Tracking Amateur Balloons with a $30 HT

This was the topic of the August 31st Beginner's Academy Zoom. Note: AI was used in the production of this video. I did not have a balloon, but only the radiosonde. This is prep for tracking HAB flights or even amateur rockets.

Greg N4KGL demonstrates how to track amateur weather balloons using a $30 Quansheng UV-K6 handheld radio. With a repurposed Vaisala RS41 radiosonde provided by Bill Brown WB8ELK, the project uses ham-built IJV V4 firmware and a NA6D AIOC interface cable to pipe the radio's audio into a browser-based decoder called webhorus. After an initial firmware misfire with F4HWN, the IJV V4 firmware successfully decoded the RS41's Horus Binary telemetry and displayed the balloon's position on a map in real time — all for about $95 in hardware. The presentation also covers portable decoding with an Android tablet, CW Morse code experiments, advanced CW firmware mods by NR7Y, and channel management using the IJV memory editor and CHIRP. The takeaway: ham-written firmware transforms cheap radios into genuinely capable tools, and the same approach could work for tracking rockets at Samson launches. 

 

Ridgecrest STEM High Altitude Balloon Reaches the Edge of Space

The meeting featured a presentation by Greg Summerlin and his student team on their high-altitude balloon project, which aims to reach the edge of space. They detailed the STEM program's structure, the balloon's technical setup with GPS and LoRaWAN tracking, and the use of a custom-built antenna array for live image transmission. The team shared video footage and images from previous launches, discussed challenges like battery life and tracking at high altitudes, and explained their use of the Helium network for data relay. This was the topic of the August 3rd Beginner's Academy Zoom.

 

Alabama QSO Party Recap

These are highlights of N4KGL' s AQP experience, including syncing contacts with the WRL contest log.

MeshCore is Taking Off Around Bay County, Florida

MeshCore is an off-grid, secure, and encrypted mesh communication system powered by LoRa radio technology. Bob Albers AB4OB, Secretary of the Panama City ARC, will update us on the MeshCore infrastructure in Bay County and give a live demo. 

The first video introduces MeshCore. In the second video, local hams walk through the MeshCore ecosystem, repeater deployment, coverage mapping, and how encrypted ISM‑band mesh networking can support emergency communications. We explore OpenHop repeater software, MeshMapper live visualization, antenna planning, and real‑world coverage from Panama City Beach to Southport and beyond. This was the topic of the July 20th, 2026 Beginner's Academy Zoom. Thanks to Bob AB4OB for presenting.

N4KGL 2026 ARRL Field Day Results

N4KGL operated as a '2B' station (two transmitters on battery power) from an RV, featuring a hex beam antenna and two operators, N4KGL and NZ2I. Other Panama ARC members active on Field Day included K4LIX, N4UVR, and KQ4TUS.

 

POTA and TOTA from Northern California

 N4KGL reports on portable ops while on a family trip to the Chico, CA, area. This was the topic of our June 15th Beginner's Academy Zoom.

Short videos from Activations below

https://youtube.com/shorts/n_LlutOVuHA?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZbQdt-lXoto?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/OdQI35vFWiw?feature=share

ARRL Field Day for New Hams

The 2026 ARRL Field Day is coming up on June 27th and 28th. We are focusing on providing new hams with the information they need to participate.

This was the primary topic of the Beginner's Academy Zoom session held on June 1st, 2026. For more information, please see the links below:

ARRL Field Day Information: https://www.arrl.org/field-day