022

April 1, 2022April 1, 2022 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO / Leave a comment

Michael is filling the balloon, little at a time
A new way to secure, Kapton Tape used by NASA
Checking the weight 15 grams for the package, plus free lift, total 24.4 grams
Michael AA6DY tying off the balloon assisted with Stewart KB9LM and Don KK9H holding the tube
Michael holding the tracker waiting for launch
And the Release, just beautiful
There it goes, nice and slow lift

I want to get this out to everyone and will share pictures of our balloon prep and launch

After a long dry spell, we were able to get together to launch KK9H/2 for Don Whiteman. We met at Olson Park in Highland Park, IL at 2:30 p.m. with a small group of avid supporters. As I mentioned in the previous post, though we hadn’t launched in a while, we have been busy preparing. We had a successful launch at 3:00 p.m.

We’ve been looking at getting a balloon that would give us that sweet spot of an altitude close to 40,000 feet. With the research from Tom Medlin W5KUB we purchased a package of the Yokohama 32″ Sphere pictured below.

This is the 4 panel 32″ Yokohama Sphere balloon which will provide a larger volume and higher altitude

We purchased 10 of these balloons at $22.00 each, and used one of them to test the best way to seal the valve shown on the lower left hand side. John, KD9THB part of our Technical Team suggested using Kapton tape which is used in the space program. All of our balloons are used in the party industry and are not intended for long flights. The Yokohama we purchased has a small neck coming right up to the body of the balloon, on the end of the valve which we will tape over, seal and punch a hole through the tape to hold our tracker package.

John did some weather and trajectory projections using NOAA HYSPLIT Models see below

Watching and Waiting and Watching Some More

March 31, 2022April 1, 2022 / Cary Willis, KD9ITO / 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve written about our project. While we’re waiting for the winds to subside. We’ve been busy ordering balloons, Michael has been busy building trackers and we’ve been watching one of our hero’s in the Pico Balloon community.

I’d like to introduce you to Tom Medlin, W5KUB, who is currently flying his 110th Pico Balloon. I understand Tom is famous for his Helmet Cam at Hamvention, and has been very successful at flying Pico Balloons.

One of the biggest obstacles we have found in our launches is the balloon. We were able to purchase what is known as a 36″ Chinese made balloon for around $2 each. Starting with our flight on December 22nd 2021, KD9ORR flew for 19 days on one Chinese balloon.

Though we conquered flight time, we were still hampered by altitude. KD9ORR with one balloon averaged around 24,000 feet. We next flew KR9T with 2 Chinese balloons and averaged 28,000 feet.

Now back to W5KUB. Tom Medlin acquired what he referred to as an experimental Yokohama 32″ Sphere balloon which flew for 22 days for twice around the globe. Tom is currently flying #110 with the Yokohama reaching an altitude of 41,000 feet. Though the 32″ balloon in smaller, it’s completely round holding more volume of gas compared to our 36″ round pillow shaped balloon.

Did I mention we we’re flush with balloons. We now have in stock around 70 Chinese made balloons and 9 Yokohama’s (we experimented on one of them to figure out how to seal it, we’ll talk about Kapton tape in another post). We’ll be looking to our next launch with a Yokohama balloon, hopefully soon, weather permitting.

And while we’re waiting, please visit Tom W5KUB and his current launch at https://ham-tv.com/balloon/

73, Cary KD9ITO