Tag Archives: Space

Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space, Youth Activities

HAB-3 To Launch On Sunday – How To Track Our High-Altitude Balloon

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We are planning the third launch of our High-Altitude Balloon (HAB-3) this Sunday, June 3rd between 10 am and 11 am ET. We will be launching locally from the Hollis-Brookline HS here in Hollis, NH. Read on to learn more about our HAB projects and how to track our HAB while it is in flight.

You can learn more about our HAB projects here on our website and you can view a video about our first two HAB launches above.

High-Altitude Balloon Launch Site and Weather

The weather and Jetstream conditions look good for our HAB-3 launch! The jet stream has been unusually tranquil the past couple of weeks and this is going to enable us to launch locally from the High-School here in Hollis, NH. Nashua Area Radio Society members and friends are invited to join us for our launch.

HAB Launch
HAB Launch!

We have been working with students at the Hudson Memorial School and World Academy here in NH. The students and their teachers will handle HAB-3 launch preparations and the launch. Launch preparations will begin on site at 9:00 am ET.

HAB Launch Weather
HAB-3 Launch Weather

The weather forecast looks great for our launch on Sunday with mostly sunny skies and moderate winds. These conditions should enable us to capture some spectacular video from HAB-3 during its flight! We are also planning to live-stream video from our HAB-3 launch and recovery to the Nashua Area Radio Society Facebook page.

Tracking Our HAB

I wanted to share some information about tracking our HAB as it flies. Our balloon will carry’s a GPS receiver and a 2m APRS Transmitter.

HAB Flight Platform
HAB Flight Platform

The onboard APRS transmitter will operate on the Amateur Radio standard terrestrial APRS frequency of 144.390 MHz and will transmit our HAB’s position, heading, speed, altitude and other telemetry data every minute during HAB-3’s flight. The transmitter is battery-powered and generates a 250 mW signal into a dipole antenna suspended from HAB’-2s flight platform. HAB-3 will use N1FD-11 as its call sign.

HAB-2 Flight Track on aprs.fi
HAB-2 Flight Track on aprs.fi

HAB-3’s APRS packets will be picked up by ground-based Digipeaters and iGates and will be relayed to aprs.fi where the HAB’s current location and flight path can be tracked.  You can click on the link in the previous line to see HAB-3’s current location and flight track.

HAB-3 Flight Path Prediction
HAB-3 Flight Path Prediction

Based upon online HAB flight prediction calculators that we have been using, we expect the HAB’s flight to last a little more than 2 1/2 hours. The HAB should reach an altitude of over 110,000 ft before the balloon bursts and the parachute on the flight platform brings HAB-3 back to the ground at a safe speed. The above predictions will likely somewhat different from HAB-3’s actual flight path. Based upon the predictions, HAB-3 will be traveling approximately 25 km between its takeoff point and landing near Devens, MA.

HAB APRS Packet Information
HAB APRS Packet Information

Aprs.fi will store and display a copy of all of the APRS AX.25 packets transmitted by HAB-3 during its flight. Of particular interest to the STEM element of the flight will be the Balloon’s data on atmospheric temperature and pressure conditions at different altitudes.

All you need to track HAB-3 during its flight is Internet access and a web browser. Just click on one of the aprs.fi links here to see HAB-3’s current location and altitude. If you have an APRS ground station, you may also be able to receive HAB-3’s telemetry directly during the flight.

We will post updates on launch plans and the flight in the Youth Forum on our website.

T minus 2 days and counting until HAB-3 launches….

[waiting name=”Balloon 3 Countdown To Launch”]

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space, Youth Activities

Sights from the New England Tech Trek (NETT) at NEAR-Fest

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We have been doing Amateur Radio open house activities as part of our High-Altitude Balloon projects and Kids Day for some time now. These events help young people to learn about and have fun with Amateur Radio and help us to create a STEM learning experience based upon Amateur Radio.

ARRL Kids Day 2018
ARRL Kids Day 2018

Earlier this year, we began working on a project to scale our open house activities up to become an activity that we could host at local Ham Fests. We wanted to expand the scope of this activity to appeal to young people and all Hams to provide an opportunity to learn about Amateur Radio and to showcase some of the modern, “high-tech” aspects of the Amateur Radio Service. This project was debuted at the NETT event at NEAR-Fest.

Young People at NETT
Young People at NETT

Concurrently, Bill Barber, NE1B who is a Nashua Area Radio Society (NARS) member began working on a youth outreach event for the NEAR-Fest event held in Deerfield, NH. We got together with Bill, the NEAR-Fest leadership, and others to create the New England Tech Trek (NETT) at NEAR-Fest. We held our first NETT event earlier this month.

