… but not always where you want it to.

I picked up my friend, Ken, Saturday morning and we headed to Perth to watch the LASA group launch two balloons: VE3REX-11 and VE3LCA-11.

VE3REX-11 was the first hydrogen-filled (yes, not helium-filled) balloon to be launched from outside Perth. This balloon carried just an APRS tracking device and was hoped to set a new altitude record. Ken and I decided to follow this balloon, so we took off shortly after launch and left the other people to track the other balloon.

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Updated with callsigns for the balloons and to show a static map of the tracks.

The Lanark Amateur Space (LASA) group is at it again. This weekend, they’re planning on launching two balloons from Perth around 9am on Saturday. The balloons will be carrying GPS receivers and small transmitters so their locations can be tracked using APRS. I’m going to be one of the teams chasing the balloons and hopefully recovering the payload after it returns to Earth.

This will be my second time doing this, the first being earlier this year, which you can read about here and here.

The forecast for the winds aloft is such that it’s likely that the payloads will land somewhere south of the border, though you never know. Last May’s balloons had similar predictions, but they landed on the Canadian side of the river just outside Cornwall.

If you’re interested, you can track my progress on this map Below is the map showing our progress. Because of the terrain, my track stops much further north than we actually travelled.

The two balloons are VE3REX-11 and VE3LCA-11.  REX-11 has just a tracking unit in it, while LCA-11 has a camera and temperature package in it in addition to a tracker.

A tip o’ the hat to Bob (VA3QV) who blogged about the upcoming launch, which I would have missed otherwise.

We’re approaching the last weekend of June and that means that the ARRL Field Day is nigh. Field Day is an amateur radio event which sees amateur radio operators setting up temporary stations in public places so that people can learn about amateur radio, and usually using generators and batteries rather than commercial electricity. Field Day starts at 1800Z (2:00pm Eastern) Saturday afternoon and runs through 1800Z on Sunday.

The Manotick Amateur Radio Group is going to be operating under its club callsign, VE3AIR, as a class 5A station, which means a 5 transmitter, club portable station. Being portable means that we’ll be using generators and batteries. We’re setting up at Long Island Marine (map and directions) in Kars starting later this afternoon.

Historically, the weather for this weekend has been highly variable. The National Capital Airshow used to be held this weekend and I remember weather ranging from face-of-the-sun-hot to cold, wet and miserable, sometimes all in the same weekend. Darin (VE3OIJ) and Bob (VA3QV) have both commented on the weather forecasts, which looked rather gloomy when they posted, but I think (hope) they’re wrong. I checked the forecast this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see this:

The TAF for CYOW shows a 30% probability of overnight thunderstorms:

TAF CYOW 261139Z 2612/2712 30012G22KT P6SM FEW080 BKN140 PROB30
2618/2623 3SM TSRA BR BKN020 OVC040CB
FM262300 33005KT P6SM BKN050 PROB30 2623/2703 3SM TSRA BR BKN020
OVC040CB
RMK NXT FCST BY 261500Z=

Hopefully they don’t manifest because antennas are uncomfortably like lightning rods.

If you’re looking for something to do Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, you can visit VE3AIR at Long Island Marine (map and directions) and see what Field Day and amateur radio are all about.

One more lesson learned from the recent balloon chasing is that finding a large pink foam cube in the middle of a field isn’t as easy as it sounds, even if you’re within a couple of dozen metres of it.  This might be mitigated by installing a noise maker in the payload package might make them easier to find. If they had something like a piezo electric beeper, or the siren from a smoke detector, in them that sounded for 5 seconds every minute it would give you something to home in on when the payload is on the ground/in a tree/floating downstream/whatever.

Weight being a concern when you’re launching things to the edge of space, such a noise maker would have to be very miserly in terms of its power requirements so that the existing power supply could be used rather than requiring a bigger – and thus heavier – one.

Last weekend, I headed out with Darin (VE3OIJ) to help chase a pair of weather balloons that were being launched from Perth by the Lanark Space Agency (LASA). One of the balloons, VE3LCA-11, had a payload with a GPS, camera, temperature sensor and an APRS beacon. It’s goal was to take pictures over the course of its flight for the Grades 5 and 6 students from St. John’s School it was being launched for.

The launch was well-attended by students, parents, visitors to the farmers’ market and many of the chase teams. After the obligatory group photo with the students and the balloon, they did a count down and released the balloon and its payload. It disappeared into the clouds about 4500’ AGL, so we watched its progress on the display they had set up for people to watch.

Meanwhile, the second balloon, VE3REX-11 (aka LASA 4), was prepped for launch. It’s goal was to set an altitude record for amateur weather balloons. It’s payload consisted solely of a small GPS and an APRS beacon, which weighed less than the first balloon. It was launched off in due order, so we headed off, stopping only to buy some homemade cookies from the farmers’ market.

We decided to chase VE3LCA-11 since its payload needed to be retrieved more than VE3REX-11’s.

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The Globe and Mail had a story this morning that caught my eye. To combat the use of cell phones by students in his school, Steve Gray, the principal of Port Hardy Secondary School, purchased a cell phone jamming device. The students figured out within a couple of days that something was interfering with their cell phones and quickly organized a demonstration. The principal eventually gave in and turned off the device.

At first pass, jamming cell phones in the school might seem like a not unreasonable solution to the problem. Students shouldn’t be using their cell phones in class, so if their phones are jammed it shouldn’t affect them.

The problem is that cell phone jamming devices are illegal in Canada under sections 4 and 9 of the Radiocommunication Act. Specifically, Section 4(2) states:

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, distribute, lease, offer for sale or sell any radio apparatus, interference-causing equipment or radio-sensitive equipment for which a technical acceptance certificate is required under this Act, otherwise than in accordance with such a certificate.

Section 9(1)(b) states:

9. (1) No person shall

(b) without lawful excuse, interfere with or obstruct any radiocommunication;

Anyone who violates either section 4 or 9(1)(a) or (b) or who “without lawful excuse, manufactures, imports, distributes, leases, offers for sale, sells, installs, modifies, operates or possesses any equipment or device, or any component thereof, under circumstances that give rise to a reasonable inference that the equipment, device or component has been used, or is or was intended to be used, for the purpose of contravening section 9” is …

guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable, in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both, or, in the case of a corporation, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars.

The principal claims that he didn’t think it was illegal to operate the jammer. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.  He now knows that it is illegal to operate or even possess a cell phone jammer, but he’s quoted in the article as stating “I’m going to hold onto it and hope the regulations follow reality.”

Industry Canada needs to immediately confiscate the device and fine the school board for breaking the law by both having operated the device and possessing it.

And the students need to respect the rules established by their school and turn their phones off when they’re in class.

I’ve had my amateur radio license since the mid-1990s, but I took a hiatus from the hobby for a couple of years for various reasons a few years ago.  When I got back on the air a couple of years ago, one of the first people I talked to was Don, VE3DRO.  An older chap, I actually met him in person one Friday morning at a gathering of local hams in a Tim Horton’s in Orleans just a few weeks after getting back into the hobby.

Since then, I’ve talked to him periodically, mostly on the VE3RIX repeater.  (I’m not on the air every day, so a fair bit of time can pass between conversations with other hams.)  He always seemed to be in a good mood and was a nice guy to talk to.  The hobby needs more people like him.

Last night I received an email that Don had become a silent key — he passed away a couple of nights ago.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the memorial service today, but I heard that it was standing room only.

Rest in peace, Don.  Your voice will be missed on the air.

73 de Gordon, VE3XGD