Articles and other information about Ham Radio activities for young people. Our youth activities include GOTA events, our High Altitude Balloon project, help getting licensed and more.
We are making good progress on our High Altitude Balloon project. We have identified three local schools are interested in the project and Jamey, KC1ENX and others are working to set up a meeting with teachers in these schools to explain what we are doing and gain support. You can see what we are sharing with teachers and parents here.
Possible Balloon Payload Experiment – UV Radiation Measurements
Brian, AB1ZO is working on flight planning and science experiments for our high-altitude balloon. You can see Brian’s plans here.
We have also started a fund-raising campaign to raise the funds that we need for equipment, helium and other equipment to build and launch our balloon. Our fund-raising campaign has been active for about a week now and we are approaching the halfway point of our goal. Please consider helping us with the project by making a donation. You can do this by clicking on our GoFundMe drive below.
On Saturday, January 7th the Nashua Area Radio Club participated in the ARRL’s Kids Day on the Air. Fred (AB1OC) and Anita (AB1QB) opened up their station for any youth that wanted to come and participate! We also had snap circuits available with help from Greg (W1TEN) and CW paddles for those who wanted to practice up on their Morse code.
Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us as it was a snowy day with slippery road conditions. We had a couple of youth not able to make the event due to the weather, but we still had a few show and they were very enthusiastic!
Connor (KC1GGX) started the event off by operating on 20 meters and made several contacts. Despite having a little “mic fright” he warmed up nicely and didn’t want to share the mic when it was someone else’s turn!
Abby (AB1BY) stopped by and had two friends – Samay and Jaegen – from her Destination Imagination team with her. Abby got the ball rolling for her friends and showed them how to create a pile up – just have a young YL voice and the calls start coming! She then turned the mic over to Samay and Jaegen and helped them work through their first QSOs. They soon were comfortable with the phonetic alphabet and they had fun spelling their names during their QSOs.
Despite the weather, the kids had a great time and it was a lot of fun to see the youth in our club improve their operating skills and watch the new kids make their first contacts!
Mark you calendars for Sunday, June 18th when the next ARRL’s Kids Day on the Air takes place. I feel pretty comfortable saying there won’t be any snow… but, this is New England.
Several members of our club have been working on a High Altitude Balloon Project to promote STEM interest and learning by young people. Our project team currently includes the following folks:
Other interested club members are welcome to join us.
We want to provide a STEM learning opportunity and project to be planned and executed by young people ages 10 – 16. We are actively seeking engagement and support from local schools, Scout Troops and other youth organizations to help us with this project.
Our goals for the project include:
Building and launching a high altitude balloon carrying Amateur Radio to near space and back
Enabling young people to plan and execute the project with help and guidance from members of the Nashua Area Radio Club and supporting adults from organizations that wish to assist us
Helping young people gain STEM-based experience and learnings by handling all phases of the project including:
Planning the flight, the balloon, and its payload
Building the balloon and testing it on the ground
Launching, tracking and recovering the balloon’s payload
Analysis of the flight data and the creation of a presentation to be delivered to fellow students and other interested groups
We plan to introduce new technology, experiments, and flight elements and develop team member skills and expertise across multiple launches. Later phases of the project are expected to include design and construction of additional payload electronics, high altitude/longer duration flights, and additional on-board atmospheric science experiments.
Typical High Altitude Balloon System
Our goals for the initial flight mission of this project will include:
Building a helium filled balloon which carries a payload of < 4 lbs. to altitudes in excess of 90,000 ft (27,400 m)
Parachute controls decent rate after balloon bursts
Capturing a video of flight using on-board GoPro video camera(s)
Flying an on-board APRS transmitter allows tracking from the ground via Amateur 2m APRS and aprs.fi
Flight computer plus APRS provides altitude, position and temperature data throughout the flight
Anyone with a device that has internet access and a web browser will be able to track the flight
Augmenting the APRS system with commercial satellite tracker to assure successful recovery of our payload by the project team
High Altitude Balloons
The balloon is filled with enough Helium to carry its payload to a target altitude in excess of 90,000 ft and then burst. A parachute will deploy to control the rate at which the payload descends and will ensure a controlled safe and soft landing.
Payload Components
The payload will be built around a light-weight platform which will carry a Video Camera, a Flight Computer/APRS Transmitter, and a Commercial Satellite Tracker. The camera will capture a video of the flight and the flight computer will record altitude, temperature and position data and relay this information to the ground via APRS on 2m. A commercial satellite tracker would be included to ensure we could locate the payload once it is back on the ground.
High Altitude Flight Planning
A key part of the project will involve planning the target altitude and flight path for our balloon. There are some good resources available to help us do this. Check out the Balloon Performance Calculator here. Tools also exist to estimate a balloon’s flight path and track based on Jetstream and other flight parameters.
Once we recover our balloon payload, we will guide our young team members in analyzing the data from the flight to help them to learn about atmospheric conditions and to prepare to share the results along with the video captured with classmates and other interested groups. You can get an idea of the video that we can expect below.
We are working to raise the necessary funds to support our project. We are counting on the generosity of our members and friends to help us. Please consider making a donation here.
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