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W5KUB-112 and W5KUB-113

W5KUB-112 was up 310 days. It is shown in Red. W5KUB-113 shown in green, is still flying.
Special Launch from Antarctica
W5KUB-114 & W5KUB-115
launched by Todd McKinney, KN4TPG
W5KUB-114
Launched Nov 16, 2022
Yokohama balloon 32 inch clear, 8 grams free lift, helium
W5KUB-114 Went down after about 65 days
Flight W5KUB-115
Launched Nov 23, 2022?
Yokohama balloon 32 inch clear, 8 grams free lift, helium
W5kub-115 went down March 3, 2023 total laps 8
Click here to see the location of W5KUB-115 on the APRS map
Click here to see WSPR data KD9UQB
See W5KUB-112. W5KUB-113,W5KUB-114,and W5KUB-115 on the same map
Sondehub track for W5KUB-114
Sondehub track for W5KUB-115
W5KUB-112
Launched June 11, 2022
Yokohama balloon 32 inch clear, 7 grams free lift, hydrogen
W5KUB-112 came alive again after 130 days of silence.
Time since launchClick here to see the location of W5KUB-112 on the APRS map
Flight W5KUB-113
launched Oct 6, 2022
Yokohama balloon 32 inch clear, 9 grams free lift, hydrogen
Click here to see the location of W5KUB-113 on the APRS map
See both W5KUB-112and W5KUB-113 Heavy on the same map
Sondehub track for W5KUB-112
Sondehub track for W5KUB-113
Yokohama balloon 32 inch clear
W5KUB-112
Click here to see the location of W5KUB-112 on the APRS map
Launch of W5KUB-112
This flight made 13 laps around the world
This is an attempt to send a balloon around the world. See pictures below of our home built tracker (under a microscope) and gassing of the balloon. Our best flight shown below was w5kub-18 which went around the world 3.5 times and stayed up for 72 days. W5KUB-110 almost completed 3 times around in about 35 days. W5KUB-111 almost made 2 laps around. This flight will be using a new experimental Yokohama balloon with hydrogen gas. Steady float altitude will be about 42,000 to 46,000 ft. Speeds will vary but in the right jet stream it can reach speeds of 150 mph. We are solar powered only, so that means tracking only when it is in sunlight. Each payload including 20 meter antenna weighs only 7.8 grams. The balloon’s positions will up date on the tracking maps every 10 minutes while the balloon is in sun light. We are solar powered so no tracking during night time. The little 10 mW transmitters will be on 14.0956 and the signal will be heard up to 15,500Km (9600 miles) away.
See Previous Flights Below
Yokohama balloon 32 inch clear
W5KUB-111
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This balloon will be launched at Hamvention 2022 on Friday May 20th about 1:00 PM Eastern
Join our facebook group of over 12000 hams for comments about our flight
Click here to see all hamvention balloons on the same map
Click here to track w5kub-111 with aprs
Click here to track w5kub-111 with habhub
Donate if you can
Donations make it possible to continue with projects like these
See Previous flights below
This balloon was launched with 3 other balloons during the pico balloon forum at Hamvention 2022. The other balloons are running aprs trackers but we are running a wspr tracker and forwarding that data over to aprs. Our wspr tracker will received and reported about anywhere in the world as it has a range of over 10,000 miles whereas the aprs transmitters have a range of only about 200 miles and are not seen by stations while they are over the ocean or other parts of the world where aprs is not available. The pico balloons are using helium as a lift gas and our w5kub-111 is using hydrogen gas for lift.
This is an attempt to send a balloon around the world. See pictures below of our home built tracker (under a microscope) and gassing of the balloon. Our best flight shown below was w5kub-18 which went around the world 3.5 times and stayed up for 72 days. W5KUB-110 almost completed 3 times around in about 35 days. This flight will be using a new experimental Yokohama balloon with hydrogen gas. Steady float altitude will be about 40,000-41,000 ft. Speeds will vary but in the right jet stream it can reach speeds of 150 mph. We are solar powered only, so that means tracking only when it is in sunlight. Each payload including 20 meter antenna weighs only 7.8 grams. The balloon’s positions will up date on the tracking maps every 10 minutes. The little 10 mW transmitters will be on 14.0956 and the signal will be heard up to 15,500Km (9600 miles) away.
Yokohama balloon
W5KUB-110
Pico Balloon Launch
Join our facebook group of over 12000 hams for comments about our flight
Click here to track w5kub-110 with aprs
Click here to track w5kub-110 with habhub
W5KUB-110 stayed up 34 days and traveled 60,000 miles. Almost completed 3 laps around the world. It crashed west of South Korea in the Sea of Japan
This flight is on lap 3 around the world
W5KUB-110 Qx7XXX on Habhub
Launch video of W5KUB-110
Donate if you can
Donations make it possible to continue with projects like these
This is an attempt to send a balloon around the world. See pictures below of our home built tracker (under a microscope) and gassing of the balloon. Our best flight shown below was w5kub-18 which went around the world 3.5 times and stayed up for 72 days. This flight will be using a new experimental Yokohama balloon with hydrogen gas. Steady float altitude will be about 40,000-41,000 ft. Speeds will vary but in the right jet stream it can reach speeds of 150 mph. We are solar powered only, so that means tracking only when it is in sunlight. Each payload including 20 meter antenna weighs only 7.8 grams. The balloon’s positions will up date on the tracking maps every 10 minutes. The little 10 mW transmitters will be on 14.0956 and the signal will be heard up to 15,500Km (9600 miles) away.
This flight uses 20 meter WSPR for tracking. Two different wspr transmissions occur, the first at the 2 minute mark, and the second at the 4 minute mark. Data is then pulled from the wspr data base and combined, then matched up with a spreadsheet using python, and then it is sent to APRS.FI. There you will see additional information such as altitude, speed, course, voltage, altitude, etc. This wspr data relayed to aprs gives us location accuracy to within about a 3 by 5 mile box.(this is a 6 digit grid square) Additionally at the 6 and 8 minute marks we do a JT9 transmission which gives us a 10 digit grid square which places the location in a box about 50 ft square. The JT9 can be received by placing wsjt-x in the JT9 mode, and setting the freq to 14.0956 and tune the decode to 1380 Hz on the band scope
See previous flights below
Pico Balloon Launch
W5KUB-108
W5KUB-108 stayed up 22 Days and 8 Hours and traveled 53,877 miles. Just a little short of 2 laps around the world.
Join our facebook group of over 12000 hams for comments about our flight
W5KUB-108 (ac5cm) 1x8xxx HABHUB
W5KUB-108 Launch Video

