Todd McKinney

May 27th 2024 Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade update

/ Cary Willis, KD9ITO

We started the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade on June 9th 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 3rd Anniversary in a couple of weeks on June 9th 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 1st 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 8th 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 13th 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 3rd circumnavigation very soon.

Since our last launch on April 13th 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 1st 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 7th 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

The Stretchinator – Hasta La Vista, Balloon

/ 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 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.

-4.75 m/s2
0.01 m/s2
Before and after. Note the gravitation acceleration went from -4.75 to 0.01 before the pump shut off. The fully inflated balloon was more spherical, rather than a sphere, like a planet. Note that the sensor arm at the top of the image has raised to be roughly parallel to the ground.

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.

Pesky valve

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