I just wanted to take a moment and update everyone on our progress on our High Altitude Balloon project.
Our fundraising efforts are complete and were very successful thanks to the generosity of our members and many friends.
We have secured support from two area high schools for our project Merrimack HS and Bishop-Guertin HS. Currently, we have a total of 10 – 12 young people who have joined our project.
With help from local teachers, we have developed a curriculum and classroom materials to help the teachers we are working with to deliver classroom sessions on the science behind high altitude balloons and the associated radio technologies. The classroom instruction began with a session at Merrimack High School this week.
We have purchased the balloon kit and supporting electronics and we are planning a session to test everything later this week.
Our planned launch date at this time is on May 13th. We are also planning an open house at AB1OC/AB1QB’s QTH the week before the launch to allow the students to test their balloon and to learn more about Amateur Radio.
We’ll post more here as the project progresses.
Again, thank you all very much for supporting our work.
Fred, AB1OC on behalf of the HAB Team
