Ferret 1 High Altitude Balloon Tracker

A super bodged together very simple radio tracker for a high altitude balloon. An NTX2 from Radiometrix and an EM406a GPS unit together with an Arduino and basic shield made out of stripboard make up the tracker, which will broadcast its GPS-acquired position on 434MHz using RTTY.

For its first launch it got stuck to the side of a second payload and was successfully tracked and eventually recovered!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• highaltitude
• ukhas
• electronics
• arduino
• radio

[joecooper18]

where can i find a cheap reciever like you have? i am going to buy the NTX2 transmitter but i have no idea about how to setup the reciever. can you advise please.

[randomskk]

@joecooper18 we're using a fairly expensive receiver (an icom ic-7000) but one of the better lower-end receivers would be a Yaesu FT817 which is great for this kind of thing. If you're not planning on putting something on a balloon then a highly sensitive amateur radio isn't so important, but for very long distances over this kind of set up a sensitive radio is needed.

[gooeydruid]

Love the shop setup! Thanks for sharing, planning one of these tracking kits in the next 12 months.

A bit pricey to get into in the beginning but worth it.

[rodrigomisterm]

Hi.. I have some questions about this connection.. could you please give me some clues. could you give me your msn messenger or i could give you mine if you want... Thank you very much.

[joecooper18]

@randomskk Well i plan to launch in scotland where theres very poor mobile phone signals, so a GPS tracker on a phone wouldnt work so well, plus its very rocky, with few roads so id like to keep a strong signal on it at all times. theres high winds so it would likely drift far.

Are you the same group of the orian 1? i just see a video of it with this same equipment.