View of balloon remnants, parachute, and K5NSX RS41 tracker shortly after burst: View of balloon remnants, parachute, and K5NSX RS41 tracker shortly after burst

White River from north of Des Arc to just north of I-40 White River from north of Des Arc to just north of I-40

  Flight Details
Launch location Carlisle (AR) Baseball and Softball Complex
Launch time 2026-07-11 10:40 CDT
Balloon Kaymont 600g
Lift gas Helium
Altitude 32,217 meters (105,700 feet)
Ascent time 99 minutes
Descent time 39 minutes
Total time 138 minutes
Payload Details
Primary tracker RS41 (X0833857)
  K5NSX - Horus Binary v3 - 432.5 MHz
  K5NSX-11 - APRS - 445.975 MHz ~ every minute
Secondary tracker DFM17 (25022938)
  AE5AU - Horus Binary v3 - 432.6 MHz
Camera Raspberry Pi camera - WA0TEY-HAB
  Pi in the Sky LoRa Tracker - 915 MHz
  Originally built by Herbert (WA0TEY) as the backup payload for a Cabot STARS launch in September 2024
  Pi Zero, Pi camera, GPS, altimeter, HopeRF LoRa module

Paul (WA5GLS) coordinated lift gas and balloon inflation. Herbert (WA0TEY) operated the LoRa payload and ran a tracking station for LoRa and Horus Binary. Luke (AE5AU) configured the primary/secondary trackers and handled the planning.

We intended to meet at 9:00 AM CDT and launch within the hour. We had a slight delay when the original location wasn’t optimal. What appeared to be small trees on imagery were actually more mature. A lovely local couple were very helpful and offered a much better option once we explained our needs.

We transitioned to the new location where we were joined by:

  • The local couple and their grandson
  • Greg (friend of AE5AU) who took video and photos and assisted in wrangling AE5AU’s boys! (Huge thanks!)
  • Mikey (KG5FUE) who helped with inflation
  • Seth (KJ5PZP) who also helped with inflation

Other than the delay, launch went smoothly. Predictions were for a wide S curve with landing zone not far south of the launch site so we took our time packing up and some of us took a trip to get some lunch while still tracking/monitoring.

Here was the flight path: Flight Path

Herbert was the only one tracking the LoRa payload, but we had several others join in helping track the Horus Binary v3 payloads:

NG5P’s station in Sherwood and Herb’s station at the launch site both did a great job tracking the primary K5NSX tracker through nearly the entire flight. Longest distance goes to KE5GDB, KI5PGM, and N5COR in the DFW area. KG5FUE and KJ5PZP were able to get some practice tracking the payloads from portable stations. AE5AU-R was a full Chasemapper setup and was close by to capture the landing (and a little bit of driving afterward…whoops!)

Receiver SNR for K5NSX tracker: K5NSX SNR

Receiver SNR for AE5AU tracker: AE5AU SNR

Full telemetry links: K5NSX AE5AU WA0TEY-HAB

All images from the camera payload

Greg took some photos

and edited a video

We are starting to plan another launch for later in the summer. Watch the website and Discord for more details when it is announced.

73, Luke - AE5AU