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Balloons to help restore Puerto Rico's cell networks

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15plus1

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Not sure where this belongs, so I'll try it here..

Google's parent company is set to launch balloons into the Caribbean skies in an attempt to restore telephone networks in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.

Alphabet Inc., which controls Google, obtained authorization from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy the devices—developed from 2013 as part of a project known as "Loon."


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-balloons-puerto-rico-cell-networks.html
 

TampaTyron

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Any idea what 900mhz LMR band they were referring to? I am to lazy to look up the experimental/STA ...TT
 

Mark

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Logged one mode s coming thru here over Pennsylvania late last week 10/05 launched out of
Nevada as HBAL017 mode s (BA143D)
Now stationed off PR at FL 51k.
Go to flightradar24.com and type in HBALin search box to see where they are now.
 

15plus1

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Logged one mode s coming thru here over Pennsylvania late last week 10/05 launched out of
Nevada as HBAL017 mode s (BA143D)
Now stationed off PR at FL 51k.
Go to flightradar24.com and type in HBALin search box to see where they are now.

That's cool !!
 

mmckenna

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Any idea what 900mhz LMR band they were referring to? I am to lazy to look up the experimental/STA ...TT

896-901.3
937-942
Running LTE. 5M00W7W

You can look at their request here, it's got some info:
https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=199448&x=

Basically they will do an "over the air update" to the devices to activate LTE Band 8, which is not normally used in the USA. At the end of this, they'll send out another OTA update to shut off band 8 in the cellular phones.


STA:
https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/repo...ial&application_seq=80734&RequestTimeout=1000
 
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About 10 years ago I went to an RF anechoic test chamber in San Diego to see a demo of a cell site replacement system that used a 20' aerostat to hold the RF equipment, it was feed by power and fiber optic cables from the ground station. The plan was to use a sat dish to bring in the phone lines, they didn't have that in the chamber.
We used a similar size aerostat at ABC on golf shows as our antenna platform, it took about 20 bottles of helium to get it inflated.
 

N4GIX

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I'm struggling to grasp just how they can maintain station at FL510 (51,000'). For that matter, given that most cell sites are <200' why it's necessary for these balloons to be that high to begin with.

However, I'm really happy to hear that someone is doing something to help restore communications in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands!
 

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I'm guessing that high altitude is needed to keep balloons out of normal aircraft altitudes.
Don't want any airliners tangling with it as most stay below 45k feet.
Also air currents are less active up that high..
Broadcasting mode s signals as they do also alerts aircraft it is in the area.
 

krokus

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I'm guessing that high altitude is needed to keep balloons out of normal aircraft altitudes.
Don't want any airliners tangling with it as most stay below 45k feet.
Also air currents are less active up that high..
Broadcasting mode s signals as they do also alerts aircraft it is in the area.

I was tracking a flight, that was transiting the Caribbean, and saw the balloon over PR, last night. The callsign caught my attention, on Flightradar24.

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N4GIX

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HBAL017 is currently on the south side of Puerto Rico at FL597 drifting slowly NNW at 7 knots:
xU5Xj.png
 
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The altitude that they are flown is based on whatever class airspace the balloons are used. Class airspace is determined by whatever restrictions, airports, military bases etc are in the area.
 

alcahuete

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The altitude that they are flown is based on whatever class airspace the balloons are used. Class airspace is determined by whatever restrictions, airports, military bases etc are in the area.

That isn't the case at all. It's more of a stability issue for their platform. No weather, really no clouds, hardly any water vapor, and very stable and very predictable winds.

Yes, they have to avoid certain airspace, and commercial aircraft to a certain extent, but that isn't the reason they are at those altitudes.
 

pilotman6012

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Right they also fly that high to cover a wider area for cell coverage,just like an aircraft when he broadcasts on the radio the higher up he is,the further the signal will go.
 

N4GIX

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At close to 60,000' the atmosphere is so thin that there aren't any "strong winds" to affect the balloon. As for any other traffic, there truly isn't much -- if any!
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

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This is quite fascinating. It will be interesting to learn how this works out. I am surprised that with all the satellite resources FEMA has, that so much of the island has no communications. They should be air dropping satellite stations, HF stations and UHF repeaters on mountaintops. From what I read there is no command and control.

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RFI-EMI-GUY

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At close to 60,000' the atmosphere is so thin that there aren't any "strong winds" to affect the balloon. As for any other traffic, there truly isn't much -- if any!
I wonder if these balloons have any sort of station keeping capability so they can maintain a location for an extended period.

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alcahuete

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I wonder if these balloons have any sort of station keeping capability so they can maintain a location for an extended period.

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They don't. They just use the wind variations at different altitudes. Their general plan is that they use a series of baloons if they need to, if they start drifting off course.
 

mmckenna

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This is quite fascinating. It will be interesting to learn how this works out. I am surprised that with all the satellite resources FEMA has, that so much of the island has no communications. They should be air dropping satellite stations, HF stations and UHF repeaters on mountaintops. From what I read there is no command and control.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

This wasn't intended as a disaster communications solution, it's intended to provide some amount of bandwidth to the citizens. Since most cell sites are either totally destroyed or have no power, this was a solution to providing some level of cell service to the island.

Many agencies have assets in place to provide radio coverage to the island, and have since the hurricane hit.
 

mmckenna

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I wonder if these balloons have any sort of station keeping capability so they can maintain a location for an extended period.

If you watch them on sites like flightradar24.com, you'll see that they seem to be able to adjust altitude a bit. Seems like they use this to put them at altitudes that have favorable wind speed/direction. Not sure how good they are at hovering them, but they do seem to have some ability to keep them on some form of generalized station keeping.
 
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