Radio equipment helps record-breaking balloon trip

Herne Bay based Icom (UK) Ltd recently aided British adventurer David Hempleman-Adams in his successful attempt to cross the Arctic Circle in an open basket balloon.

Herne Bay based Icom (UK) recently aided British adventurer David Hempleman-Adams in his successful attempt to cross the Arctic Circle in an open basket balloon.

The company supplied, at short notice, a wide range of specialist radio communication equipment that was instrumental in the success of his adventure.

David met Ian Lockyer (Marketing Executive) from Icom (UK) Ltd to say thank you and to explain just how important Icom's products really were to the expedition.

The journey that David took attempted to recapture the spirit of courage of a bygone era.

His journey to the North Pole was in a traditional Roziere balloon with only a wicker basket as home.

The Roziere balloon is similar to the Breitling Orbiter that went round the world in 1999, but a tenth of the size at 90,000 cubic feet.

Before David took off took off from Spitsbergen in Norway he said, 'This will be the greatest and most dangerous challenge I have ever faced in over 25 years of risk- taking.' The challenge may have been dangerous but we all know that it was extremely successful and during the flight David broke and set a number of records including...

* First balloonist to fly solo across the Arctic Ocean.

* First balloonist to fly solo to the North Pole.

* Longest solo flight by a British balloonist at 132 hours.

* Longest flight by a 90 Roziere (hybrid hot air and helium) balloon [previous record 124 hours 34 minutes].

* Altitude record for the Arctic at over 15000 feet.

* Distance record for the Arctic at 1400 kms to the North Pole Ring and 2451 kms in total.

* Duration record for the Arctic at 132 hours.

As a result of his exploits, David received world wide media attention and many people including the Queen and the Prime Minister sent David messages of support.

Icom (UK) Ltd's involvement with the project started in March this year with a phone call from David to Chris Ridley (Icom's Customer Service Engineer).

David explained that he needed to source communication equipment urgently because the Iridium phone sets that he had planned to use were proving unreliable.

Chris recommended suitable equipment for the Challenge that included two HF IC-M710 GMDSS marine transceivers (which were used as the main operating transceivers between the balloon and its base in Birmingham).

He also suggested that David take the popular IC-A3E and IC-A22E VHF airband transceivers (which were to be used as an important backup to the main transceivers and eventually to communicate with the rescue helicopter.) Other equipment that the company provided were antennas, power supplies and battery cases.

David followed up these initial consultations with a training visit to Icom (UK) Ltd's headquarters in Herne Bay.

It was only necessary to make minor modifications to the equipment that David took with him.

For the IC-M710 in the balloon, a flexible wire was placed outside the balloon so that it would act as an antenna for the radio.

The IC-M710 at Britannic headquarters in Birmingham only required a power supply and an AH-710 broadband folded dipole, which allowed wide frequency coverage without a tuner.

Waterproof bags were provided for the Airband radios to protect them from the harsh environment.

David took several other pieces of communication equipment including the Iridium phone and a Inmarsat system that could be used if David landed below 80 degrees (latitude.) However the chief equipment that David relied on was the Icom HF radio which allowed him to contact Britannic headquarters, Iceland and Stockholm.

It was Luc Truelman, weatherman, who organised the flight plan for the balloon against the conflicting weather reports.

David said that the weather patterns were incredibly confused over his flight path and the chances of an attempt being successful were really remote (it was even considered to be more difficult than recent attempts to fly around the world).

The combination of ballooning and cold climate skills required, extreme weather patterns and cruel skies meant that any attempt would be difficult.

However with Luc's help David was successful.

David told me that he holds Luc in high esteem and said, that 'the success of the flight was down to Luc's efforts.' He even referred to Luc as the guru of all weathermen.

Asked to recall personal highlights of his momentous journey, David responded by saying that passing the solo duration record was important but that this was superseded by beating Andre's distance duration record although by this time he was extremely tired having had only 9 hours sleep in six days.

I brought up the media's fixation with his sleepwalking during this flight and asked him what really happened.

David responded by saying, 'Although I had trained for sleep deprivation, after 2 and a half days my decision making abilities started to fail and after 3 days I just couldn't keep awake.

