On August 31, 2019, a group of ham radio operators sent a weather balloon up from the Brewton Area YMCA. Our balloon adventure was a huge success. The payload package contain several instruments, including a repeater that was used to talk to each other through. We weren't able to use some of the instruments we wanted to due to FAA weight restrictions.
After reaching approximately 113,000 feet the payload package parachuted down on Grist Mill road in Excel. It was found by a local resident in Excel and he called one of the numbers attached to the payload package with a note that said, there was a $100 reward for the return of the package unopened if found. Unlike our first balloon experiment back in 1991, this time we were able to run computer simulations to try to determine where the package would come down.
With the first computer runs with the weight of the package and the amount of helium in the balloon we were getting results that showed it coming down somewhere along the Alabama river. Since this area is very limited when it comes to access, we didn't want it to come down near the river, so we added more helium so the balloon would burst at a lower attitude. When we put the new numbers in the computer it showed the package coming down near Excel, it was actually just a mile or so from where the computer estimated it would land.
According to the tracking information, after the balloon burst somewhere northeast of Flomaton, it drifted west to near Blacksher then when it was at a lower attitude with the winds out of the southwest it drifted to the northeast to near Excel. With our first balloon experiment back in 1991 we didn't have a computer program to estimate where it would land, but we didn't have any trouble finding it, in fact it was returned to us by the U.S. Navy. It fell on a local navy base and caused quite a bit of excitement. The package had a phone number on it and the navy called the number and ask, is it a bomb. We told them no, it has a camera and other electronic instruments in it.
Our next balloon experiment which we hope to have within a few months will be something different, a balloon race around the world, these balloons won't get nearly as high as the last one. We will be using special balloons that should stay in the jet stream and travel around the world in about two weeks.
We are looking to get some local schools involve in this experiment, there could be several science lessons with this project. Since we have ham radio operators from three states involved with us we are forming a club, The Southern Amateur Radio Union. We will be helping anyone interested in becoming a ham radio operator, we can provide lessons, and exams, several of us are already certified volunteer examiners. For anyone interested we have a Face Book page, The 2019 Edge of Space Experiment, you can leave a message there or send me a email at [email protected] or LeRoy at [email protected].
Ham radio has been a part of the Brewton, Flomaton and Century area for much longer than most people probably realize. I became licensed in the mid 1970's and the friends that got me interested in becoming a Amateur radio operator had already been licensed for several years. At the time for the size of this area we probably had more ham radio operators than many cities much larger.
We had a great 2 meter repeater in Brewton that provided communications for a large area of south Alabama and northwest Florida it also had phone capabilities so you could call someone on a phone. One of the main purposes of ham radio is to provide emergency communications when regular communications don't work. I use to take part in a exercise called Field Day, it is held the last full weekend of June each year. The purpose of this is to prepare for any situation that may knock out normal communications, like a hurricane. We held some of our field day exercises in Flomaton.
Since we just pasted the 40th anniversary of Hurricane Fredrick in September of 1979, I was one of several hams that went to Baldwin county after the hurricane passed. Besides setting up a camp that run off generators to power our radios and sending health and welfare traffic out of Baldwin county to friends and relatives in other parts of the country, we also set up a regular AM radio station to let the people in the area know where they could get necessary supplies like ice and water. One of my more memorable memories happen one night when I was talking to someone in Canada on the radio. Someone broke in on our conversation and wanted to know if I could run a phone patch into Pensacola for them, I had just setup my phone patch a few months before and only used it a couple of times. It turned out to be a radio operator on-board the USS Nimtz. Someone on the ship had a wife in Pensacola Naval Hospital, she was there to have a baby and he wanted to know if he was a father yet, turned out he had been for a few hours. Ham radio can be very helpful and very educational as well. The Alger Sullivan Historical Society meets the third Tuesday of the month at the Leach House Museum in Century at the corner of 4th street and Jefferson Avenue, come join us and consider becoming a member.