Donate if you can
donations make it possible to continue with projects like these
This is an attempt to send a balloon around the world. See pictures below of our home built tracker (under a microscope) and gassing of the balloon. Our best flight shown below was w5kub-18 which went around the world 3.5 times and stayed up for 72 days. This flight will be using a new experimental Yokohama balloon with hydrogen gas. Steady float altitude will be about 40,000-41,000 ft. Speeds will vary but in the right jet stream it can reach speeds of 150 mph. We are solar powered only, so that means tracking only when it is in sunlight. Each payload including 20 meter antenna weighs only 7.8 grams. The balloon’s positions will up date on the tracking maps every 10 minutes. The little 10 mW transmitters will be on 14.0956 and the signal will be heard up to 9000 Km away.We have reduced the free lift on this flight to 4.8 grams.
This flight uses 20 meter WSPR for tracking. Two different wspr transmissions occur, the first at the 2 minute mark, and the second at the 4 minute mark. Data is then pulled from the wspr data base and combined, then matched up with a spreadsheet using python, and then it is sent to APRS.FI. There you will see additional information such as altitude, speed, course, voltage, altitude, etc. This wspr data relayed to aprs gives us location accuracy to within about a 3 by 5 mile box.(this is a 6 digit grid square) Additionally at the 6 and 8 minute marks we do a JT9 transmission which gives us a 10 digit grid square which places the location in a box about 50 ft square. The JT9 can be received by placing wsjt-x in the JT9 mode, and setting the freq to 14.0956 and tune the decode to 1380 Hz on the band scope





Is it Legal?
Yes, we are flying with FAR-101 exemption
Description
210 Liter balloon, Homebuilt tracker which includes GPS/ Transmitter, CPU, six 38×19 mm solar cells, 34 ft 20 meter dipole. Total weight of payload is only 7.81 grams. Using 5.8 grams of Hydrogen for free lift.