Monthly Archives: May 2015

PS-46 HF PICO balloon WSPR JT9

PS-46 was released at 7am 23/5/2015 AEST

Solar powered party balloon, 25mW TX
TX WSPR, JT9 on 30m and 20m

Dial frequency 10.138700Mhz and 14.095600Mhz (standard WSPR dial frequencies) for WSPR, JT9.
JT9 will be at 1800Hz offset.

See HF decoding info at http://picospace.net/?cat=34

Tracking as PS-46 on SNUS http://picospace.net/tracker/new
WSPR call sign is VK3YT http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3yt

Update #1 11pm 24/5/2015

PS-46 is just crossing the international dateline.

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Prediction:

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Update #2 6pm 1/6/2015 AEST
PS-46 made it to inland South Africa

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Prediction:

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Update #3 6pm 3/6/2015 AEST

PS-46 is on the way home. Expected time to cross the starting longitude of 144.894 degree East is around tomorrow afternoon AEST (06:00 4/6/2015 UTC)

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Prediction:

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Update #4 9pm 5/6/2015 AEST

PS-46 completed its circumnavigation at 11am 4/6/2015 AEST, and has been heading East towards South America. It crossed the International Dateline late today.

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Prediction:

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Thanks to the following stations for assistance with tracking on WSPR and JT9:

JQ2WDO K1BZ KI7CI LLU5VV LU1KCQ LU3VA LU4EME LU5VV N2NOM N2NXZ ND6P NH7SR OZ1RDP OZ7IT VA7MM VK1KW VK2AAF VK2AJF VK2DDI VK2DX VK2EFM VK2FAK VK2GOM VK2JIW VK2LX VK2NP VK2PR VK2QQ VK2XTC VK3DXE VK3KCX VK3PD VK4ACN VK4ADC VK4FLR VK4MIL VK4QG VK4RV VK4ZBV VK5CV VK5EI VK5MR VK5PP VK5RM VK5ZRL VK6MT VK6NI VK6XT VK7BO VK7TW VK8KMD W0AY W9HLY ZL1BOE ZL1RS ZL1SIX ZL2AHB ZL3DMH ZL3LSD ZS4TX ZS5J ZS6BMN ZS6BTY ZS6GC ZS6KN ZS6VOL

And many others for trying!

Update #5 9am 13/6/2015 AEST

PS-46 has been pushing East at various paces. It got to South America the second time on 9/6/2015, and is currently over the South Atlantic Ocean, just before South Africa.
Total distance travelled so far is 58,270 kms (36,207 miles).

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Prediction:
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Update #6 12am 17/6/2015 AEST

PS-46 has been doing loops at extremely slow pace in the last few days.

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Prediction shows a leisurely tour of Africa in the next few days:
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Update #7 6pm 21/6/2015 AEST

It’s been a slow few days, with PS-46 sitting in pocket of low wind most of the time, going up and down the East coast of Africa.

Finally it made an Easterly turn today, starting the trip home.

The flight time now is over four weeks, covering over 65,900km.

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Prediction:

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Update #8 9am 28/6/2015 AEST

A week later and PS-46 is still over the Indian Ocean. It was within 660km off Jakarta before turning West on a loop back to Africa.
Total distance : 73,615km, flight time: 5 week 1 day.

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Prediction over Indian Ocean has not been very accurate
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Update #9 10pm 29/6/2015 AEST

PS-46 is heading east again, after completing an interesting drawing over Indian Ocean 🙂

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Update #10 9pm 30/6/2015 AEST

Finally, PS-46 is over Australia land again

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Prediction:

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Update #11 9pm 1/7/2015

At last, PS-46 will make its second pass over the starting longitude of 144.894 tomorrow, between 00:00 UTC and 05:00 UTC.

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Prediction:

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Update #12 6pm 4/7/2015

The prediction didn’t anticipate a last minute loop that took PS-46 2 days to complete. It finally crossed the starting longitude just before 12:30pm AEST today.

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Prediction:

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Thanks again to everyone that helped with tracking!

Update #13 6pm 18/7/2015 AEST

Wow time flies, it has been two weeks since the last update.

Since crossing the line, PS-46 spent the last two weeks passing Chile, Peru, Bovilia, Brazil, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and just about to head home when it went down at a weather front over the Indian Ocean this morning, marking the end of the flight.

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Our sincere thanks to everyone that helped with tracking, including new trackers, veterans, and
those that tried but did not show up on the map.