So I felt it was wise to get some sleep.

I had a sophisticated autopilot system on board (developed by round the world balloonist Per Lindstrand), that was calibrated to work in changes in barometric pressures between +/-100 feet.

If the balloon went outside these parameters then the Klaxon would sound.

This of course happened, and I had been in a deep sleep at the time.

I panicked and went outside the basket.

If it hadn't been for the harness that was attached to me then I would probably not be speaking to you now!' Another dangerous moment for David was the very difficult landing.

He said, 'I couldn't open the vent at the top of the balloon.

It had frozen so that the helium wouldn't come out fast enough.

This prolonged the landing for more than half an hour over a very dicey ice/ water/ice/water surface.' On a more positive note David said that, 'The Icom equipment was really easy to use.

I picked it up very quickly.' He further added,' I appreciated visiting Herne Bay and becoming accustomed to the equipment.

Spending half an hour with an expert like Chris was really important.

I felt it gave me the equivalent of five days with any written manual.

I feel it's vital you always go and see an expert.' It wasn't until a week after his exploits that he realised how much media interest surrounded his adventure.

David said, 'I only spoke to Birmingham/Stockholm/Iceland during the voyage and didn't know there was any media attention.

I was really surprised to see so many satellite trucks when I arrived outside the Britannic Challenge Centre in Birmingham.' With all the equipment on board I asked David how he charged all the equipment.

He said, '2 six-volt Hawker Siddley aircraft batteries (with two spares) powered the equipment, which were housed on an insulation mat.

Lithium batteries were also used for the auto-pilot, which apparently didn't need much current.

Both power sources worked perfectly! To protect the equipment from the intense cold we wrapped the Radios in a thermos bag and packed them out with polystyrene.

I also had a canopy, which raised the ambient temperature.' As you can imagine there wasn't very much room in the basket for a lot of equipment.

However David did find room for Oxygen tanks, a dinghy, communication equipment, cold weather equipment and food for 80 days.

David also took some skis just in case he was forced to land below 85 degrees (latitude).

This position was important because it meant that it would be difficult to get a plane or helicopter to pick him up.

The helicopter would be out of range and the plane would not be able to land because it was so late in the season that the surface was very slushy making it very difficult to land.

Only a week earlier a plane landing on skis crashed in this region.

I jokingly asked David where the missing power plug was from the back of our radio.

He replied, 'The Helicopter was just in fuel range when it picked me up.

I had only 10 minutes to pack up the most important pieces of equipment.

The helicopter couldn't land because of the slushiness of the surface and was using valuable fuel to hover.

On the balloon was a range of incredibly valuable equipment so I had only a small amount of time to cut all the wires to make sure that I got it all and myself back to the UK.

The wires and the remaining equipment are now floating around the Arctic Ocean.' Remarking on the performance of the equipment David said, 'the HF equipment worked perfectly.

It is the best comms equipment I have ever used in the last 25 years.

It truly was a lifesaver!' It kept him in contact with World pilot Brian Jones at the control centre in Britannic's Birmingham Headquarters.

Personal contact was immensely important because it improved David's morale when things weren't going according to plan.

He added, 'if I just had a few instruments to guide me I feel I would not have been in the same psychological state.

Voice Contact is so important.' He further added, ' In retrospect I wish I had taken another IC-M710.

It was our most critical piece of equipment of the whole journey.

Without it we wouldn't have got to the Pole and back.

I was able to communicate my position, track and altitude and control would tell me what bearing I would have to go on.

Without the IC-M710 I would have lost the ability to fly the balloon where Luc Truelman wanted me.

I wanted to get within a degree of the pole, which is sixty nautical miles but we got much closer, within twelve miles.

There was one stage when Iceland told me I should increase my height or I would end up in Russia.

We were only able to do this with the help of your equipment.

Ian Lockyer, Marketing Executive at Icom (UK) Ltd said,' Icom are really proud of our involvement with this record breaking achievement.

It has truly been a heroic feat and a great personal battle against all the elements.

The IC-M710 that David used is now back from the North Pole and now sits proudly in our showroom display cabinet.

I just wonder what David has planned next?'.

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