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.

PS-36 HF PICO Balloon WSPR, JT9, CW

PS-36 PICO balloon was released at 6:45AM Fri 27/2/2015 AEST.

Solar powered party balloon, 25mW TX
WSPR, JT9 and CW (12WPM) 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-36 on SNUS http://picospace.net/tracker/new
WSPR call sign is VK3YT http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3yt

CW sending [VK3YT GRID ALT BATTERY] at x6 minutes when battery is full.

Prediction

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Update #1 8am 28 Feb 2015 AEST

PS-36 is in QLD, with huge support from trackers

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Prediction:
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Update #2, 11pm 1 Mar 2014 AEST

It has been slow going, with the balloon turning West just before Cape York.
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Prediction:
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Update #3, 5pm 3 Mar 2015 AEST

PS-36 crossed WA-SA border today, on the way to end the loop over 6 mainland states.

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Prediction
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Update #4, 5pm 5 Mar 2015 AEST

PS-36 finally made it to the Tasman Sea today.

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Prediction

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Update #5, 11am 9 Mar 2015 AEST

After passing New Zealand a few days ago, PS-36 has been heading north

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Prediction

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Update #6, 7am 10 Mar 2015 AEST

PS-36 went down over night, just before reaching Tuvalu, a free hours short of 11 days in the air.

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Thanks you for assistance with tracking.

This was what brought the little balloon down:

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PS-35 PICO balloon HF payload WSPR, JT9 and CW

PS-35 PICO balloon was released at 7:30AM Sat 21/2/2015 AEST.

Solar powered party balloon, 25mW TX
WSPR, JT9 and CW (12WPM) 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-35 on SNUS http://picospace.net/tracker/new
WSPR call sign is VK3YT http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3yt

CW sending [VK3YT GRID ALT BATTERY] at x6 minutes when battery is full.

Prediction
129902A9 668C 4FAA B50B 98E2470028DE

Update #1 10:00pm 22 Feb 2015 AEST
The balloon has been going slow along the East coast of Australia

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Prediction:
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Update #2 05:00pm 27 Feb 2015 AEST

PS-35 descended into the Pacific after crossing the international dateline.

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PS-34 APRS Olivia payload MEL-NSW-QLD

PS-34 was released at 7am Sun 15/2/2015 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-34 on SNUS
VK3YT-11 on APRS.FI

Prediction:
149923 trj001

Update #1 Mon 9pm 16/2/2015 AEST

PS-34 left Australian coast at 7:55am this morning, just north of Fraser Island.

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Prediction shows it might be in range of New Zealand stations tomorrow morning.
The payload will change its frequency to New Zealand APRS frequency of 144.575Mhz, and keep the same Olivia frequency of 434.650Mhz USB (434.650Mhz dial)

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Update #1 Tue 8am 17/2/2015 AEST

PS-34 did a quick fly-by passing Northern Coast of New Zealand for almost two hours this morning.

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Prediction:
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PS-33 PICO balloon APRS & Olivia MEL-SA-NSW

PS-33 is scheduled for released on Sunday 1/2/2015 at 8am.

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

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

Prediction

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Update #1 10:00pm 1/2/2015 AEST

PS-33 was released but had a hardware failure and shut down early.

PS-32 HF PICO Balloon Australia Day

PS-32 was released at 7am AEST Australia Day 26/1/2015 from Melbourne.

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

This will be simultaneously tracked with PS-31.

Dial frequency 10.138700Mhz and 14.095600Mhz (standard WSPR dial frequencies).
JT9 at 1200Hz offset, coexisting with PS-31 at 1000Hz offset

See HF decoding info in the FAQ section or here

Tracking as PS-32 on SNUS here
WSPR call sign is VK3ANH

Prediction:

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Assistance with tracking is appreciated.

Update #1 8:00pm 27/1/2015 AEST

PS-32 has crossed the international dateline and past -60 latitude.

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Prediction

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Update #2 12:00pm 31/1/2015 AEST

PS-32 came close to the South America Coast 46H ago, and hasn’t been heard from since.

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Predicted path

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It is very possible that the balloon is still flying, but a bad combination of shutdown at night and propagation time might be the main factor that prevents long range reception of the telemetry.

Please keep watching out for the next few days!

Update #3 6:00pm 4/2/2015 AEST

It appears that PS-32 has gone down somewhere between South America and South Africa.
Thanks everyone for assistance with tracking, and see you at the next launch!

PS-31 HF payload Mel – NZ – Pacific

PS-31 was released at 7am AEST 24/1/2015 from Melbourne.

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

With dial frequency 10.138700Mhz and 14.095600Mhz (standard WSPR dial frequencies),
these will put WSPR at 1400Hz-1600Hz, and JT9 at 1000Hz, allowing decoding of both WSPR and JT9 without changing frequency on each band.

See HF decoding info in the FAQ section or here

Tracking as PS-31 on SNUS here
WSPR call sign is VK3YT

Prediction:

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Assistance with tracking is always appreciated.

Update #1 6:00am 25/1/2015 AEST

PS-31 has been doing well, just crossed the international dateline, getting ready to head west back to New Zealand. Thanks everyone for helping out with tracking.