JT9 RX
AK4AT CA3MRD E50W K4COD K5XL KN8DMK LU1KCQ LU4EME LU5VV OA4AI SA6BSS VK1KW VK2DDI VK2DX VK2EIK VK2FAK VK2GOM VK2PR VK2QQ VK2XGJ VK3ATQ VK3DNH VK3DXE VK3KCX VK4ADC VK4JAM VK4RV VK5EI VK5KDK VK5PP VK5RM VK5ZK VK5ZRL VK6JI VK6MT VK6NI VK6XT VK6YS VK7TW VK7XX W3BH W4HBK WA5DJJ ZL1RS ZL2AHB ZL3LSD ZS4TX ZS5J ZS5LT ZS6BMN ZS6BTY ZS6EHG ZS6GC ZS6KN ZS6V

WSPR RX
3B8CW 9H3KC AE2EA AK4AT DJ5JD DK6UG E50W FR1GZ JH1GYE JH3APN JQ2WDO K1BZ K3XR K4COD K4EH K5XL K9AN KC4GO KD6EKQ KD6RF KI7CI KK1D KK4MBI KK4PP KL7L KN8DMK KU4PY LA3JJ LA3JJ/J LA9JO LLU5VV LU1KCQ LU3VA LU4EME LU5VV M0CCW N2NOM N4AU N9CIF ND6P NH7SR NN6RF NQ6Y OA4AI OH6GKW ON7KO OZ1RDP OZ7IT PI4THT SM0EPX VA3ROM VA7MM VE3LJT VK1AA/2 VK1KW VK2AAF VK2AJF VK2BMU VK2DDI VK2DX VK2EFM VK2FAK VK2GOM VK2JIW VK2KDK VK2LX VK2NP VK2PR VK2QQ VK2XGJ VK2XTC VK3AGD VK3ATQ VK3CVF VK3DXE VK3FZ VK3KCX VK3PD VK4ACN VK4ADC VK4FLR VK4MIL VK4NE VK4QG VK4TMH VK4XJB VK4ZBV VK5CV VK5EI VK5KDK VK5MR VK5NG VK5PP VK5RM VK5ZK VK5ZRL VK6MT VK6XT VK6ZT VK7AM VK7BO VK7DD VK7TW VK8KMD W0AY W1QG W2JTM W3BH W3CSW W4ENN W7WO W9HLY WA5DJJ WA8KNE WB0OEW YC0MLC ZL1BOE ZL1RS ZL1SIX ZL2ABN ZL2AHB ZL2FT ZL3DMH ZL3LSD ZS2CX ZS4A ZS4TX ZS4TX/P ZS5J ZS5J/P ZS6BK ZS6BMN ZS6BTY ZS6EHG ZS6GC ZS6KN ZS6VOL

See you at the next trip!

PS-44 HF PICO balloon WSPR JT9

PS-44 was released at 7am 17/5/2015 AEST

Solar powered party balloon, 25mW TX
TX WSPR, JT9 on 30m and 20m

Dial frequency 10.138700Mhz and 14.095600Mhz (standard WSPR dial frequencies) for WSPR, JT9.

See HF decoding info at http://picospace.net/?cat=34

Tracking as PS-44 on SNUS http://picospace.net/tracker/new
WSPR call sign is VK3YT http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3yt

Prediction

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Update #1 10pm 17/5/2015

PS-44 developed a leak and descended into Bass Strait this evening.

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PS-45 APRS/Olivia PICO balloon MEL-ADELAIDE

PS-45 was released at 7am Sat 16/5/2015 AEST

Solar powered party balloon, 10mW TX.
APRS on 145.175Mhz
Olivia 8/250 with RSID on 434.649Mhz USB (Dial frequency)

Tracking as
PS-45 on SNUS
VK3YT-11 on APRS.FI

Prediction:
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Update #1 8:30am 17/5/2015 AEST

PS-45 has been travelling slowly towards Adelaide. Good tracking on UHF with the VK5 stations taking over from VK3s this morning

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Prediction:
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Update #2 9:30pm 18/5/2015 AEST

PS-45 went over Adelaide last night, before taking a sharp turn towards Brisbane.

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The balloon just left the coastline towards the Pacific, with the last APRS packet received by VK2RPL-3 at 479km.

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Prediction:
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Update #3 11:30am 24/5/2015 AEST

PS-45 is spotted in Chile this morning

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Prediction:
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Update #4 11:00pm 24/5/2015 AEST

PS-45 was seen crossing Argentina in the afternoon, at 217km/h. It didn’t take long before the balloon left Argentina coastline around 6pm AEST.

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Prediction:

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