For the first flight, we built an APRS system consisting of the BARBE_1 transmitter, a TinyTrak3, our home built 2-meter dipole, two LiPo batteries, and a small GPS module from SparkFun. The following picture shows them all wired together..
and here is some captured data sent from the system:
I used ExpressPCB to build the boards, and built up three units. This is what they look like….
I decided to try my hand at building my own transmitter module. I did this mostly to save weight rather than lofting a heavy handheld radio. The Radiometrix 300mw HX1 radio seemed to be a solution that worked for many, so my brother and I bought three of them and proceeded to design the custom radio module.
I started with some simple design goals:
Circuit Diagram
Some hardware that we acquired for our first flight….
TinyTrak3+ from Byonics.com, GP-635T GPS module from SparkFun, 1000mah LiPO batteries from SparkFun
In this Blog, I chronicle my experiments with High Altitude Ballooning.
My name is Jerry (K3JLE), and earlier this year, my brother Steve (K3SWE) and I decided to replicate what many have done before. To fly high altitude balloons to the edge of space using ham radio equipment for tracking, telemetry, and recovery of the experimental equipment.