In the spring of 2000 I got interested in high-altitude balloon flights with
amateur radio equipment. Since there were no groups doing this in my area
(southeastern New York state) I got together with a few friends and launched
some simple radio-balloon flights, a series I called
Into Thin Air. Out of five flights, one
was hunted and recovered by radio amateurs in the Connecticut River valley.
The ITA flights tested several technologies for more advanced missions,
including the use of 10 meter milliwatt CW transmitters, different types
of temperature sensors, barometric altimetry and thermal insulation.
The ITA flights put me in touch with a lot of other ham balloon
enthusiasts, also some around the Northeast, and some of us plan to
work together on some more ambitious flights. Our members
are scattered around the Northeast states, and we may never all get
together for launches, but we are finding ways to collaborate by
breaking large projects into smaller free-standing tasks.
This web site is a place where we can share ideas, progress,
and results among ourselves and with the public.
If you are interested in participating in HamBONE, just send me an email
by clicking the button at the bottom of the page. We would love to have
you in our group.
Follow these links for details of our flights and other projects:
Past flights:
HamBONE-LD1 - June 27, 2001 - first long duration effort
Future flights:
HamBONE-07A - late spring/summer 2007 - short test flight of TCCM module
Subsystems tested:
HamBONE VORtex - VOR tracking experiment
Press this button for an email link:
HamBONE-LD2 - August 26, 2001 - second long duration effort
HamBONE-LD3 - September 7, 2001 - third long duration try using LD2 payload
HamBONE-02A - May 25, 2002 - first tracking and recovery effort (not so successful)
HamBONE-04A - February 9, 2004 - first test of "micro-beacon" weighing only 46 grams
HamBONE-04B - February 21, 2004 - second "micro-beacon" test flight
HamBONE-04C - May 13, 2004 - educational "micro-beacon" flight
HamBONE APRS tracker - GPS-based tracking system