PS-5 – PICO floater MEL-SYD-QLD with RTTY and APRS

PICOSPACE-5 is planned for release at around 4-5pm 2-3pm Sat 26/4/14 from Melbourne.
It will be a PICO party balloon floating north from Melbourne to Sydney and possibly will reach QLD.

Details:

12g payload
434.650Mhz, USB
10mW, dipole antenna
100baud RTTY, 425Hz shift, ASCII 8,None,1

Altitude: 7000-8000m

RTTY callsign PS

RTTY tracking with dl-fldigi on http://spacenear.us as PS-5.
Assistance with manually tracking on RTTY is greatly appreciated.

Software for tracking is here:
http://ukhas.org.uk/projects:dl-fldigi

Setup instructions:
http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:tracking_guide

You will need a SSB receiver that can receive 434.650Mhz.

There will be a 30 second gap between groups of 3 RTTY transmissions.

The payload will also send APRS packets every ~8 minutes on 145.175Mhz.
APRS callsign is VK3YT-11

Will be in #highaltitude chatroom on irc.freenode.net
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=highaltitude

The aim of the flight is to try out both APRS and RTTY on a new tracker, and to see how we can complement manual tracking with APRS.

New tracker:
1g lighter than its brother

Photo

Updated Prediction:

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Update 1: 5pm 26/4.

Released at 2pm, The balloon has been going well, APRS works fine, we had some heavy fading on RTTY but it seems to settle down now.

Balloon is heading towards Sydney, it does look like there should be enough coverage for RTTY reception until Sydney.

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Update 2: 9am 27/4
Passing Newcastle, balloon is going slow at 24km/h, ready to turn left. Still being tracked by VK2 team.

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Updated prediction shows it will get to Rockhamton in 40+ hours. The battery might have been flat by then 🙁

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Update 3: 1:50pm 27/4

Looks like we had the last transmission via APRS at 1:01pm AEST.

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Total travelled distance 1072km

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PS-4 – SA – QLD flight

PICOSPACE-4 PICO balloon was released from Robe, South Australia at 8pm AEST (UTC+10) Monday 14/4/2014.

Details:
– Party foil balloon
– 13g payload with APRS tracker and dipole antenna.
– Callsign VK3YT-11
– TX frequency 145.175, 50mW

Expect to travel north through SA, and then QLD.

The payload will track the ISS space station using the Two-Line-Element (TLE) set and attempt to transmit APRS packets on 145.825 when it is within range of ISS.

Tracker:

Photo

Prediction:

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Tracking at

http://spacenear.us/tracker/?filter=VK3YT-11
http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FVK3YT-11&timerange=3600&tail=3600

Update 1:

The balloon moved north slowly for 22H between altitudes of 7000m and 8000m before it got out of APRS range at 17:55:22 AEST 15/4/2014.

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Update 2:

The balloon was heard again at 17:24:12 AEST 16/4/2014 near Mackay, QLD, before disappearing into the Coral sea.

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Total distance was 2100km, over 47H.

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The payload transmitted two packets to the ISS space station during the trip, and none was received by the ISS.

Max APRS range was 350km, which was close to the line-of-sight range at 7000m.

PS-3 – Melbourne – Sydney – NZ PICO flight

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
NewImage

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!

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Last received APRS packet from Australia coast

Photo

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

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

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Path of the whole trip:

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Total distance travelled ~3561km

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

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

PS-1 flight

The first PicoSpace project HAB launch was a success. The balloon was released from Deniliquin NSW at around 11:40am 8th Feb 2014, reached a max altitude of 36789m before landing in a paddock next to the Riverina Highway near Finley, at 2:28pm.

Some photos from Deniliquin, NSW, Australia:

IMG 4726

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We had a great day on site with huge support from trackers around NSW, VIC and ACT. Thank you all for participating and assisting with the release, and hope to see you next time!