The Finnish Balloon Project ILMARI-2003

The former ILMARI-2003 Balloon Project flew as ILMARI-2007:

- Ilmari-2003/2007 is a non-profit Amateur Radio Project with most of the components and hardware coming from the junk box !

- Ilmari-2003 was renamed Ilmari-2007 for this maiden launch on 11.08.2007, just a few minutes before 0700 UTC

- the most interesting payload is the VHF/UHF linear transponder that is by design potentially spaceworthy for future satellite projects

- this Ilmari flight was by far the most complex payload to date

- Ilmari-2007 was launched (151 k) (photo: OH3FHM) from a small village called Vesijako in the municipality of Padasjoki in the locator KP21MI

- photo (104 k) (photo: OH3FHM) of the just released Ilmari-2007 with Totex TA-1200 balloon, homebrew parachute and 2650 gram payload

- also the turnstile antennas for VHF and UHF are visible, as is the 1.3 GHz Big Wheel

- the Packet Positioning transmitter antenna, GPS antenna, separation mechanism and 40 m wire end-fed for 3.5 MHz are not visible

- the main Telemetry, Command & Control station (135 k) (photo OH6MHZ) was built into a van

- a purposely built 120 cm tracking dish system (228 k) was put together for the 1.3 GHz FM ATV transmission monitoring by OH2LH

- here you may find a plot (520 k) ( http://aprs.he.fi/ ) of the flight route

- the search/recovery team included two radio amateur built experimental planes OH-XKR (172 k) and OH-XST (192 k) (photos: OH6MHZ) and here is the XKR flight route (577 k)

- OH2MQK has analysed the acquired altitude as 31.0 (+0.1/-0.3) km at 09:27 UTC (+- 1 minuutti) - we clearly busted the 30 km limit !

- there is also a lot of analysed flight data, mostly by OH2MQK, here

- there were tens of stations on the VHF/UHF transponder, including the traditional alligators

- some alligators were close to 30 dB _above_ the 70 cm beacon, when all traffic is supposed be 6 dB _below_ the beacon

- here are couple of nice QSO's, albeit plagued with alligators that occasionally flat-topped the transponder AGC/ALC:

- an RF spectrum sample GIF animation, 1.5 Mbyte) (data: OH2LKV, animation: OH2AUE) from the reference VHF/UHF station showing some of the worst overloading

- please note that the spectrum is inverted, i.e. the beacon (is supposed to be) at the left hand corner

- the HF beacon was heard all round Finland, as was also the 70 cm CW beacon and 70 cm Packet Telemetry Beacon

- apparently the ATV transmission was viewed by the launch team only :-(

- launch preparations were handled by:

OH3JR (Hydrogen Filling)
OH6HZ (Hydrogen Filling)
OH7JKL (Aviation Liaison)
OH3UW (Flight Hardware Preparations)
OH3FHM (Photography, Separation Mechanism Testing)
OH3JDZ (Flight Software)
OH2JCP (Flight Mission Abort Separation Mechanism)
OH2LKV (VHF/UHF Reference Station operations)
Mikko Saarisalo (Search Team)
Jukka Tiainen (Balloon Preparation)
OH2DV (the Godfather of all Finnish Ilmari balloons)
OH2JIU (Search Team)
OH6FT (Search Team)
OH2MNI (Position Packet Relay Station and I-Gate)
OH2MQK (I-Gate)
OH2LH (ATV Reference Station, HF commentary)
OH2AUE (Project Manager, Mission Command & Control)
OH2KKU (Position Data Support)

- Ilmari-2007 was located about 8 minutes after touch-down by OH2JIU and Mikko Saarisalo of the Search Team

- Recovery Team taking a well-deserved break(74 k) (photo: OH6MHZ)

- here is a photo (433 k) (photo: OH2JIU) of the dangling Ilmari-2007, photographed from the road, just 2 meters away

- and a closeup (189 k) (photo: OH6MHZ) of the actual payload as found

- the Telemetry, Command and Control Station was 100 % redundant:

HF Commentary Station (reserve for CW telemetry reception); 100 W HF radio + dipole
ATV Reference Station; 1.2 m dish, LNA, FMATV RX, Quad Display, monitor
ATV Reserve Sation; Double Quad, LNA, FMATV RX, monitor
VHF Command: Remote Control Unit, 2m Transmitter, 50 W amplifier, 4 element Yagi
UHF Command; 70 cm RHCP Helix, LNA, 4-port Active Splitter, 3 receivers (SDR-IQ, CW and Packet beacons)
VHF/UHF Reference Station; Multiband Transceiver, LNA, 4 element 2 m Yagi, 70 cm Quagi, Reserve Command Station
HF Reference Telemetry Station: HF Radio with DSP, 8 m Vertical Whip, Tuner
70 cm -> 2 m Radio Gateway, I-GATE 2
70 cm RX -> I-GATE 1, UPS powered
AM Airband receiver equipped with broadband V-polarised Discone (flight liaison, backup)
TETRA radio network (search team and mission control)
3 reserve generators, 2 petrol, 1 diesel

- what the local newspaper, Padasjoen Sanomat, had to say about all this (344 k)

- final Ilmari Bandplan for the 2007 flights (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 24 k)

- Ilmari Data Sheet (Word Document, 57 k)

- Ilmari Brochure (Word Document, 85 k)

- Ilmari Operation Manual (Word Document, 23 k)

- video footage of the launch preparations, launch, flight and search of Ilmari-2007 by OH6MHZ (intensive course in Finnish, about 255 Mb)

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Updated 13.06.2021