The Great Balloon Adventure

This page contains numerous photos with stories about three balloon flights carrying amateur radio transmitters and receivers to an altitude of over 80,000 feet, as well as information on our tracking stations and recovery efforts. I'm restoring the old slides and photographs which were all taken between 1970 and 1973 at or around Yorba Linda California. The photo's certainly have that retro 1970's look! Check back, this should turn out to be a most interesting page as it slowly grows.
Greg Carpenter.

Thanks to Pete Carss VE3XEM for pointing out that the Austin in the story is a 1100 and not a Mini. (I made the changes.)

The idea for these balloon flights came to me one day in 8th grade science class at Roosevelt Jr. High, Lakewood California. I began to draw out plans for a crystal controlled low power transmitter that could be used with a small balloon. The main problem back then was transistors. They were new, very expensive and they would not operate well above the audio frequency range. This meant I had to use miniature vacuum tubes and their associated 'A' and 'B' batteries which all together would weigh far too much to be practical. The project went on 'hold' for 10 years. Then in 1969 I happened to meet Jim Foss who was working as a DJ for FM station KJLH in Long Beach California. Jim also was a ham, WB6ASQ. He lived with his parents on a small farm in Yorba Linda. I mentioned my balloon idea to him and found him very interested and in addition he also had the perfect place to build the equipment and launch the balloon.
1970 was many years ago, a time when Yorba Linda was mostly open spaces dotted with small family farms. Todays Yorba Linda, covered with houses, has almost no open space to be found! It was here that Jim had a small "ham shack" built onto the garage behind the house and together we turned it into "Yorba Linda Control". This would be the control point for the next three balloon flights.

Now that we had a place to work, I told my other ham friends about it and we soon had a crew ready to go. I built a low power (70 milliwatt) solid state 6 meter (50MHZ) transmitter that included a "baroswitch", which is a type of altimeter, that would allow us to determine the altitude of the balloon using telemetry. My close friend Greg Brockmann, WB6QQS built both of our 6 meter, 2 element, quad tracking antennas. That is a photo of him with the quad antenna balanced against the inside of the door of his Ford Cortina. Paul Clopton of Fullerton now joined us to help track and we were at last ready for balloon flight number one in March 1970.

Flight One

On a warm spring morning in March Jim Foss, with a quad antenna tied to the top of his car, headed up to the top of a nearby hill in Corona. This was the tracking site we had set up a few weeks earlier. It was far enough away from the launch point that we could triangulate the location of the balloon using the Quad antennas. We tested the 75 meter communications frequency and now everything was ready for launch. The winds were calm and it was a wonderful spring morning in March of 1970.

Around 11:00 o'clock I released the package and flight #1 was underway. Jim was unable to hear the balloons signal until it reached about 1100 feet and from that point on we all copied a strong signal. Notice the 6 meter dipole antenna with red flags on the package.

A few hours later, the balloon reached its maximum altitude of 75,500 feet and began its descent. At this time we determined that it was over Chino and descending rapidly.

The Yorba Linda crew, decided to meet Jim at Box Springs Mountain to try and hear the signal once more but we never heard it again after the balloon landed.

Here on top of Box Springs Mountain near Riverside, California, you see Jim Foss holding the 6 meter quad antenna while Greg Brockmann tunes the receiver and Paul Clopton keeps a sharp ear.

We kept trying to receive the signal until darkness brought a halt to operations.

Tired and hungry we all went to dinner that night and talked about the only thing left to do, and that was to build flight #2.

For a short MP3 audio production made just after this balloon flight in 1970 and narrated by Jim Foss, click here Recording Studio
This is a new working link.

Building Flight Two

A few months later construction began on Balloon Flight Two. Several improvements had been made to the balloon package and also to our ground equipment. This time the balloon would transmit on 2 meters, 144 MHZ. and we would have a receiver on board to operate a release mechanism designed to drop the package if we began to lose the signal or the balloon drifted too far away.

Above is a picture of the instrument package being developed. From left to right are the Baroswitch, receiver I.F. and finally the transmitter module. The small speaker in the upper left hand corner was for testing and alignment. It did not fly in the balloon. On this flight we were joined by Bill Hersey WB6OZU whom I had met at Cerritos College. Bill brought his high gain 2 meter beam and helped Paul Clopton and Greg Brockmann build one for Yorba Linda Control which we used for both this flight and the final one.

Paul designed and built four smaller Yagi beam antennas for the mobile tracking crew. It was around this time that Paul passed the exam for his ham license. I cannot recall his call sign. Meanwhile Jim Foss had installed the high gain beam at 'Y.L.C.' and developed a neat read-out of the direction the beam was pointing. He had taken a large plywood circle and labled it in degrees around its outside diameter. He then mounted it on the pipe suporting the beam so that the plywood was visible edge on through the window in his shack. This also served as the "armstrong" rotor for the beam. You would simply reach over and turn the wheel in the window to point the beam. In the picture above, Paul and myself (in white 'T' shirt) are doing some modifications to the package. (I havent "re-touched" this print and the emulsion peeling off is visible.)

