G4NSJ - Radiosonde weather balloon. Part one.
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- This is my first look into Radiosonde weather balloons. From high in the atmosphere, they transmit weather data back to ground stations. They transmit between 400 and 406MHz and can be tracked and located once they have landed.
Used to listen to weaather balloons in the 70s, when they were on 27 MHz between 10m and the naughty boys. All analogue then, they had an AM TX and an audio oscillator, with the different sensor being switched in by a motorised cam. The effect was of a constantly changing rhythmic syncopated musical phrase, which was very eerie to listen to late at night on an otherwise dead band, drifting in and out. I wish I had a recording of that - I've never found one - or failing that, one of the origianl sondes so I could have a go at recreating it. They used 1.5v filament valves, so quite a different beast altogether,
I remember tuning around 27MHz trying to find the weather balloons. So they used valves! Wow, that's amazing!
I have a sonde, the receiver and even two balloons! M0IDF
@@vacuumfireradio253 excellent! 👍
Wow. With the issues we just had with the balloon over the USA. So glad I found your channel. Till next time 73 SIR
Excellent! Great to hear from you. Cheers, Ray.
Thanks for the info Ray. Using the website I was able to locate balloons within reception range, pick them up on my modest (antenna in loft) RTL-SDR setup and decode the data!
After a bit of googling for decoders, I found a very neat app name 'Rs41 Tracker v1.17'. Piping the audio from SDR# using Virtual audio cable into the app resulted in instant decoding - amazing, as stuff like this doesn't usually work first time!
Thanks again!
That’s great, RS41 tracker… I’ll look into it.
I just watched the second episode of radio sonde.. Very interesting Ray. Thanks for sharing this.
Glad you enjoyed it.
So glad your back with the vids Ray... 73s for now
Thanks for the video. There's one
going over not far from me! I can pick up the bleeps on my curtain-rail antenna!!
Excellent! 👍
I remember hearing these in West Cornwall in the early days of legal CB. Always the same time of evening, always the same channel, can't remember which. Continued for several months after the 27-81 CB service started. There is a Met Office site near Camborne that launches them.
Yes, I’ve seen the balloons ascending from Cambourne on the tracking map. Thanks for the info.
I found one of these twenty years ago at the top of MacIntosh in the Sweetwater rocks, Wyoming. Back then I wasn't a radio amateur, or interested in radio, so I put it in the mailbox as requested and forgot about it.
I also remember seeing one coming down near Wright, Wyoming but I never recovered it as I was in a hurry to get to a job location.
Excellent! I really hope to get hold of one soon.
When I was a kid I bought a couple of surplus radio sonde units from disposals. It was fascinating at the time. I also had a bunch of NASA circuit boards from some kind of Navigation gear. Once I started bringing home ex military radio gear I never looked back - still have a ton of it 40 years later 😁
I wish I'd kept all the old gear I used to have.
@@g4nsj Don’t we all ? And the prices we used to pay for common junk radios - now valuable collectables 🤔
Hi Ray. I was only just thinking about looking into these the other day. Thanks for the starter information, I look forward to hearing more. 2e0vov
Hi Mark, I think it’s going to be fun as well as educational. 👍
Brilliant. Now you've given me yet something else to get distracted by when I should be doing stuff!!
Haha, love it! 👍😂🤣
That was most interesting, Ray.
Mike
Ruislip
UK
Member.
Thanks Mike.
I've got a radiosonde 'somewhere' in my stores - vacuum packed, brand new.
The plan was to disable the GPS/Tx and use the sensors as a weather station, but it's on the 'too difficult' list at the moment... and I suspect it will still be sat there in ten years time
Somewhere in your stores… I like that! 😂 It’s great to hear from you. Cheers, Ray.
SDR devices are brilliant.
I utilised an SDR to investigate an issue with a Temperature and Humidity sensor (it transmits on UHF) at work.
Excellent!
Hello Ray, just found your channel. I have been tracking weather balloons for quite a while but have only managed to find one. I have used Sondemonitor in the past but mostly it is RS41 tracker that I use.
It's not easy to find the balloons once they land. Keep at it and I'm sure you'll find many more. Cheers, Ray.
@@g4nsj The balloon I found was right in the middle of a ploughed field and I could see it easily but the field was a bit muddy and with every step, my shoes were getting heavier and heavier with mud sticking to them but I was able to retrieve the balloon and probably did the farmer a favour.
@@Martinpacker That's the trouble... Water-logged fields, the sonde hanging high in a tree... it's all good fun though!
Great website. I had a go (I'm in the Netherlands, way up north) and received a weatherballoon that's flying in the north of Germany. I can receive it on my Baofeng walkietalkie.
In Sweden, the smaller ones can be kept by the finder (Not the cube sonds used in the US i think, i think that type is used in Germany and Britain as well, but not in Sweden, Finland and Norway, we are currently using the small disposable type, according to the label they even clearly say that they does not want those type of single use sonds back, however, most of them ending up in the sea.)
However, i have search for one since i was a kid without ever finding a complete one...
