Attn Radio Amateurs!!! Others Too!!!!

[crashinj]

For those of your that are hams what would you think of launching a rocket with a 20m ham transmitter as a payload??

At apogee a quarter-wave wire (antenna) would unwind and hang below the payload. The transmitter would only run a couple hundred milliwatts and would have a small memory keyer acting as a beacon. A 9v battery would power it. This would put out a morse code signal.

I got the idea from a ham who was asking about doing this except he wanted to use 40m but far as I know he never took off with it. Now I've kinda got the urge to do it.

Rocket would have to be no bigger than a "D", cause thats all we can launch in city limits. I'm thinking possibly a 2 stage job to get it up a lil bit. Actually air time would probably be 2-3 minutes.

Hams, Non-hams what do you think?? Ideas and Comments Please!!

CrashinJ aka NR5A

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by crashinj
For those of your that are hams what would you think of launching a rocket with a 20m ham transmitter as a payload??

At apogee a quarter-wave wire (antenna) would unwind and hang below the payload. The transmitter would only run a couple hundred milliwatts and would have a small memory keyer acting as a beacon. A 9v battery would power it. This would put out a morse code signal.

I got the idea from a ham who was asking about doing this except he wanted to use 40m but far as I know he never took off with it. Now I've kinda got the urge to do it.

Rocket would have to be no bigger than a "D", cause thats all we can launch in city limits. I'm thinking possibly a 2 stage job to get it up a lil bit. Actually air time would probably be 2-3 minutes.

Hams, Non-hams what do you think?? Ideas and Comments Please!!

CrashinJ aka NR5A

You're running a risk of tangling the anetenna with the rest of the rocket ("hanging down"). Instead, have a long cord under thge chute to the rest of the rocket and run the antenna along it.

 

[crashinj]

That would be doable I think. I failed to mention a quarter-wave antenna is 16ft long. I'm mainly collecting ideas and thoughts at this point. Thanks!

CrashinJ

 

[LtSharpe]

These guys have a cw identifier beacon for 440. Keep in mind that with their unit it actually sends real cw, so you won't be able to pick it up on a 440 handheld, since none of them have CW capability. You would need a general coverage handheld receiver that would cover 440 and be able to receive cw. Why the outfit didn't use 'MCW' or modulated cw instead I have no clue, in other words then you could just listen to it on FM like you would any voice communication. As far as the antenna goes in your idea, simply glue it to the inside of the rocket tube or the outside. It doesn't need to hang free. It can be inside as long as your tube doesn't have metals in it.

https://www.adeptrocketry.com/radio.htm

Originally posted by crashinj
For those of your that are hams what would you think of launching a rocket with a 20m ham transmitter as a payload??

At apogee a quarter-wave wire (antenna) would unwind and hang below the payload. The transmitter would only run a couple hundred milliwatts and would have a small memory keyer acting as a beacon. A 9v battery would power it. This would put out a morse code signal.

I got the idea from a ham who was asking about doing this except he wanted to use 40m but far as I know he never took off with it. Now I've kinda got the urge to do it.

Rocket would have to be no bigger than a "D", cause thats all we can launch in city limits. I'm thinking possibly a 2 stage job to get it up a lil bit. Actually air time would probably be 2-3 minutes.

Hams, Non-hams what do you think?? Ideas and Comments Please!!

 

[LtSharpe]

Oh and it doesn't need to be that long either. Just use loading coils. String the antenna up from a tree branch, hook a transceiver up to it and adjust your swr, and tinker with it till it performs how you want it to. Then mount the antenna on the rocket.

 

[not a lib]

What transmittter would you use, a home brew? I know Ramsey kits has a very small one-cw!
A loaded ant would be the best, Hang it up as high as you can get it & adjust it for best vswr!