http://ansr.org/
ANSR Yahoo Group - Ballooning
Arizona Near Space Research (ANSR), a scientific-educational, 501(c)(3), amateur radio balloon group, has established its place in the Arizona Amateur Radio and Science scene. We have conducted many (40+) high altitude balloon flights reaching up to 117,127 feet, many carrying student payload projects. More exciting flights are on the planning board, flights YOU can participate in.
The group is focused on "Promoting Science and Education through Amateur Radio and High Altitude Balloons." Hands-on participation by interested radio amateurs and non-amateurs alike is welcomed. Educational group and student participation is especially welcome.
A variety of skills and tasks are required to make the balloon group successful. These include ATV, packet and APRS, model building, electronics design and assembly, digital design and programming, fox hunting, radio DX'ing, weather and flight path predicting and many others. If you're ready to roll up your sleeves and have some real fun, join us!
We hold our regular monthly meetings on the third Monday of each month, at 7:30 PM (0230 UTC) on the ASU campus. Please observe ASU parking lot, garage and meter restrictions. Meeting is conducted in Room 104 of the Moeur Building. Use the Main (North) entrance on Orange Mall. We will monitor 146.56 simplex to let you in the building or if you need directions. For more info please follow this link:
ANSR Meeting Information
Technical data and photos of payloads, crews and students on previous flights are archived at KD7LMO.net - ANSR Archives
Also visit our "cousin" organization, Edge of Space Sciences (EOSS) in Colorodo.
I found out about the ANSR group shortly after becoming a ham. I was amazed that they can put a repeater on a balloon and talk on it up to 100,000+ feet. I've communicated over the onboard repeater for 4-5 of their flights.
This past weekend was my first opportunity to join the group for a launch and the following chase/recovery. Everyone gathered Friday night at the Clarion Inn in Tempe where the students from each college presented their payload and what tests and goals they had for it on the flight. The game plan for Saturday was also presented. Afterwards, James AC7ZT loaded his radios into my Jeep. See photo. I would be driving as he communicated and tracked the balloon.
Saturday morning we gathered at the hotel and headed off for Gila Bend at 6:30am. We gathered at the launch site and began inflating the balloon as soon as all the different payloads were attached. See pictures and videos as they can show you the process better than I can type it out.
The orange package with the Intel guy attached is the ANSR payload. The rest are the college's payloads. Inside the ANSR box is a small repeater that we use for communications. Also on board are APRS (Auto Position Reporting System) beacons that we use for tracking. They are basically a GPS that is hooked to a small transmitter to output the GPS location. We use our ham radios in the chase vehicles to receive the location and recover everything when it floats back to earth.
Saturday's balloon reached 89,000 feet before it burst and returned to earth. It landed on the north side of Florence inside the prison property. One of the ANSR guys who is a police officer actually went to the guard station and they drove him out to where the payloads landed. Luckily it only landed near the prision and not inside the prison.
It was a very fun, yet tiring day. I can't wait for the next one.
Here is a link to my photo album.
http://s687.photobucket.com/albums/vv231/k7azv/ANSR-48%20%204-4-09/
I also took 2 video clips.
The first one is towards the end of the fill.
The second one is of the launch.
