Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Ham Radio "Maker" Group to Attempt Transatlantic Weather Balloon Flight


A group of "makers" in Louisville, Kentucky, mentored by some ham radio ballooning experts, is planning to attempt a transatlantic weather balloon flight as soon as conditions are favorable. Newsline reports that the LVL-1 Makerspace group got advice from high-altitude amateur radio ballooning guru (and CQ VHF columnist) Bill Brown, WB8ELK, Carl Lyster, WA4ADG, electronics designer for the Spirit of Knoxville. When launched, the balloon will transmit RTTY and the DominoEX digital mode on 7.102 MHz. You can sign up for launch notification announcements by following the instructions at <http://whitestarballoon.org>.
There is reportedly a group of graduate students at Cornell University that also plans to try a transatlantic balloon flight. It will be fun to see who gets there first!