The 40th National Balloon Fox Hunt on September 9, 2018
Almost every radio interested person has heard of the Balloon Fox Hunt. In its 39-year existence, many radioamateurs and other direction finders (fox hunters) have participated in this famous event. This year the balloon fox hunt takes place again for the 40th time. As is customary, the event is planned for September 9, 2018. 11:00 UTC
Reading the blog from Scottish radioamateur GM4FVM Jim I noticed he likes to work as many DXCC possible on 6m every year and missing Netherlands (a while ago). Contacts with the Netherlands seem to be difficult for him but not impossible. Now finally he made it to the Netherlands making the contact using side-scatter (never heard of that before...). Well I already made a comment on his blog that since he is living at the east coast and I'm at the north coast there is only water between us and even without propagation a QSO could be possible with the use of JT modes. To prove that I'm right I probed 6m with FT8 several days and times to see what I spotted or were I've been spotted even when the band seems to be dead. Surprisingly (or not really) I'm always spotted in Belgium, Germany, Denmark and last evening even in south part Norway. Using the 5 element beam at 14m heigth and 50W output. The last path proves that a contact with GM4FVM who is also using a 5 element beam should be possible even on FT8.
We are not the only ones searching for the most efficient and ideal (digital) way to communicate. The army is constantly busy to find and develope new ways and new technologies. I came across this video and especially this shot of using a 7 inch tablet in a kind of headless communication with the radio. This is not completely true since it still has a cable to the radiounit or computer at his back. This can be done wireless through WiFi or bluetooth although it would be not reliable enough in the warzone. The complete video is below find the shot at 01:11 and 01:47.
I've been thinking and looking at the most inspiring videos from Julian OH8STN who is way ahead on me with portable digital communications. I use his experience for my own development of a digital portable station. One of the most important things I discovered trying to participate in events like RaDAR is fast deployment. Therefore I think it is important to see radio and computer + power supply as one unit. You should not need to connect all the wires on location, it should be a push button operation fast and simple. My goal would be building a unit that fits in a backpack radio + computer + power supply (battery) that can be switched on by pushing a few buttons and then operate it wireless through a external smartphone, tablet and via a WiFi or Bluetooth network. Julian already made a hint towards hamradio equipment developers developing a radio with a integrated computer you can access with a external computer/tablet/smartphone through a wireless or wired network independent what OS you're using. That would be ideal but not existing yet. Although the technology is there already for years you just need to come up with the idea!
OH8STN setup with headless Raspberry Pi already works well
PE4BAS setup which is still a concept
A nice example can be viewed here: https://dl1gkk.com/portable-amateur-radio-station/
Although this is not really a lightweight setup and DL1GKK even carries a separate box with a 72Ah battery since the amplifier will get 18A+ when using it at 150W.
The 40th National Balloon Fox Hunt on September 9, 2018
