S.O.A.R.E.S. APRS Balloon Launch

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Information and Planning

SOARES-2 Launching Soon!

I ordered some Lithium-Ion batteries some time ago on E-Bay and after I filed a complaint against the guy he shipped them. The packs took some work and I had to strip the "cells" from the packaging (all the saftey circuits was burned out :-( ) and all the individual cells tested Very Good, so this is what I have figured out :1st launch we had a 14.8vdc 2.9ah pack that gave us @6 hours Running Time.

The new packs are 10.8vdc @5.6ah per pack x2 wired to maintain voltage and double the current we'll have 10.8vdc and @11.2ah. Someone correct me if I am wrong but this should give us @20-24 hours with the same payload. But we (Ihope) will be adding to the payload for the next launch hopefully some video "ATV" and additional transmitters ie; Beacon,

73 Chad KB5VUG

Success!

.... The SOARES-1 Launch date was Thursday May 22nd 09:10am.

The launch location was from Oak Hall School in Ardmore OK. on Hwy 142 @ Mt Washington Rd. The whole School turned out!. We explained what it is and why we do this prior to the launch and then we launched the balloon at around 9:10am.
We recoverd the balloon remnants and payload at 11:13am 1.5 miles NE of Sherman Texas, an altitude of 64,896 feet was attained. On our first attempt! I would like to THANK all who showed up and all who helped in any way with the balloon project as it was an overwhelming success the kids and staff at OakHall School really loved this and would like to have us back again early in the next school year.
Thanks to all
Chad KB5VUG VP/SOARES

Overview of a Flight

The process of launching a Near Space Craft involves prepping the capsule and filling a balloon. After a preflight checklist is completed, the assembled vehicle is taken outside and released. Ascent rates are typically 800 - 900 feet per minute, with flights taking about 2 - 3 hours to reach apogee. The flight is termminated when the balloon bursts due to reduced atmospheric pressure. A parachute is predeployed at launch to prevent a deploymnet failure later in the flight. At altitude, the parachute cannot effectively slow down the capsule. Descent rates in excess of 6000 feet per minute are experienced. At approximately 50,000 feet, the air becomes dense enough to significantly slow the capsule in preparation for landing and recovery.

Hello to all

, I have been researching ham radio balloon launches for about the last year off and on. With the ability of APRS and GPS locally I have talked to JD and Neil and started the ball rolling . Goals to have fun and try something new for all of us, as well as "promote" Amateur Radio as a whole among other things (ie learning). I asked Neil KC5AMX a few days ago to see if he could find an outlet for "Weather Balloons" and he Did! Neil has made arrangements to have a case of them Donated to us "SOARES" by the National Weather Service in Norman. JD has a few old VHF handie talkies he's going to try and have modified for 144.390mhz APRS Frequency. Today I approached my general manager at Cable One and explained who we were and that we were going to give this a try and that we could do a demonstration of all aspects of this project ie: radios computers and the ability to track this balloon via APRS and Ham Radio for our local schools as a science project for the kids and then asked if He/Cable One, would Donate a GPS unit for this project. He agreed if we would do the first one for Oak Hall School here in Ardmore.

Below are a few links with lots of information if you would like to learn more.

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A Few Interesting References

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/balloons/balloon.htm#projects
http://users.crosspaths.net/~wallio/RECORDS.html
http://www.ksu.edu/humec/knsp/a2_therm.htm
http://www.geocities.com/n1ltv/ecl.htm
http://www.geocities.com/n1ltv/liftwin.htm

JD Jordan WG5B
wg5b
Chad Knapp KB5VUG
kb5vug