GOING BIG WITH BALLOONS
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: In Indiana, one ham helped some high school students keep
close tabs on their balloon project. We hear more from Amateur Radio
Newsline's Paul Braun, WD9GCO.
PAUL: It's always encouraging when the youth of today express an interest
in amateur radio. Recently, a group of twelve high school students in
Hobart, Indiana really dug in with a project suggested by their teacher,
Brent Vermeulen, assisted by local ham Mark Skowronski, K-9-M-Q. I spoke
with both gentlemen about the project:
BRENT: I'm a high school engineering and technology teacher at Hobart
High School in Hobart, Indiana, and I do a lot of pre-engineering and
technology. I do a lot of software work, but mainly my biggest focus is
problem solving, and I like to teach students how to be problem-solvers.
I ran across another teacher on the East Coast that had done this
high-altitude balloon project. The following year I just said, "You know
what? Let's just go for it. I think my students can do it, and what
better way to be a problem solver than to really go big!"
PAUL: I asked Vermeulen how he got Skowronski involved with his class:
BRENT: Sending this high-altitude balloon to one hundred thousand feet,
we wanted to record the whole trip, we wanted to get a lot of data, but
one of the biggest hurdles is "how do we track this thing?"
So we set out, and while I already knew a few answers, I really tried to
motivate my students to really do some research, and find out different
ways to track not only through GPS, which is the first thing people think
of, and one of the students ended up coming across amateur radio, and
ways that you can maybe put that online. I knew about that, and I was
excited when they came across it. So, then we set out to say we needed
to get in contact with someone with a license, and found out there was a
Lake County Amateur Radio Club. Mark responded back to me, and he came
and spoke to my class.
PAUL: Skowronski did some advance planning before his presentation:
MARK: I wanted to find out what they wanted to do as a class, what
their expectations were. Did they need stuff built? Were they ready to
go buy stuff that was off-the-shelf, when they wanted to do all this
stuff?
Once I did that, Brent asked me to come in, and talk about exactly what
amateur radio was - most of the kids didn't know that - and then
specifically how packet radio and APRS plays a role in the recovery of
this balloon, and I was able to do a kind of demonstration, since they'd
purchased some equipment for APRS, so we were able to show exactly how
it would work.
PAUL: I asked Skowronski what equipment had been installed in the
experiment's capsule:
MARK: The amateur radio portion of the project involved a 2-meter APRS
transmitter. We used a Bionics all-in-one transmitter, and it had a
built-in TNC and GPS unit, and it put out about one watt. We used the
DMR network here in Indiana with all the various repeaters on the
Indiana Statewide talkgroup to kind of coordinate everyone who was
helping with recovering the balloon.
PAUL: Hobart is approximately 50 miles Southeast of Chicago. I asked
Vermeulen how far the balloon ended up traveling:
BRENT: It went South-Southeast to Kokomo, Indiana, so, about 140 miles.
PAUL: The team also installed APRS tracking equipment in the chase vehicle
so people could follow THEM as they followed the balloon. The class
declared the project a success.
If you'd like to find out more about the project for your own group, or
would like to help with the next launch, please contact us via
newsline@arnewsline.org and we will pass it along to Mr. Vermeulen.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO.
**
COUNTDOWN FOR YHOTY NOMINATIONS
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Speaking of getting youngsters involved, the deadline approaches
for nominations for the Amateur Radio Newsline Bill Pasternak Memorial Young Ham
of the Year Award. Nominations are open to licensed
hams 18 or younger who reside in the United States, its possessions, or
any Canadian province. Find application forms on our website at
arnewsline.org under the "YHOTY" tab. The award will be presented on
August 19th at the Huntsville Hamfest in Alabama. Nominations close May
31 -- there's barely a month to go! While you're at it, be sure to catch
the May 2 webcast of the W5KUB Amateur Radio Roundtable. Host Tom Medlin
will be talking with Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, about
the Young Ham of the Year award. You may just be inspired to fill out
that nomination form right away.
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