Signals from space – Annapolis Royal students learn amateur radio for June launch

©Lawrence Powell

ANNAPOLIS ROYAL – Al Penney can bounce radio signals off the moon, but right now he’s working with high school students who want to send live video back to Earth from the edge of space.

Annapolis West Education Centre student Abigail Bonnington holds a video camera hardly bigger than a sugar cube. It’s attached to a small transmitter that will send signal to a laptop.

It stopped working and now Penney and Bonnington are troubleshooting. It has to be operational or replaced by sometime in June when the Annapolis Royal Space Agency launches its second ‘package’ deep into the stratosphere – 30 or 40 kilometres up.

Penney is with the Annapolis Valley Amateur Radio Club and has been working with the students since the fall.

Read the full story in the Annapolis County Spectator

 
 

Annapolis Royal Space Agency

AVARC has received a request from the Annapolis Royal Space Agency for assistance with their next high altitude balloon project. Doug and I met with them today to discuss the part that Amateur Radio might play. We were really impressed with their enthusiasm, and look forward to working with them! Assistance right now will consist mainly of technical advice, but we’ll need club members to help with tracking and chasing the balloon when launch day arrives.