Monthly Archives: March 2015

PS-40 HF PICO balloon WSPR JT9

PS-40 PICO balloon was released at 7:30AM Sun 29/3/2015 AEST.

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

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

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

Tracking as PS-40 on SNUS http://picospace.net/tracker/new
WSPR call sign is VK3ANH http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3anh

Update 8am 3/4/2015 AEST

After almost 5 days in the air PS-40 descended into the Pacific Ocean this morning.
It was tracked down to the sea level by ZL and VK stations many thousands of kms away.

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PS-38 HF PICO balloon WSPR JT9

PS-38 PICO balloon was released at 6:20AM Sat 14/3/2015 AEST.

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

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

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

Tracking as PS-38 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 9am Sun 15/3/2015

PS-38 flew past Sydney last night and is currently off the coast of Brisbane.
It will be heading South East shortly towards New Zealand, with the expected ETA around 13:00 UTC.

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Prediction:

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The bad news is PS-38 will be heading straight into Cyclone Pam.

From NZ MET Service,

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We will be watching closely tonight.

Update #2 6pm 15/3/2015 AEST
PS-38 approaching cyclone Pam

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Update #3 9pm 16/3/2015 AEST
PS-38 survived last night, but went down tonight after crossing the international dateline.

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PS-37 High Altitude Balloon launch Sunday 8 March 2015

PS-37 is planned to be released at 10am Sun 8/3/2015 from Deniliquin, NSW.
This is an UP/DOWN balloon flight, aiming for high altitude of around 40,000m.

Details:
– LATEX 1600g balloon
– APRS on 145.175Mhz, 30mW, call sign VK3YT-11
– Primary tracker RTTY 100baud, 600Hz shift, 8N1 on 434.650Mhz (Dial 434.649Mhz), 10mW, callsign PS-37, RSID enabled.
– Backup tracker RTTY 100baud, 450Hz shift, 8N1 on 432.220Mhz (Dial ~432,219Mhz), 10mW, callsign PSCD, with CW ID for VK3YT.

APRS tracking on aprs.fi http://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=11&call=VK3YT-11
RTTY tracking on SNUS http://tracker.habhub.org/?filter=PS-37;PSCD

Tracking instructions: http://picospace.net/?p=736

Update

PS-37 was released as planned at 10am Sun 8/3/2015 AEST. It got to 40,903m altitude before bursting.

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Thanks to everyone for assistance with tracking.