Hi, it's nice to hear from you. I think most end up in the sea, which is a shame.
@@g4nsj I did some research and find that they last about 2 hours and they seem to travel about 80--150 Km (on rare occasions they can however travel very long distances, i guess it may happen if something are pushing down the balloon so it stays within the operation range of the balloon so it last longer) before the balloon bursts due to the altitude change, but the GPS tracker may last for several years if the transmitter lands on ground so in theory it may still be possible to find it by using GPS tracking and the unique number each transmitter is given (as You where talking about here) so i think the best method would be to scan the area with for example a portable computer in a car, in Sweden there are two (actually 4 when i checked it up, but the two more important where i live lies about 150 km away) There are two balloons sent each day from the primary stations here (from the ESRANGE base they may have special sonds that need to be returned, like research sonds or sample sonds for the OZONE project, etc i don't know if they are re used, but i suppose they want the samples back...)
All of the modern types used in Sweden are made by the finish company Vaisala.
However I managed to find a few of the old German army types (type I and type II) from the 1980s i legally bought brand new from surplus (i think they had previously been used by people like aviators from balloon association and those where probably to old to be attractive i guess), unfortunately i could not afford the ground transmitter system for them (and the surplus company did only had the balloons), but i happened to stumble upon the owner of the old balloon aviator company and he explained it to me and how the transmitter where used, etc. I really hope somebody did take over that company.
@@sheep1ewe Thanks for all the information, very interesting. The German army types are a great find. I've yet to find my first one but I follow balloons on the web site all the time.
@@g4nsj If You manage to find a Vaisala type it should run fine on a regular 9V flashlight battery (at least the types i am familiar with). The older types did use a very simple amplifier in order to send a graph of pressure and as i assume temperature since it seem to be thermo- sensitive resistor, probably and NTC resistor or something similar (unfortunately both those devices had had corroded away from the one i found on a remote island here long time ago). I think the new ones use the drift between position points and some kind of difference potential sensor (it does not seem to be ultrasound) instead of the older and more complicated mechanical analog wind speedometer for the velocity measurement, they does not seem to have the old type wind tunnels either, or perhaps only the army ones did need that higher sensitivity in order to make adjustments for accuracy on land and sea based equipment or artillery, i am not sure.
The German cubes (i don't have the name in my head at the moment...) seem to work by the same principles, but they have a more powerful transmitter and also some extended functions like a primitive wind tunnel for wind velocity measuring and a humidity sensor of the older "surfboard" type which came in a sealed jar.
Those types does also have an extended wind funnel extended with a relatively large square shaped cardboard tube for external mount on top of the built in one, i guess it is for picking up more accurate measurement on low wind speed. The temperature measuring head is also divided from the sun and wind funnel. The transmitter also seem to be partly shielded, probably to prevent internal interference with the 70-80 technology, my guess.
I think technically anyone can buy those Vaisala sonds and the national institute of meteorology (SMHI) does sell balloons on request, i think they are about 40$ or so for the medium type if one for example want to send a camera to the stratosphere , but thy have a limited lifespan and need to be stored in the fridge if one need to long time store them, but as long as the rubber are fresh they can reach a surprisingly high altitude.
This is such an interesting website, thank you for sharing.
Thanks!
Thanks Ray, I remember many years ago a radio amateur friend of mine found one of these on his farm de Mike G4VQH
Excellent! Thanks, Mike.
This might give me somethng to do now, so now i need a receiver to go chasing them.
Thanks Ray - I never knew that was there on the web!
Thanks
Hi Ray.
I df'd one that was launched from Herstmonceux in East Sussex and it ended up in Kent.
My friend Jacques F1APQ who is near Calais has found dozens of them because with a westerly wind they often land in or even across the English channel.
73.G7HFS/PA3IKH
Hi Ian, that's interesting. I'm tracking them every day and hope to find one soon. It's another great aspect to the radio hobby! Cheers, Ray.
@@g4nsj 73' from The Netherlands 🇳🇱
This is a bloody marvellous channel my friend. Can you tell us what frequency you normally DX from please, so I can listen in sometime?
Thanks, Andrew. I don't DX much these days. I usually hang around the 5MHz frequencies. Cheers, Ray.
Just wondered about air traffic?
Good point. One went over the runway at Gatwick Airport the other day. Presumably the control tower is aware of such things.
One method of advising ATC and aircrews of met balloons is via a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). The NOTAM will give info like date/time of release, the lat/long of release, the expected radius of impact and maximum height. The NOTAMS are essentially bulletins sent over aeronautical networks for various purposes which includes hazards to air traffic such as met balloons. Just search for "met balloon NOTAM" and you will find info.
@@Steve-GM0HUU thanks for the info.
@@Steve-GM0HUU Greetings from Cape Town. In SA they were launched from airports, so the tower was aware of them. Normally at around 12 noon each day. The civilian sondes here used 400-406 Mhz with approximately 200mW transmitters and the military used 1.6 Ghz cavity oscillator single transistor transmitter. This was back in the 1980-1990