NETT Banner
NETT Banner at the Display Entrance

NARS contributed 10 displays to the initial NETT event including:

We were able to secure the N1T Special Event callsign for the event and we used it to make over 450 contacts on a combination of the four GOTA stations that we had at NETT. We should have our NETT Special Event QSL cards back from our printer shortly.

NETT: N1T QSL Card
NETT N1T QSL Card

Our GOTA Stations were among the most popular elements at NETT. Burns, WB1FJ ran our satellite GOTA station. He even managed to create a pileup or two as N1T on the birds!

NETT: Satellite GOTA
Satellite GOTA

Quite a few folks made satellite contacts using N1T .  Also, the satellite station antennas which were located outside the display building were interesting to many folks.

NETT: Satellite Antennas
Satellite Antennas

Our Remote HF GOTA Stations featured FlexRadio Maestros and a nice DXing and Station Building Display. Dave, K1DLM and myself, AB1OC made our stations available to support the two HF GOTA setups and NETT.

NETT: HF GOTA
HF GOTA

Ira, KC1EMJ helped several young folks to make their first HF contacts and Abby, AB1BY anchored our special event N1T station using the second setup.

NETT: N1T Special Event Station
N1T Special Event Station

The SDR-based remote stations and our Satellite GOTA helped us to demonstrate some of the “Hi-Tech” aspects of Amateur Radio to young people and to all Hams who attended NEAR-Fest. We live streamed our GOTA activities to Facebook so that the folks who worked us could see our operation in real-time.


Tony, KC1DXL hosted our display on High Altitude Balloons (HAB) carrying Amateur Radio. The HAB display got lots of interest from the folks who attended NETT.

NETT: High Altitude Balloon Display
High Altitude Balloon Display

Jamey, AC1DC and Connor, KC1GGX put together our displays on Fox Hunting, Morse Code, and portable operating. Their displays provided a great introduction to these activities.

NETT: Fox Hunting Display
Fox Hunting Display

Anita, AB1QB and Tom, AB1NS created a nice display on kit building and Raspberry Pi projects in Amateur Radio. This display was a popular one as well.

NETT: Kits and Computers Display
Kits and Computers Display

Bill, NE1B also engaged several other groups who provided displays at NETT. The Robotics and Drone  were among other popular displays.

NETT: Robots 1
Robots Display at NETT

The following photo archive contains some pictures from the event. There are many good memories there.

Many, many members of NARS contributed a great deal of time and energy to making this project a success and I’d like to thank everyone who helped us!! I’d especially like to thank Hamilton, K1HMS,  Mike, K1WVO, Craig, N1SFT, Charlie, AB1ZN, Bob, W1OLD, and Dave, K1DLM for their help with this event.  Without everyone’s support, the NETT event and our presence there would not have been possible. We are looking forward to replicating the most popular elements from our  displays at out Ham Fest events going forward.

Fred, AB1OC

Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Youth Activities

HAB 3 Update

HAB 3 Update:  We have been working with four schools this winter and spring in preparation for the HAB 3 launch in the next few weeks.  The schools are:

  • Hudson Memorial School, Hudson, NH
  • World Academy, Nashua, NH
  • Bishop Guertin High School, Nashua, NH
  • Merrimack High School, Merrimack, NH
HMS Students on the air during HAB Session
HMS Students on the air during HAB Session

HAB Instruction

Hudson Memorial School and World Academy are new to the HAB program – we have been giving weekly sessions to the students on the science behind the HAB.  This year, we added a new topic to the curriculum, Space Communications which has proved to be popular.

World Academy Students in HAB Program
World Academy Students in HAB Program

Advanced HAB Program

The other 2 schools, Bishop Guertin High School and Merrimack High School have been through the HAB curriculum in the past.  We have developed a new program involving kit building and CW that has proven to be very popular.

We have hosted kit builds with both schools to build the Pixie 40 m QRP kit.  There was great interest from both schools in the kit build and all kits were built successfully.

Bishop Guertin High School Students building Pixie Kit
Bishop Guertin High School Students building Pixie Kit

The 2nd part of the activity is a CW competition.  Teams of 2 students compete in a competition at each school.  They use their Pixie kits with Keys connected to send a message to their teammate.  The team that copies the CW most accurately in the least time wins the prize, which is an Oscilloscope kit and another Pixie kit.  We have held the competition with the students from Merrimack High School and it was a great success and all students, teachers and NARS members who elmered them had a great time!

MHS Morse Code Competition Winners
Merrimack High School Morse Code Competition Winners

We also helped 3 students from Merrimack and Bishop Guertin High Schools to earn their Tech Licenses during our Spring Tech License Class.

HAB 3 Launch Plans

 

HAB-1 Launch!
HAB-1 Launch!

The HAB 3 Launch will happen on a Saturday or Sunday over the next few weeks.  We are watching the jet stream and launch predictions and will schedule it on a day where the conditions look good.  Stay tuned to the website for more info when the date is scheduled.

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide