QRP Labs

November 28th, 2023, naming a Balloon is like naming a Star

/ Cary Willis, KD9ITO / 1 Comment

Our team member Ken Daniel, K9YO visited his Granddaughter and her 5th grade class on Friday November 10th 2023, at the First Presbyterian Academy for Greenville and Simpsonville in South Carolina. 

After a presentation on Pico Balloons, the class decided on a name for their balloon, the “Happy Cone”

The Happy Cone 1, flying as K9YO-16 using a QRP Labs U4B and our Standard Solar Array was launched on November 19th 2023, at 8:00 a.m. CDT.

Ken Daniel, K9YO with the “Happy Cone 1” November 19th 2023

We had a few days of reporting before the Happy Cone went missing.

This is the message Ken sent to the class.

Happy Cone 1 was launched on Nov 19th at 8:00 AM.  It rose quickly to 12,500 m (41,000 ft, over 7 miles).  As it rose, the speed increased to 100 kph (60 miles per hour – speed of a car on a highway).  During the first day, the balloon reported its position every 10 minutes as shown on the map by each circle. The direction of travel followed the Jetstream as shown in the figure. 

“Happy Cone 1” reported spots from November 19th through November 23rd 2023
Jetstream for “Happy Cone 1” launched from Grayslake, Illinois, north of Chicago November 19th 2023

The balloon went to sleep at the expected time before sunset, when the sun was too low in the sky to produce power.  After a great first day, things went badly.  The next day we received only one transmission early in the morning and the next day we received only three transmissions.

These were short transmissions that did not contain all the normal data.  We think that one of the cells of the solar panel may have cracked.  Consequently, there is not sufficient power to transmit. 

Happy Cone 1 may still be flying, but it is not telling us where it is.  We will be working to put up another balloon soon.  The launch may be delayed due to the low sun angle (low power) during the month of Jan.

Ken Daniel

This wouldn’t be the first time that our balloons had gone missing. It’s very possible that the balloon is traveling north of the Day/Night Change line and not receiving sunlight to power the solar panels.

We’re calling this balloon Happy Cone 1, because we’re preparing for Happy Cone 2. You can follow the Happy Cone on our Locate and Track page and click “Traquito (by Douglas Malnati) tracking K9YO-16”.

On another note… we received an email from one of our followers, Perry Moore, KD9NGV who launched his Pico Balloon This morning. I spoke to Perry who was very grateful for the information we provided to help him build and launch Pico Balloons.

Perry designed a vertical triangular shaped solar panel to catch the lower sun angles during our winter months in the Northern Hemisphere. (Perry’s information below)

Attaching a pic of the payload.  Wt. is 11.62 grams.   I put it through a 30 hour test last weekend and it is activating at about 15 degrees. Three MPT 3.6-75s.  I’ll be on 10 meters again.  Planning on 5 grams of Free Lift using Helium

Pico Balloon KD9NGV Package, using a 3 panel Triangular shaped vertical Solar Panel, with a QRP Labs U4B tracker

Pico Balloon KD9NGV-15, last reported on November 28th at 21:50 UTC at an altitude of 12,350 meters, 40,551 feet, with the sun’s elevation at 3.6 degrees. Congratulations to Perry, KD9NGV for a great build. According to Perry, Pico Balloon KD9NGV-15 should awake near Newfoundland tomorrow morning.

Pico Balloon KD9NGV launched November 28th 2023 near Hardin, Illinois

You can follow Perry’s balloon on our Locate and Track page by clicking “SondeHub Balloon Tracker” and follow KD9NGV-15 as well as all Pico Balloons flying around the world.

You can learn more about Pico Balloons starting at our Home Page https://nibbb.org/ at Ken’s Home Page https://sites.google.com/view/picoballoonsbyk9yo/home and one of our earlier teachers, Pico Balloons by Doug and Mark and their new Traquito Tracker.

73, Cary KD9ITO

June 21st 2022, 3rd Day and miles apart

/ Cary Willis, KD9ITO / Leave a comment

We launched two balloons, W9BLN and KB9LM on June 19th, different trackers, same balloons and solar panel arrays and just around 30 minutes apart from Willow Hill Golf Course in Northbrook, IL. We initially had some issues finding KB9LM but that tracker came alive the morning of June 20th.

For those that have been following, this has been a slow travel. Starting in Northbrook, IL a northern suburb of Chicago. Both balloons took a southerly track, and then diverged.

We track our balloons using a receive and send signal with a GPS chip and signal packets sent on two timeslots within a 10 minute slot. From these two packets we are able to receive a Maidenhead gridsquare. The two time slots 2 minutes apart gets us a 6 point gridsquare of 2 letters, 2 numbers and 2 letters which will show the balloon in a 3 mile by 5 mile rectangle on a map. If we only receive one packet we will only receive a 4 point gridsquare of 2 letters and 2 numbers which show the balloon in a 70 mile by 100 mile rectangle on a map. So we can be as accurate as 15 square miles or 7,000 square miles.

We’ve been tracking these balloons using different programs, WSPR.Rocks, QRP-Labs/U4B, and Ventusky for wind speed and wind direction. These programs together gives us different pieces of the puzzle. These links are available on our website under “Links to Track and Locate”.

W9BLN is flying the QRP-Labs U4B tracker. From that program we see the last information received was at 23:38 UTC which is 6:38pm CDT at gridsquare EM55rb. This is just north of the Mississippi border into Tennessee near where Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee come together. W9BLN is just east of Collierville, TN the home of W5KUB, Tom Medlin who is currently flying W5KUB-112, Hey Tom.

For the KB9LM tracker we are currently receiving one packet in a 10 minute timeslot for a 4 point Maidenhead. So we’re giving a general area of the KB9LM balloon. The last received signal was at 22:02 UTC or 5:02 p.m. in the general area of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The map below is from wspr.rocks That specific point just east of Baton Rouge is in the middle of gridsquare EM40

So, we have 2 balloons, launched at close to the same time, one hovering over southern Tennessee and the other in the general area of Baton Rouge, Louisisana.

As far as we can tell, W9BLN is flying at an altitude of 9,000 meters, pretty steady from the beginning of the launch. KB9LM is somewhere close to 8400 meters, best guess.

You can follow both these balloons at wspr.rocks. Under TX call put in the callsign, list 500 spots and the last 24 hours, click on table to see the Amateur Radio operators that have heard the balloon and the distance their station is to the balloon. If you click on map, you’ll get the location or general location of our balloons. I’ve added another link from habhub which shows all the balloons flying from around the world registed on APRS. Click there and track, W5KUB-112, us and all the others, please enjoy.

Until tomorrow, 73, Cary KD9ITO