Tethered Test Flight
March 20, 1999
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At 10am, 5 members gathered to launch a tethered balloon with a payload to test the lift, parachute, and communication equipment. KC7TIH is taping the bottom of the payload which consisted of a Radio Shack HT-202 and a simplex repeater.
While KC7TIH and KC7NAX were setting up the payload, KC7EGT, KC7OWG, N7UBO were filling the balloon with Helium(And nobody talked funny afterwards)
KB7ZBN, in the foreground, was contacting Hams in the valley to test the simplex repeater. N7TBR in Boise ID, and N7IZT from Wilder ID both were able to get into the repeater and heard themselves (we had the system setup to record the transmission and then re-transmit back to the sender on 146.600Mhz). At this point we found that the volume was distorting the playback, so we adjusted the volume. After the adjustment, N7TBR and N7IZT both indicated that the sound was much better

Looking out to the valley and Boise ID. A hazy day in the valley for the first day of Spring.
Here they are tieing off the balloon.
Do you remember your Boy Scout knots?
Do you know any truckers knots?


We did get it off the ground, but thats as far as we got. we mis-calclulated the amount of Helium that was needed. So after removing the electronics, we were able to get it a little higher. We finally removed the payload package and used a "Bungee" tie down to add just enough weight to test the parachute which was also to small for the payload package. After releasing the chute, we let the balloon all the way out.

As most of us in the group are "newbes" to ballooning, we have a lot to learn. We need to calculate the amount of Helium needed for the payload weight, and the parachute size so the payload will be recoverable.

Stay tuned for the next test launch.

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