K5NSX High Altitude Balloon - July 2026 Recap
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 
| 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: 
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: 
Receiver SNR for AE5AU tracker: 
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