ARHAB experiences Field Day 2010 - by Kyle Marek-Spartz - KDØGTK

This years Field Day in Winona with the Winona Area Radio Club (WØNE)
was an interesting one.

The plan was this: Have a display table set up with electronics and
pictures to share, a small (3 ft. diameter) balloon on a tether with
real time weather data being relayed, and then later in the day have a
balloon launch that was supposed to land near Galesville, WI (30 miles
East from Winona).

What happened was this:

Due to taking the train to Winona, I was unable to take helium with
me, so I planned to fill up two balloons at Hyvee, a grocery store.
Due to a combination of lower grade helium than what I was basing my
balloon lift calculations and an inflator who was unfamiliar with how
large the balloons should be, the balloons may not have had enough
helium in them.

Through out the day, one of the balloons popped (About 3:30 pm) due to
winds pushing the tether low to the ground. Grass did it in. The
thought was no big deal since there was still a spare. However when it
came time for launch at 5pm, the balloon would not lift it off the
ground. I then went back to Hyvee and filled two more balloons. After
adding this additional lift, the balloons lifted just fine and we cut
the tether around 6 pm and sent the AnaSonde 3-M up.
(http://www.anasphere.com/multipurpose_radiosonde.php)

We were able to listen to its transmissions on the radio for a good
while from the launch site. My sister, cousin, and I packed up and
drove towards Galesville, WI. Along the way we stopped at various
points attempting to visually see the balloon or to hear it on the
radio. We did not hear or see anything significant, however, this
wasn't any worse than my past experiences with these packages.

That night I was at the Field Day site through a reasonable storm.
There was a gust of wind that knocked down a few antennas, and was
causing the rain to go sideways. I was outside for about 15 seconds
and my clothes were soaked head to toe.

I got a call the next morning about the balloon but I was at home
where I had no cell signal, so the call didn't show up in my missed
call. The voice mail message did not have a phone number to call back,
nor did my voice mail system tell me the number. I spent some time on
the phone with my cell phone provider trying to figure it out, but
they were unable to help. The message said that they were located in
"Herndon, the Mandata area" which did not mean much to me. I looked
online for both and found a Herndon in Virginia and Pennsylvania, as
well as a Mandata in the UK and one right near the Herndon in
Pennsylvania. So I began to think it was there, but these balloons and
packages typically only go ~30 miles (depending on wind conditions),
so it seemed unlikely.

Well, thankfully I got another call on Tuesday and was able to get
ahold of someone this time. It was for sure in Herndon, Pennsylvania.
It had arrived in the "recipient's" backyard approximately 11 am
Eastern time (10 am Central). When they had left for church it was not
there, and when they came back it was. The distance between the launch
site and Herndon as the crow flies is around 780 miles. This put the
flight time at 16 hours. From there I calculated an average speed of
48.75 mph.

My speculation was that with three balloons on the flight it would
rise fast until the most inflated balloon popped, and then it would
still rise until the second most inflated balloon popped. However, at
that point, the third balloon would not have enough lift to reach an
altitude where it would pop and then it would begin a slow descent. I
thought that the balloon which was filled in the morning would be at
the landing site. Well, a balloon filled later in the day was at the
landing site, but the rest of the theory still stands as an
explanation. We happened to be at the right altitude with these
balloons to have strong winds. At higher altitudes the horizontal
movement of our balloons taper off, as there is less wind. These
factors together caused the flight to be much longer than expected.

One thing to keep in mind is the AnaSondes are designed to be
"disposable." We don't get calls back on them often, so we were
extremely lucky to have it set somewhat of a distance record for our
team, and to have it recovered. Thanks to all who helped, from my
co-workers, my family who came to support us, WARC, SARA for hosting
the rest of the team, and most of all, Mike and Jill Reed of Herndon,
PA. We are working on getting the package shipped back.

Thanks to Dave, KB9EWG for filming my (rather unrehearsed)
explanations of the various things that we do on the ballooning team.
You can watch that video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4GwirAR3_E

Check out some pictures and commentary on my on again, off again blog:
http://zeckalpha.org/winona-field-day

For the Pennsylvanians: Here is Winona, MN on a map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Winona+MN

For the Minnesotans: Here is Herndon, PA on a map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Herndon+PA

Thanks to all, again. It really was a fun weekend!

73,

Kyle Marek-Spartz - KDØGTK