It was not always work work work. When you find some old coax you can play 'jump coax' which is fun as you can see in the photo, Paul is having a pretty good jump with Bill turning the coax. Note the 75 meter center loaded whip on Jim's car. After a hard day of balloon R&D we would head for the local pizza parlor and, over beer and pizza, talk about ham radio which would upset the ladies who were already bored. From left to right in the photo are myself, Paul, Cathy, Cindy later to become Mrs. Hersey, and Bill Hersey.

A little more than a year pased and the weekend to launch flight two arrived. There was still much ground work to be done. The high gain 10 element beam main tracking antenna had to be calibrated and the mobile tracking equipment needed to be installed in Pauls small Austin 1100. A power generator would need to be rented for Bill Hersey to use at the remote tracking site and by now everyone in the neighborhood had heard about us and they were there to watch, so we had spectators to handle as well.

As you can see, the little Austin 1100 was loaded down with radios and antennas. The power requirements of that vintage era radio equipment took a major toll on the Austin's electrical system. The weekend prior to launch date we did a practice recovery using the balloon package as an hidden transmitter.

I drove Bill Hersey's Ford Cortina and hid somewhere near Norco. When I was ready I turned on the balloon transmitter, contacted Jim & Paul on the two meter radio, and they began the process of locating me. We hoped that this exercise would perfect our recovery technique! Here is Paul driving up to find me. Notice the 1/4 wave 6 meter whip on his rear bumper, the 2 meter beam on his passenger door and the small white balloon package on the "hidden" car.

Everything seemed ready except for some electrical problems with the poor little Austin.

The day to launch had arrived. Bill was already at the remote tracking site setting up the equipment. The instrument package was tested on the bench. Below, Jim and Paul are inspecting the balloon package on the trunk of my Ford Cortina before heading to the launch area. (Sounds like a Ford Cortina commercial at this point!)

The remote tracking station was in place and operating and we were ready for the launch.

It was still morning on that July day in 1971. The winds were calm and the sky was clear. Mr. Foss, Jim's dad and Greg WB6QQS began to inflate the balloon with helium. So far it was still a perfect day for a launch. Jim and I attached the parachute assembly to the balloon and then to the instrument package. We were still having trouble with the release mechanism. While Mr. Foss held the balloon with some help from the neighborhood kids, Jim and I made some last minute adjustments. The 6 meter receiver seemed to be off frequency and since everything in the instrument package was operating on internal battery power we did not want to waste a lot of time fixing it.

Bill, WB6OZU was calling us on the 6 meter com link from his remote mountain tracking site asking what was taking so long and why aren't we launching? Paul would keep telling him that I was making a few adjustments and it (the balloon) would be in the air soon. At last Bill replied "I'll bet its that dumb release mechanism again!" Paul said "Roger".

It was now just after 1pm. The wind was starting to blow and we knew we did not have much time left to get it launched, but I choose to replace the batteries in the package. This took a few minutes to complete and it seemed to cure all the problems. We proceeded to launch. Note the TV cameraman in the upper left hand corner on the garage roof. We were recording this launch on my brand new Sony black & white 1/2 inch reel to reel video tape recorder. Sort of "state of the art" for the time.

This photo was taken a few seconds before the one above. Note how the balloon is moving. The wind was begining to blow and we had to launch! Our viewers were seated and watching. Jim did the countdown from inside Y.L.C. and then he pushed a button on the telemetry consol which sent balloon flight number 2 on its way skyward.

Flight Two

Bill, WB6OZU began to hear the balloon's signal shortly after launch.

For the next two hours everything went well. The signal was strong and the telemetery was clear. Now the recovery crew (Jim and Paul) began testing their mobile tracking gear to be ready for the balloon's descent.

Somewhere around 60,000 feet trouble began. The balloon transmitter began losing power and the telemetry became distorted. The transmitter strip was provided to me by another ham friend Steve Grimm WB6NOJ who salvaged it from a briefcase telephone and gave it to me to re-tune to our two meter frequency. I think the low temperature at that altitude was affecting the batteries output. The batteries had been replaced before the flight and perhaps were not as well insulated as they should have been.
At this time we determined the balloon was east of the city of Hemet, California but the signal was fading. Now trouble really began.

Bill started having problems with the gasoline powered generator, it seemed to be overheating and in fact a few minutes later it blew a hole in the head. Bill was now on battery power. Paul, driving to Hemet to try and stay under the balloon even though the signal was getting pretty weak, comes on the six meter radio to say he is having transmission problems with the Austin 1100. A few mimutes later he calls to say that he is stuck on a side road somewhere near Hemet and the car won't move, we now need a tow truck. I try sending the signal to the balloon to operate the release mechanism but I'm unable to tell for sure if it worked since we could no longer hear the balloon transmitter.

Jim now was heading for Paul's position and I decided to join him there as well to see what we could do. Bill began the take down of his remote tracking site. After renting a towing trailer for Paul's Austin we towed it back to Yorba Linda. At about the same time Bill and Cindy arrived with the broken generator which we took back to the equipment rental yard almost at closing time and the guy said "Oh don't worry about it, this sort of thing happens all the time. Its insured"! I remember how tired and hungry we were that night. However, there was now only one thing to do...build Flight Three!

