PS-2 – Interstate PICO flight

PS-2 is a last-minute un-announced PICO flight.

Launched from Melbourne at 6pm Sun 16 Feb 2014, the small party balloon carries an APRS tracker with a total weight of 16g. TX power is 100mW.

No manual tracking is required.

The aim: to visit NSW, and to stay within APRS reception range for as long as possible.

Prediction:
120018 trj001

aprs.fi tracking screen:
Screen Shot 2014 02 17 at 10 30 48 AM

Update1:
Looks like the balloon went out of APRS coverage at 9:52 AEST.
Updated prediction shows it will be heading south at some stage.

137052 trj001

Total tracked flight time is 15h50m, covering a distance of ~796km which was more than expected. It is ~200km short of the Queensland border, which could be for another PICO flight 🙂

Some stats from aprs.fi
Screen Shot 2014 02 17 at 3 01 38 PM