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Top WSPR spots

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WSPR map

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Prediction

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Wind pattern

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Update #2 11:00am 26/1/2015 AEST

PS-31 did a U-turn around New Zealand over night, and soon will be heading East again.
We had a huge turn-out of stations to help with tracking.

(PS-32 was also released for a multiple balloon tracking exercise)

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Some very impressive WSPR spots

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Prediction

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Update #3 7:30pm 27/1/2015 AEST

PS-31 went down at sunset with the last JT9 packet at 08:03 UTC, probably due to rain/ice developed over the NE of NZ.

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WSPR

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Thanks everyone for tracking, and hope PS-32 will keep going for much longer.

PS-30 HF payload MEL-NZ-Pacific

PS-30 was released at 7am AEST 27/12/2014 from Melbourne.

– Solar powered, 25mW TX
– WSPR on 30m (dial 10.138700Mhz) and 20m (dial 14.095600Mhz)
– JT9 on 10.142000Mhz and 14.075000Mhz centre (dial 10.141000Mhz and 14.074000Mhz);

See HF decoding info in the FAQ section or here

Assistance with tracking is appreciated.

Update #1: 11:46am AEST 31/12/2014.

The balloon has been travelling East in the last few days, arriving and leaving New Zealand at the Southern end yesterday.

Due the change in propagation condition, JT9 and WSPR reception has been very localised to ZL and VK stations.

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Prediction
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Update #2: 11:00am AEST 1/1/2015

Happy New Year! Hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year.

PS-30 did a small loop yesterday, and has been heading East again.
The HF condition has been the same. Will be interesting today as the balloon will get some distance away from VK and ZL.

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It would be great if stations along the Pacific and South America can have a listen for the telemetry at the scheduled time. This is what the waterfall looks like:

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Update #3: 9:30am AEST 2/1/2015

Entering 6th day of the flight. We are so lucky to have a team of core trackers that has been around every day tracking the balloon.

HF condition is still the same, the balloon is more than half way between Australia and South America, about the same pace as the previous Melbourne-Brazil trip that took 11 days.

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Updated prediction
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Update #4: 4:00pm AEST 3/1/2015

First day of the second week was a quiet one. The balloon did a loop for the whole day and didn’t cover much ground distance. The prediction shows a more directly path towards the East from now.

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Update #5: 11:00pm 7/1/2015 AEST

The balloon continued to travel East towards South America in the last few days.
It has been quite challenging for the tracking stations, as the sunset time has been getting earlier, and start overlapping with propagation time when the signal could be heard in ZL and VK just as when the balloon went to sleep.

Big thank you to the new stations joining the tracking in the last few days, making this a true international exercise!

Prediction shows we will be crossing into Chile early tomorrow morning.

SNUS

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WSPR

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WSPR map

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Prediction

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Update #6: 7am 8/1/2015 AEST

We are in Argentina 🙂

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Update #7: 1:30pm 9/1/2015 AEST

The balloon has gone out of range for a day.
Prediction shows it is due to reach South Africa around 18:00 9/1/2015 UTC.

It would be great if anyone along the path can have a listen and try to decode any JT9 signal on the designated frequency, starting at around 6:00UTC when the balloon will be in the sun and transmitting.

If you leave your dial at 14.074Mhz USB, please check visually for any faint JT9 signal around the 1kHz mark on the audio passband, at the following minutes past the hour:
10, 16, 30, 36, 50, 56.

It should look like this:

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We would love to get signal reports, please send them to vk3yt@comms.net.au

Update #8: 7:30pm 10/1/2015 AEST

There was a massive international effort to track down the balloon after PS-30 wasn’t heard from since 22:50 7/1/2015 UTC. After two days it started to look like PS-30 was lost, but at 6:10 UTC today (10/1/2015), ZS6KN started to send in telemetry from the balloon, showing its location just over the coast off South Africa/Namibia.

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Prediction
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It is just phenomenal that we received so much help at very short notice.
Thanks everyone, and hope you will follow the balloon for as long as possible!

Update #9: 12:00pm 12/1/2015 AEST

It doesn’t look like PS-30 is in any hurry to go home. Overnight telemetry shows the location as still on the West coast of Africa.

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We also had some additional WSPR spots from ZS

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Update #10: 7pm 13/1/2015 AEST

The balloon finally got inland after many days wandering off the coast.
The ZS stations are doing a great job with capture telemetry packets from PS-30.

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Update #11: 8am 15/1/2015 AEST

PS-30 left Africa coast last night, said farewell to the amazing continent that has been hosting it the last few days! It was a great day for telemetry as well, packets were coming in non-stop from morning to night, from multiple stations.

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WSPR

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Looks like it is straight to Australia from here:

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Update #12: 18/1/2015 AAEST

PS-30 went down near Madagascar at 5:51am 16/1/2015 AEST, 25H short of 3 weeks in the air.

There was some bad weather in the region, but speculations also include the possibility it was brought down by the naughty Penguins on the Island.

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Final position, with last-seen time as of 7am 24/1/2015 AEST

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A big thank you to everyone that have assisted with the trip in many ways, from tracking, to sending feedback, words of encouragement, and getting help when needed. The level of interest from all around the world has been amazing. The trip would not have been so successful without the collective effort of the like-minded community built-up along the way.

See you at the next trip!