PS-3 is a long range PICO balloon flight from Melbourne to Sydney, release at 5:30pm AEST 16 March 2014

Payload is an ultra-light APRS beacon transmitting 10mW on 145.175Mhz. Total weight including battery and antenna is 13g.

Callsign is VK3YT-11

Prediction

APRS tracking at
http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FVK3YT-11&timerange=86400&tail=86400

Tracking with prediction at
http://spacenear.us/tracker/?filter=VK3YT-11

Expected to reach Sydney over night, then it will be out to sea.
If the balloon survives the next day it might be within range of New Zealand APRS stations around 12:00 UTC 17/3

TX frequency will switch to NZ APRS frequency 144.575Mhz once 160.0 longitude is crossed.

1:17am AEST 17 March
The little balloon made it to Sydney!

Last received APRS packet from Australia coast

2:53:35 AEST 18 March
The little balloon made it to New Zealand!

13:41:54 AEST 18 March
Last packet from the balloon before it went out of APRS range

Path of the whole trip:

Total distance travelled ~3561km

Goodbye PS-3, it has been an amazing journey!