Hello, From Montana

[wwalker]

Hi,
Was watching an old episodes of Mythbusters were they showed US Water Rockets 2007 world record launch.
I was intrigued...I had a little water rock as a child, didn't know anyone made them bigger.

Then I realized that I could combine a new Water Rocketry hobby with my Ham Radio hobby.

I want to build a water rocket to carry a small radio transmitter, like this... http://www.byonics.com/mf
I will launch the rocket without looking to see were it goes.
Then I can use my radio direction finding gear to "fox hunt" the transmitter and locate my rocket!

So I have come to gather information to build some rockets.

[bugwubber]

Hi,
Was watching an old episodes of Mythbusters were they showed US Water Rockets 2007 world record launch.
I was intrigued...I had a little water rock as a child, didn't know anyone made them bigger.

Then I realized that I could combine a new Water Rocketry hobby with my Ham Radio hobby.

I want to build a water rocket to carry a small radio transmitter, like this... http://www.byonics.com/mf
I will launch the rocket without looking to see were it goes.
Then I can use my radio direction finding gear to "fox hunt" the transmitter and locate my rocket!

So I have come to gather information to build some rockets.

You might have an easier time just building a large compressed air cannon and some type of foam filled sabot to carry your electronics. I can see some issues with closing your eyes, then spinning around to fire the thing in a random direction though....

This sounds like it'd be quite a challenge.
You could use Servochron2 to eject the payload from the rocket (w/extra large parachute) and then eject a parachute for the rocket itself.

What kind of distance are you looking to put between you and the fox?

Thanks,

Bugwubber
Team S.P.E.W.

[wwalker]

I figure once I build some rockets and do some testing to get things dialed in, I can launch a rocket with the transmitter and just not look up for a given period of time...long enough for it to land. A little wind and a large parachute opening as high as possible, and a camouflage paint job on the rocket, tall grass, trees, and rugged terrain, hopefully I will be able to "lose" it.
The wind direction will be kind of a giveaway, but it isn't hard to get an initial bearing on a radio signal anyway (depending on terrain caused reflections)...so that won't really lessen the challenge.
I'm sure part of the fun in model rocketry is watching your rocket.......I'll get plenty of chances to do that before I launch a transmitter.
Ejecting the payload with a separate chute sounds like a fine idea......after I get a lot of experience with these things.

Distance......1/2 a mile would probably be fine. I wouldn't want to get too much exercise.

[PTrockets]

Hi,
Was watching an old episodes of Mythbusters were they showed US Water Rockets 2007 world record launch.
I was intrigued...I had a little water rock as a child, didn't know anyone made them bigger.

Then I realized that I could combine a new Water Rocketry hobby with my Ham Radio hobby.

I want to build a water rocket to carry a small radio transmitter, like this... http://www.byonics.com/mf
I will launch the rocket without looking to see were it goes.
Then I can use my radio direction finding gear to "fox hunt" the transmitter and locate my rocket!

So I have come to gather information to build some rockets.

wwalker,
Mythbusters were my inspiration source too. That episode is awesome: it's my favourite one. Thanks to them (mythbusters), I love water rockets.

PTrockets

[bugwubber]

Hi,
Was watching an old episodes of Mythbusters were they showed US Water Rockets 2007 world record launch.
I was intrigued...I had a little water rock as a child, didn't know anyone made them bigger.

Then I realized that I could combine a new Water Rocketry hobby with my Ham Radio hobby.

I want to build a water rocket to carry a small radio transmitter, like this... http://www.byonics.com/mf
I will launch the rocket without looking to see were it goes.
Then I can use my radio direction finding gear to "fox hunt" the transmitter and locate my rocket!

So I have come to gather information to build some rockets.

wwalker,
Mythbusters were my inspiration source too. That episode is awesome: it's my favourite one. Thanks to them (mythbusters), I love water rockets.

PTrockets

I thought the MB's hot water heater rockets were just...something special. But given that I didn't want to draw an emergency response everytime I launched, I figured that water bottle rockets would be almost as good.

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Hi,
Was watching an old episodes of Mythbusters were they showed US Water Rockets 2007 world record launch.
I was intrigued...I had a little water rock as a child, didn't know anyone made them bigger.

Cool! A lot of famous water rocketeers got interested because of that show!

However, the record on the show was actually from 2005, not 2007. The show is a littled dated, because we have raised the record 4 times since then. You can see reports and videos at http://www.USWaterRockets.com/records of all of our record flights.

Then I realized that I could combine a new Water Rocketry hobby with my Ham Radio hobby.
I want to build a water rocket to carry a small radio transmitter, like this... http://www.byonics.com/mf
I will launch the rocket without looking to see were it goes.
Then I can use my radio direction finding gear to "fox hunt" the transmitter and locate my rocket!

So I have come to gather information to build some rockets.

We've never had anyone do that on purpose! We've had a few chances to "fox hunt" a rocket that blew into the woods, and it's not something we enjoy doing. Our launch area is in a valley and the winds are not predictable, so we designed and installed 433MHz trackers into them many years ago, when we lost one and never got it back. We have some old articles about it here http://www.USWaterRockets.com/research on our site as well.

It works great if you want to have a go at it. Our personal record is locating a rocket just over 1/2 mile away in the woods. Then we had to get it down from 60 feet up in a tree!

Welcome to the forum!

[Asupremeflight]

Although it could be a fun and interesting endevor , I'm with bugwubber on this one. I'm sure you would not want to have to climb 60 ft up a tree. Dangerous.

I think I speak for most of us when I say that we try to keep things flying straight and in view so we can enjoy the spoils of our hard work. (well unless you launch them into the record books, whereas one would need a tracking device in case of crazy trajectory or high winds. And it is kinda hard to see the rocket 2000+ ft in the air) in your case you would only need to go out on awful windy days or better yet just shoot it off in the dark. ( again dangerous)

Build a cannon and have another guy aim and shoot it. then track away.

But you should, and could, really get a kick out of flying some really cool rockets. I know I do. The challenges in this hobby are endless. Which is half the fun.

Have fun.