Transatlantic Balloon Effort Falls Short

(Courtesy ClusterBalloon.com)

A ham from North Carolina trying to cross the Atlantic in a basket held aloft by 365 individual helium balloons took off from Caribou, Maine on September 12 and made it successfully across … the Gulf of St. Lawrence. "Landed safe, at an alternate location," Jonathan Trappe, KJ4GQV, posted on his Facebook page. That location, according to the ARRL Letter, turned out to be Newfoundland, only a few hundred miles from his liftoff point. Trappe's craft carried amateur radio beacons on 20 meters (RTTY) and 2 meters (APRS). No word yet as to when, or whether, he will try again.