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

Introducing Flying Squirrel #2

March 18, 2018

Introducing our next intrepid sky traveler. The burning question of the Flying Squirrel #1 mission is “Where did it go?” and ultimately, “Where/when did it land?” So far the final resting place of FS1 has not been reported by anyone on the ground. It could be lost in the mountains and deserts of South […]

No comments yet

Arduino, Flying Squirrels, High Altitude Balloon, Mission Goals

FS#1 – A word from the accounting department – The cost of FS#1

February 24, 2018

One of the goals of the Flying Squirrel mission was to keep the project “affordable” so that a STEM education program or individual can afford to conduct similar missions. The arbitrary chosen goal was to keep the cost per flight under $50.00 USD. The spreadsheet below shows what the FS#1 flight costs were. Spoiler alert, […]

No comments yet

Arduino, Flying Squirrels, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon, Telemetry, Uncategorized

FS7 – The Flying Squirrel #1 Flight controller software

January 13, 2018

The FS#1 flight controller is designed to measure basic weather information (Barometric Altitude, Air Pressure and Temperature) and relay that information periodically to the ground via radio telemetry using the FSQ protocol. Additionally, the flight controller conserves battery power by turning off the radio and weather sensor between transmissions. In a nutshell the […]

No comments yet

High Altitude Balloon, Launch Announcement, Mission Goals

Flying Squirrel #1 – Mission Goals

January 13, 2018

Intro Flying Squirrel #1 (FS1) is the first of a series of small high-altitude balloons (Pico HAB) to be launched based on a design of being very affordable ($50 or less) per launch using as much “off the shelf” parts as possible. FS1 does not have an onboard GPS so we will not directly detect […]

No comments yet

Arduino, Flying Squirrels, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon, Launch Announcement, Telemetry

Mission Launch Anouncement – Flying Squirrel #1

January 7, 2018

Meet our intrepid explorer Flying Squirrel One. This very brave explorer will be the first Squirrel Engineering project to be launched in to the upper atmosphere lofted by nothing more than a 36 inch Helium filled party balloon. During the flight, our explorer will dutifully report temperature, air pressure and altitude back to mission control […]

No comments yet

Flying Squirrels, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon, Telemetry

Flying Squirrels #6 – FS#1 Mission and goals, What’s the point?

December 12, 2017

The Mission Before I can describe the flight software I need to make clear what the specific mission goals of Flying Squirrel #1 (FS#1) are. The software design is based upon these goals and an understanding of the goals will make the software easier to understand. In a nutshell the goal of FS#1 is to […]

No comments yet

Flying Squirrels, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon, Telemetry

Flying Squirrels #4 – Gettin it out there – The Antenna

August 30, 2017

To get the telemetry signal on the air an antenna is needed. By necessity, the antenna must be light weight and simple. The size of an antenna is determined by the frequency we need the antenna to work at. The lower the frequency, the larger the antenna will be (There are exceptions to this rule […]

No comments yet

Arduino, Flying Squirrels, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon, Telemetry, WSPR

Flying Squirrels #3 – Can you hear me now? – Building a transmitter

August 30, 2017

Now that I have a list of protocols and a general plan to transmit telemetry on the 20 meter Ham bands, how do I get “on the air”? This post will describe the transmitter hardware for the telemetry system. Generating Radio Frequency – There is a board for that. After a lot of searching an […]

No comments yet

Flying Squirrels, Ham Radio, High Altitude Balloon

Flying Squirrels #1 – The High Altitude Balloon Project

July 11, 2017

As if squirrels are not distracting enough, flying squirrels are the ultimate squirrel chase! Right? Well at least I think so. If you agree, read on. This squirrel chase started with the May 2017 issue of QST Magazine in hand. Page 79 to be exact. There on the page was an article that became a […]

No comments yet