Slovenskí rádioamatéri z projektu STSPROJECT.NET, ktorí sa venujú experimentom s meteorologickými balónmi a ich vypúšťaním do stratosféry s rádioamatérskymi zariadeniami, pomohli k úspešnému zakončeniu anglického rádioamatérskeho balónového projektu Euro FLOATER AVA.
On 13/04/2013, Anthony M0UPU from Cambridgeshire released his balloon, which he filled with hydrogen so that it entered the float mode, when the balloon rises to a height of about 38 km and does not rise further, but does not burst either. At this height, it is then carried by air currents over long distances. After a certain time, the balloon bursts after material fatigue and the cargo lands on the ground.
After launch, the balloon headed for Europe, flew over Germany and headed for the Czech Republic. When he left UK airspace, he also started broadcasting on APRS. Unfortunately, his signal stopped at night.
But on Sunday morning, apparently due to the heating of the cargo from the rising sun, the TX started up again and the balloon appeared on the map again. After the balloon ascended again to a height of about 39 km, it burst and the cargo fell to the ground.
The cargo landed on top of Arabichl at an altitude of 1600 m in Austria. Given that the OM1ATS still received the signal from the load and decoded it from its own QTH (434 MHz, 10 mW power to the GP antenna).
Since it was a unique project of friends from UK, Radim OM2AMR, Juraj OM1AMJ, Peter and Braňo were already on their way to collect the cargo.
The rescue operation was successful, the cargo was successfully located.
You can find more about the entire event, including photo documentation of the start and follow-up, on Anthony's M0UPU pages: https://ava.upuaut.net/?p=522