Last Saturday, July 8^th 2023, our three youngest Generals, Gordie Mulley; KD9TVR, Kelsi Mulley; KE9LSI, and Mikaela Streicher; KD9VIW met with Ken Daniel; K9YO and learned how to put the Pico Balloon package together. The package consists of a 7 cell solar panel, Pico tracker, antennas, monofilament line and balloon. Doug Mulley; KD9TPM was there to assist with the build.

The group found that many of the solar panels that were built on September 10^th 2022 had cracked cells, thanks to Jim Janiak KD9UQB, everyone in the group knows how to fix those.

Below are images from our September 10th 2022 Solar Panel Build Session

Stretching the balloon

I met with Ken a week before his build session where he was in the process of stretching the 4^th SAG Balloon. After the Pico Tracker and Solar Panel are built, the antennas are soldered to the tracker and the balloons are stretched prior to filling with either Helium or Hydrogen. The stretching of the balloon gets all the wrinkles out allowing for the balloon to reach its maximum altitude for the duration of the flight. Depending on the weight of the total package, we can expect an altitude of between 40,000 and 50,000 feet. The heavier Low Sun Angle – High Power Solar Array for winter flights would get around 40,000 feet. The Standard Solar Array shown above would get closer to 50,000 feet.

We have 10 Yokohama balloons and 6 SAG balloons ready for stretching. The SAG Balloon and Yokohama balloon are both 32” rounds that can be stretched to a 100 inch circumference.  Ken wrote a program that slowly stretches the balloon over a 10 hour period using an aquarium pump and an arduino

Ken Daniel, K9YO has created a website “Everything About Flying a Pico Balloon” With a video on stretching and filling a balloon.

While Gordie, Kelsi and Mikaela are finishing their builds, they’ll be teaching the rest of us on how to put the package together.   

Stay tuned for the launch of Pico Balloons KD9TVR, KE9LSI and KD9VIW

73,   Cary  KD9ITO