LoraWan & Rtty @ 100,000 feet, or High Altitude Ballooning (talk)(Saturday)

High-altitude balloons are manned or unmanned balloons, usually filled with helium, that are released into the stratosphere, generally attaining between 18,000 to 37,000 metres (59,000 to 121,000 ft; 11 to 23 mi). In 2002, a balloon named BU60-1 attained 53.0 km (32.9 mi; 173,900 ft) (Wikipedia).

The advent of cheap open source electronics & suitable GPS chips has allowed hobbyists worldwide to build fly & (usually) recover these balloons since the mid 2000’s with modest budgets compared to professional weather balloons. Indeed, the Raspberry Pi foundation ran a few Skycademy events aimed at helping school teachers. There is a wealth of information available from the United Kingdom High Altitude Society (UKHAS), their website HabHUB.org and Dave Ackerman’s website.

Ofcom limit the power of any airborne transmitter to 10mW, which whilst tiny isn’t a practical problem since the line of sight is usually superb. The community stated using Rtty initially but latterly has begun to use LoraWan to transmit the telemetry and some of the pictures taken during a typical 2 to 3 hour flight. The Civil Aviation Authority will grant permission for such flight via their system, NOTAMs. It’s normal to be asked to contact air traffic control before launch tp make sure commercial aviation traffic isn’t hindered.

Tony Brookes is a member of the Derby Makers who is leading a project to launch such a balloon (or more if funding permits) over the summer. Derby Makers are now resident in the Radio Communications Museum of Great Britain in Derby following their tenure in the Derby Silk Mill museum which is now undergoing HLF funded refurbishment.

On 26 Mar 2018, at 21:13, Andrew Back <andrew@abopen.com> wrote:

Hi All,

So I'm clearly not very good with dates, as yesterday was 25th March and
today is a Monday... In any case, the deadline for proposals should have
passed, but extending this to the end of the week as we still have some
slots free for talks (I suspect we could possibly squeeze another
workshop or two in also if need be).

If you'd like to propose a talk and/or workshop you can either drop me a
line or fill in the form at:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pLyItcKRDYmegNXtAXRgpt21yOFXdWlBO_K6uu0LlBY/

Cheers,

Andrew

On 21/01/18 18:28, Andrew Back wrote:
Hi All,

This year we will be hosting OSHCamp in the historic town of Lincoln,
over the weekend of Sat 30th June & Sun 1st July. Details below.

A huge thanks to Sarah Markall for volunteering to be our local expert
on the ground and having arranged an excellent venue to host us.

Don't delay in getting those proposals in!

//

-- Open Source Hardware Camp 2018 --

This year Open Source Hardware Camp will take place over the weekend
of Saturday 30th June & Sunday 1st July, at the Blue Room, Lincoln, LN1 3BU.

We’re excited to be hosting OSHCamp for the first time ever in the
historic county town of Lincoln — home to, amongst others, noted engine
builders Ruston & Hornsby (now Siemens, via GEC and English Electric).
Lincoln is well served by rail, reachable from Leeds and London within
2-2.5 hours, and 4-5 hours from Edinburgh and Southampton.

Proposals for talks and workshops for OSHCamp 2018 are invited!

There is no theme and topics may include, for example:

* Open source hardware projects
* Open development practices and principles
* Novel/interesting/fun projects built using open source hardware
* Tools (hardware and software)
* Skills and techniques, e.g. PCB fab, DIY SMT assembly
* Relevant technologies, e.g. SPI/I2C bus programming
* ...something else relevant to the community

If you would like to give a talk on the Saturday and/or run a workshop
on the Sunday, please submit details via the form at:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pLyItcKRDYmegNXtAXRgpt21yOFXdWlBO_K6uu0LlBY/

Any questions can either be directed to the list or sent to
andrew@abopen.com.

**** Note that the deadline for submitting titles and abstracts is
Monday 25th March at 17:00. If you would like to discuss ideas etc.
please get in touch sooner, rather than later. ****

A social is planned for the Saturday evening and details of
accommodation nearby to the venue will be provided in due course.

//

--
Andrew Back
http://abopen.com

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