This is the story of how a local group of amateur radio operators quietly made history by guiding a balloon into the jet stream and sending it almost all the way across the Atlantic Ocean.The project began in March 2005. Members of the University of Tennessee Amateur Radio Club were looking for something "interesting" to do.
Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, dates back to the 19th century, but it really took off as a hobby in the 1920s, when amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States and Europe made the first transatlantic contact.
Wireless communication isn't the thrill it once was. Bored with Morse code and international chats, Bowen says younger amateur radio operators are expanding the scope of their hobby. Groups have loaded balloons with radio tracking equipment just for the fun of locating it.
"They wanted to play with it," Project Manager Dan Bowen says. "Send it up and down and chase it. We wanted to accomplish something."
The Knoxville group chose to be the first to attempt an "autonomous transatlantic balloon project."
"Others had talked about it," Bowen says. "Suddenly, they realized we were serious and were going to try to do it. Very quickly, others tried to accelerate their plans to reality."
But it was the Knoxville team that made it. Well, almost made it. The Spirit of Knoxville IV, launched in February, went down in the ocean about 200 miles from the coast of Ireland. (The 40-hour flight covered approximately 3,330 miles).
"If we had had two more hours of daylight we would have made it," says Mike Coffey, a project founder and key member of team.
"We needed one more pound of ballast to make it," Bowen says.
Still, Bowen and Coffey are satisfied. They proved the flight was possible. Their niche community has crowned them with glory (during the flight there were 13 million hits at www.spiritofknoxville.com).
