Monthly Archives: September 2015

PS-53 HF PICO balloon WSPR JT9 San Jose USA

PS-53 was released at 13:50 13 Sep 2015 UTC from San Jose USA

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 at 1100Hz offset.

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

Tracking as PS-53 on SNUS http://picospace.net/tracker/new
WSPR call sign is VK3YT http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3yt

Prediction:

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TX scheduling
Minute – Band – Mode – Condition
:00 – 30m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – mandatory
:10 – 20m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – if batt full
:20 – 30m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – if batt full
:30 – 20m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – mandatory
:40 – 30m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – if batt full
:50 – 20m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – if batt full

Initial WSPR spots

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Assistance with tracking is appreciated, especially from the host country!

Update #1
It appeared that PS-53 had an envelope failure and landed in the Nevada desert.

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PS-54 APRS/Olivia PICO balloon San Jose USA

PS-54 was released at 6:50am local time this morning (Sat 12 Sep 2015) from San Jose USA.

Solar powered party balloon, 10mW TX
APRS on 144.390Mhz initially, call sign W6/VK3YT-11.

Olivia 8/250 with RSID on 434.649Mhz USB (Dial frequency) outside of USA where permitted , call sign PS-54

Tracking as PS-54 on SNUS http://spacenear.us
and VK3YT-11 on APRS.FI http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FVK3YT-11&timerange=3600&tail=3600

Prediction:

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Update #1 06:50 Wed 16 Sep 2015 UTC

PS-54 zoomed past the San Francisco Golden bridge at 8000m on the first day, and spent
a whole day bouncing along the west coast of California, right next to some
other local up/down balloon launches.

The weather was rough, the balloon took a few dives before gaining altitude again at sunset, but it sent last transmission at 20:39 local time on Sat night.

It was thought the antenna was damaged from the beating it took during the day, however
it re-appears again today (Tues PDT), heading in from the coast into LA. Looks like it was just out of range for a few days.

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Update #2 14:00 Thurs 17 Sept 2015 UTC

PS-54 flew over California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana in the last few days, and is heading into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will be out of range for a while

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Prediction

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Update #3 14:00 Fri 18 Sept 2015 UTC

PS-54 is in Mexico this morning

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Prediction:

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PS-52 HF PICO balloon WSPR JT9

PS-52 was released at 20:40 5 Sep 2015 UTC

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 at 1000Hz offset.

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

Tracking as PS-52 on SNUS http://picospace.net/tracker/new
WSPR call sign is VK3ANH http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3anh

Prediction:

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TX scheduling
Minute – Band – Mode – Condition
:00 – 30m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – mandatory
:10 – 20m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – if batt full
:20 – 30m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – if batt full
:30 – 20m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – mandatory
:40 – 30m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – if batt full
:50 – 20m – 2 mins WSPR then two x 1 min JT9 – if batt full

Update #1 8 Sep 2015

After being tossed around for a few hours by a rough weather front that caused rapid altitude changes of the payload in the Southern Ocean, PS-52 went down on Monday night, 4000km from the nearest tracking station ZL1RS in NZ.

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