Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning

[Phoenix Aerospace]

Yep. I\'m launching one of these babies tomorrow morning. Suspended from a 1200-gram weather-balloon (filled with hydrogen), she\'ll have a 1.5 pound payload consisting of an RPC Electronics RTRAK-HAB radio tracker, a GoPro running at 720p, and a Canon Powershot still camera. In addition, the payload will have homemade li-po battery packs to extend the life of the electronics well beyond the 3.5 hour long flight. If all goes well, the whole assembly will be taken to over 30 kilometers altitude; well above the majority of the atmosphere (or at least the lower parts of). There, the two cameras will capture pictures of the earth and of the black sky above. At altitude, the balloon will burst, and the payload will descend at aprox. 5 m/s via parachute. Hopefully, it will be recovered, and I\'ll post the pictures here. Wish me luck!

[Candre]

I can\'t wait to see the results. Will you be recording anything other than pictures?

[Phoenix Aerospace]

Sadly, no. Perhaps on a later flight.

[Millst0ne MK II]

Whooo...This\'ll be nice!

[LukeTim]

Wow, man. Sounds awesome! Good luck.

[Phoenix Aerospace]

Flawless victory! Sadly, I don\'t have an Imgur account, so some of the best pictures are attatched.

[Phoenix Aerospace]

First picture derped. :-[ Don\'t know why.

[Octo Shock]

Congrats!!! Those pictures are amazing!!!

[Ydoow]

What did you have to do to accomplish this? I\'d love to try this myself.

I know you posted a list of parts, but what about assembly, retrieval, launch and notifying airspace controllers?