The weather forecast for Saturday is not looking good and the launch of FS5 will be postponed for better weather conditions. Stay tuned for an new date. The first wave of a cut-off low pressure system zeroing in on Southern California passed yesterday with a lot of needed rain. The predictions are that this system […]

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Flying Squirrels, FS5, HAB, High Altitude Balloon, Launch Announcement

FS #5 launch update 2020-3-10

March 10, 2020

The primary launch date of March 14th is looking good. There is a large and wet weather system passing through southern California for the next few days, but the predictions are for sunny weather on Saturday March 14th 9AM out in the Mojave desert launch locations. The only major concern at this point is what […]

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APRS, Flying Squirrels, FS5, HAB, High Altitude Balloon, Projects, Telemetry

Flying Squirrel #5 – Getting ready for a March 2020 launch.

February 22, 2020

Its been a busy season around the Squirrel Engineering labs. But silently in the background Flying Squirrel #5 (FS5) has been taking shape. Based on a whole new radio telemetry design, FS5 is using APRS to relay data back to the ground. This has some major advantages over the HF signals sent by prior flying […]

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Baby Squirrels, FS4, FT8, HAB, High Altitude Balloon, Telemetry schedule

FS4 Telemetry Schedule and Data Format

June 11, 2019

Flying Squirrel 4 transmits FT8 data on 28.075Mhz (Normal 10m FT8 Freq + 1kc) Flying Squirrel sends telemetry data on every even minute. The telemetry is broken into four 15 second FT8 transmissions, Type 1 through Type 4. The Type1 message starts at 0 seconds and send a station ID: KJ6FO FS4 HAB Type 2 […]

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Flying Squirrels, FS3, HAB, High Altitude Balloon

FS#3 has been recovered! He is one dirty squirrel!

January 11, 2019

Our brave, and lucky squirrel is badly in need of a bath, but otherwise is in good shape and happily resting at home. FS3 launched at 10:29Am Dec 7th, 2018 and was performing very well as it flew over the tall San Bernardino Mountains to the west of our launch point. One hour and 24 […]

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Flying Squirrels, FS3, FSQ, HAB, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon, Mission Goals, Telemetry, WSPR

Flying Squirrel #3 in a Nutshell

December 6, 2018

A Quick Users Guide to the Flying Squirrel #3 High Altitude Balloon Project. The mission of the Flying Squirrels is to promote STEM (Science Technology, Engineering & Math) skills in a fun project environment. All persons interested in Flying Squirrels are welcome to participate in the project. Our third balloon, Flying Squirrel #3 is ready […]

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FS3, HAB, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon

Flying Squirrel #3 Mission Update 2018-12-4

December 4, 2018

Weather conditions continue to look good for launch on Friday morning. The approaching storm is predicted to clear out Thursday afternoon and the flight prediction I ran this morning looks about the same as yesterday (Good). Mike KA9CQL and Eric N9RZR have flown 5 similar balloons this year, WarPig-I through WarPig-V, and they shared their […]

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Flying Squirrels, FS3, HAB

FS#3 Mission update 2018-12-3

December 3, 2018

Our intrepid Squirrel is resting up in anticipation of his flight on the morning of Dec 7th, 2018. He is ready to go! Here is this morning’s prediction generated by the CUSF Landing Predictor. I am keenly watching the weather forecasts for Friday the 7th. A storm front is predicted to pass through Southern California […]

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Arduino, Flying Squirrels, FS3, FSQ, HAB, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon, Mission Goals, Telemetry, WSPR

Announcing Flying Squirrel #3

October 24, 2018

The Flying Squirrel #3 Project – FS3 High Altitude Balloon The Flying Squirrels have been restless to take flight again, now that the weather in the Mojave Desert launch locations have returned to non-inferno level temperatures. Our next intrepid explorer, FS3, is working towards a November launch. Exact launch date is still TBD. The date […]

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Arduino, Flying Squirrels, FS2, HAB, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon, Telemetry

A Squirrel’s eye view – A Google Earth movie of the FS2 flight.

June 10, 2018

As a Flying Squirrel takes off, I wonder “where did it go?” and what does the view from up there look like. Absent a camera, the FS2 GPS Data and Google Earth can provide an approximation of what our brave/foolish squirrel saw from “up there”. The video is best viewed in full screen and with […]

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