Hams have been experimenting with using radios attached to high altitude balloons for many years. Raising the antenna increases the coverage area and raising to many tens of thousands of feet can provide coverage in many hundreds of miles. In addition to radio payloads, cameras, weather instruments and other sensors are popular payloads for high altitude balloons. Read on to find out more!
Local Area Radio High-Altitude Balloons
Occasionally, local clubs (including RWK) launch their own high-altitude balloons with various payloads (cameras, radios, other instruments). These local launches are a great way to get experience with the balloon launch and recovery process, or just to participate in communicating and tracking the balloon progress as it ascends and then descends.
In 2021, RWK launched a balloon with (among other things) a panoramic camera and a DMR radio configured as a timeslot repeater. People were able to make QSOs from Houston to Oklahoma.
High-Altitude RadioSondes
Did you know that NOAA launches many high-altitude balloons each day to measure the upper air conditions in order to forecast the weather, and that each of those balloons contains a small transmitter to transmit the atmospheric data back to the ground, and that these balloons can be easily recovered and repurposed? See the right column on how to build a RadioSonde Tracker.
RWK Balloon Events and Related Info
- RWK Radio Balloon Launch Wrap-Up – Saturday 9/21Update: The Balloon Launch is a wrap! We had a great crew of at least 46 people at the Aubrey Middle School launch site. The balloon was launched at 9:38am and reached a peak altitude of 111,315 feet (!) Josh N4NZ captured drone video of the launch: We had some spectacular images from the HD…
Read more - QRV Tech – September 2024 – How To Participate In The RWK Balloon Launch From Your ShackOur September 2024 QRV Tech program will be a discussion and demonstration of the various ways that you can participate in this weekend’s RWK High-Altitude Balloon Launch. Here’s a preview: How To Participate In The RWK Balloon Launch From Your Shack Meeting Recording – – – – – – – Session Resources How To Participate…
Read more - How To Participate In The RWK Balloon Launch From Your ShackBy Chip Coker KD4C There are several ways that you can participate in the September 2024 RWK Balloon Launch. If you want to participate from the comfort of your shack, here’s what you can do: Follow the launch on VHF 2M Radio and Watch the Balloon Progress You can listen to the launch status on…
Read more - How To Participate In The RWK Balloon Launch As A Mobile ReceiverBy Chip Coker KD4C There are several ways that you can participate in the September RWK Balloon Launch. If you want to participate as a mobile receiver and chaser (monitoring and chasing the balloon after it has launched), here’s what you will need: We suggest that you receive/chase in teams, for several reasons. #1 –…
Read more - General Meeting – September 2024 – High Altitude Balloon LaunchPlease join RWK on Monday Sept 9th for our General Meeting. Have you heard that RWK is doing a High-Altitude Balloon Launch on Sept 21st? Our September RWK Meeting will cover everything you need to know to participate in the Balloon Launch – either in person or from the comfort of your shack. There will…
Read more - High-Altitude Weather Balloon Launch – Sept 21stBy Andrew Koenig KE5GDB The Richardson Wireless Klub (RWK) and Denton County ARA (DCARA) will be launching a high-altitude weather balloon on Saturday, September 21st. The launch site is to be determined and will be picked based on winds aloft and target landing areas as the launch date approaches. There are a number of ways…
Read more - Receiving Radiosondes with Ham-centric Firmware – Horus Binary v2By Andrew Koenig KE5GDB In this article we will discuss how to receive transmissions from a radiosonde running the RS41ng firmware and transmitting the Horus Binary v2 protocol. Twice a day NOAA launches radiosondes into the upper atmosphere to make measurements that assist with weather prediction and modeling. NOAA requests that these atmospheric probes not…
Read more - Build Your Own Weather RadioSonde TrackerBy Chip Coker KD4C For just a few $, you can build your own RadioSonde Tracking Receiver setup and participate in tracking the twice-daily (0000 and 1200 UTC) launches of radiosondes by NOAA. These radiosondes transmit at around 403 MHz with only 20 mW and yet you can receive them from a hundred or so…
Read more - RWK/PARK High-Altitude Balloon Launch 2021RWK and the Plano Amateur Radio Klub (PARK) conducted a joint balloon launch in July 2021. Details about the balloon: Max Height was over 90,000 feet. Here’s an image taken by the payload camera at 86,000 feet. Max altitude reached was 90,984 feet. You can see the altitude plot below: Total path (from launch to…
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Build Your Own RadioSonde Tracker
The current NOAA Radiosondes operate in the 403 MHz frequency range. You can use a cheap and simple 433 MHz LoRa receiver with custom firmware to receive and decode the balloon transmissions.
See this post for full instructions.
You can also build trackers using cheap RTL-SDR receivers and several other devices.
RadioSonde Tracking Website
Even if you don’t build your own tracker, you can watch the progress of the twice-daily sonde launches on sondehub.org
The site takes data uploaded by tracking receivers (including you if you built one above) and plots the path of the balloons and displays the weather data in near real time.
You can even chase the balloons to recover the transmitter (and what’s left of the balloon). NOAA says that they are free to grab and NOAA doesn’t want them back!
These transmitters can be repurposed for other functions in the 70 cm (430-450 MHz) amateur bands.]
