Gordon,
There are at least two groups that know of that launch High altitude balloons with amateur payloads. I just joined one: Arizona Near Space Research. http://www.ansr.org/
The other s in Colorado, not sure of the organization's name though.
The balloons typically reach 90-100K feet in altitude and carry a Crossband repeater and several other payloads, including APRS Digipeaters & SSTV. The footprint is about 300 Miles at burst altitude.
I made several contacts during ANSR-65 a few weeks back.
Hopefully time will allow me to participate in the next launch.
Clear Skies
Rick Tejera Saguaro Astronomy Club Phoenix, Arizona www.saguaroastro.org saguaroastro@cox.net K7TEJ, AMSAT 38452
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Gordon JC Pearce Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 4:41 To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Satellite Satire
On 30/11/11 01:46, Andy Kellner wrote:
Hmm, unlikely I would say:
A typical WX ballon goes up to about 30 km, maybe 50 km if you get a high
performance one.
You know, from 50km up you can see a fair chunk of the earth. While it might not be as cool as flying a satellite, a balloon-lofted repeater could be quite good fun. What next, though? Well, maybe a UAV-lofted repeater. I wonder how well a combination of a balloon for the heavy lifting with a UAV-based payload for station-keeping would work?
-- Gordon JC Pearce MM0YEQ
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