Thursday, August 12, 2021

My APRS Pico Balloon Flight, July 2021

I launched a pico balloon from Oklahoma on July 20th, 2021. It carried a Skytracker payload developed by Bill Brown, WB8ELK. I got APRS reports from it for ten days. The SSID was N4KGL-11. It cruised above 28,000 feet and gave us much entertainment. Boy, this pico balloon flight was fun!


The launch was over Keystone Lake at Keystone State Park, Oklahoma

The ten-day flight started in Oklahoma did a trip to Mexico and back, then to the Gulf of Mexico, and was last heard from in Colorado. 


This is the solar-powered Skytacker payload developed by Bill WB8ELK It only weighs 12 grams.


The balloon Bill supplied was similar to a party balloon. It was underinflated intentionally. I used a party tank of helium from Walmart. It had about three grams of free lift beyond the weight of the payload. 

A short launch video.

Here is a recorded talk for Beginner's Academy. I gave about the experience.