AI6YR BenDoes a helium balloon fly better in hot or cold weather? #picoballoon #hamradio
Okay, balloon deflated, but not without running into a few things... hopefully didn't cause any structural damage to the balloon that will cause later early failure. Have determined a possible way to arrange solar panels with the board, just by strategic cuts in foam. I will try building out some solar arrays after this, by first gluing the solar panels but providing access to where I need to solar wires. Hopefully gluing them down before soldering will eliminate the snapping of panel edges. #picoballoon #hamradio
New challenge: deflating the pre-stretched balloon. "using a vacuum cleaner" did not work per the instructions I see online.. I think the vacuum cleaner too powerful, and it collapses the tubing. So, just plugged it into the reverse port on the pump to see if that will work. 🤔 If not, off to find a metal tube or something I can shove in there and try the vacuum cleaner up close. #picoballoon #hamradio
Almost there. Yeah, you can raytrace and reconstruct my patio from this. #picoballoon #hamradio
Aha! These have sections that separate out... hence the need for pre stretching. #picoballoon #hamradio
Pre stretching the balloon. This balloon is sausage shaped... like the Hindenburg. It is unclear to me if this is expected or not. It's the recommended one from websites. I swear the ones in the videos are rounder. #balloon #picoballoon #hamradii
Jim "Ham on a Bike"@[email protected] @w3ipa #W3IPA Tim's #AmateurRadio #HamRadio #picoBalloon is like "Judas Priest", "Riding on the Wind" as it makes it way toward India
Hmm, hydrogen sounding better and better for the picoballoon.
Doug Bostrom (@[email protected])
The dirty "secret" of #helium production: it's a side-product of natural gas extraction-- all of it. Still expensive even with this weird form of subsidy. And we do need to stop extracting natural gas. https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/qatar-helium-shutdown-puts-chip-supply-chain-on-a-two-week-clock
With the abuse my amateur radio "picoballoon" hardware has taken -- without being launched -- amazed those balloons manage to go around the world at all, lol. Mine is so fragile.
Okay, stuck the mortally wounded solar panel in a bush and waited, and it's now sending (albeit to a compromised antenna) amd the green light is blinking. Progress. Need to fix the solar panel structure and figure how to make that work. Backup is to use the Traquitp circuit board design, but that will be another order. #picoballoon #hamradio