Building Flight Three

In the Spring of 1972 we began the design and building of Balloon Flight Three. Below Bill WB6OZU on the right and myself discuss the improvements we have made for this flight.

This time we had a new higher power transmitter, new transmitting antenna for the balloon, and a new improved 6 meter receiver, a much bigger power supply and a larger box with extra insulation (it's really a styrofoam ice chest) completes the improvements on the balloon instument package for flight three.

Jim WB6ASQ bought some new low loss RG-8 coax for all the tracking antennas. There he is in the picture on the right un-rolling! Paul Clopton, the mechanical wizard, designed and built a great rotating antenna array for tracking. Paul proved again and again to be very "bright" and helpful. See below.

This was really a neat array. It made a complete turn once every four seconds. The white box at the bottom of the array contained the low noise "nuvistor" tube pre-amp. This antenna was hot. It showed a lot of gain with good front to back ratio. During testing we could hear just the exciter from the balloon transmitter almost a mile away with only a 5 inch clip lead for a transmit antenna. Again remember this was the 1970's and we were using vacuum tube (noisy by todays standards) receive equipment.

However, we had one major problem that we could not solve completly although we tried many ways to solve it. As the antenna rotates the transmission line from the antenna to the receiver also rotates. This requires a type of "slip joint" coax connection at the base of the array and that was our problem. A meeting was held and it was determined that we would have to return to the high gain beam. So Paul and I began to put the old antenna back into service.

Since we were getting close to launch date we worked into the night.

FLIGHT THREE

The weekend for the launch of balloon flight three has arrived.

Bill Hersey and Cindy have begun to setup their tracking station on Box Springs Moutain and down at Yorba Linda Control things are really busy as well.

As the morning progresses, people begin to arrive to help and to watch this now long awaited launch. It seems we have become known among the locals now. On this flight we have a much bigger and more interesting payload which everyone is curious about.

Among the list of new equipment is our nice and bright homemade parachute. Jim's wife Karren and some of the ladys worked together on it. We all thought it was really cool. On other flights we had used commercial paper parachutes made for the U.S. weather department but this one was made of nylon.

It is now afternoon and we are once again running late as Paul and some of our new helpers begin to inflate the balloon.

Close up of the helium tank valve filling the balloon. This job requires several people and some co-ordination between them so no one lets go at the wrong time!

Since we were carrying a much bigger payload on this flight we had to use a bigger balloon. Here is the "tricky" part where you must hang on to the balloon while closing off the stem.

This is the complete package being delivered to the balloon "filling station" to be attached to the inflated balloon.

It seems that everybody has a balloon today. This is Jim's daughter having a great time watching grownups playing with balloons.

Here is the instrument package as it looked just seconds before launch. Note the messages attached and Jim's QSL card with telephone number and address.

The time has finally arrived when everybody is at last ready. We are now at least a few hours behind and a thunderstorm is brewing east of us. Flight 3 is now, at last, in the air.

As the balloon climbs above the buildings we hear from Bill, WB6QZU at the Box Springs Mountain tracking site, that he copys the balloon signal!

Here is one of the last views of flight 3. It's climbing rapidly and heading into the stormy southwestern sky.

Now for the rest of the story..............

Flight three was launched in the afternoon in front of a strong thunderstorm. The upper air currents began to carry the balloon in a southwest direction. Both tracking stations, Y.L.C. and Bill Hersey near Riverside, had a good strong signal from this balloon package thoughout the flight and we were able to plot its course on a large wall map at Yorba Linda Control. As time went by it became clear that the balloon was heading across Orange County towards the pacific coast driven by the winds of that summer thunderstorm. Somewhere near 70,000 feet we plotted it to be directly over the Western White House in San Clemente at the time occupied by president Nixon. The thought of fighter jets shooting down our balloon crossed out minds but nothing happened. At 85,000 feet the balloon began its decent over the vast ocean. We had always planned to recover the balloon package on land never expecting it to drift out to sea as the prevailing winds are from the west. However the summertime upper air sometimes goes out to sea!
It was now very late in the afternoon and the balloon package was decending slowly into the ocean now about 30 miles due west of Carlsbad, according to our map. We finally lost the signal but also all hope of ever seeing that package again. After closing down both of the tracking stations we went out to a late dinner and discused the days events. We were not sure if we wanted to plan another flight as Paul was going to be moving to San Diego to attend college. Then something very unexpected happened!
Two or three days later Jim received a telephone call from a man in Carlsbad. This nice man had been out deep sea fishing on his boat and, to his great surprise, noticed a brightly colored cloth (the parachute) floating near a large white styrofoam box about 30 miles out to sea. He took his boat over to inspect and noticed Jim's water soaked QSL card still attatched to the box so he "fished out" our balloon package from the Pacific Ocean and brought it back to port in Carlsbad. The next day we all drove down to see him and now at last we had recovered one of the balloon packages although with much help from a very nice but surprised fisherman.

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