VK Logger Ham Radio Forum Archive

03:16 UTC ... RST 449 in the headphones on the Beverage pointed at 150 degrees azimuth ... visible on the waterfall but unreadable on the 220 degree Bev, and not even visible on the waterfall on the 095 degree phased Beverage array in that direction.



73,

Considering the 'wake up' sequence was transmitted at around 17:40 UTC, PS-56 must have been about 1 hour after sun rise. Taking into account the best signal by far from here was on the SSW Beverage, I suspect the following general location ... http://www.qsl.net/z/zl1rs//images/PS-56_20151219_1740_...

Yes Joe, PS-56 indeed. John VK2FAK got some interesting screen shots of the same thing at that time. This morning I grabbed the following screen shots of the signal while receiving it on my SSW Beverage ... there is no doubt! http://www.qsl.net/z/zl1rs//images/PS-56_20151219_1846UTC_1.jpg http://www...

Our 'dead reckoning' position of 'somewhere between WA and South Africa' has been proved by us to be completely wrong! Further observation of the very distinct waterfall patterns and the propagation characteristics of the last two nights indicate it is highly likely that PS-56 is over the Atlantic O...

The UV-5RE+ here shows similar results to VK4REX's UV5RA ... spurious content >50dB down.

The 2m output level on KD8TWG's Motorola seems to be about 5dB down on the two Boafengs ... why? Certainly not apples vs. apples.

"quick and unscientific" ... hmmm.

73,

Yes Len, I saw the first JT9 transmission in a following time slot fizzle from a good signal to NIL part way through ... no doubt it drowned at that time. PS-55 was located pretty much at the right hand edge of that weather map you posted, at about 20% up from the bottom ... right in that nasty patc...

In 2002 I used a similar "California Amplifier" MMDS units (part # 31732) to receive the 2400MHz downlink of the AO-40 satellite. A rectangle of dielectric material (Kapton?) was supplied with the surplus unit by the vendor which was placed over the printed circuit RF bandpass filter to lo...

PS-53 seems to have gone down in the mountains of Nevada. The descent rate was fairly quick, so probably a balloon envelope failure. It is interesting to look at the VK3YT WSPR spots over the past 24 hours ... apart from K4COD and the odd spot from others like AK4AT, despite there being about 4 time...

... Is it Just me or is it propagation but signals on the launch have been fantastic , Interested if Andy has changed the antenna configuration Similar thought here, but Andy says the antenna is the same. On the other hand, HF propagation (on 30m especially) was quite good the last couple of days, ...

...as mentioned in the notes from Andy, the JT9 is at 1000Hz on the waterfall when tuned to the standard WSPR 'dial frequency'. Maybe propagation has just picked up for you ... a change from -22 to +2 in your WSPR decodes over the last hour, so you no doubt have the JT9 signal decoding now! Good luc...

Hi Paul, A pair of GI7B's should do 800 Watts, but only if: the HT voltage under load is sufficient ... probably 1800 to 2000V is required. the input is matched (some how or another) ... but it is obviously not at the moment (but see comments below) the output is tuned/loaded correctly ... can't be ...

Hi Paul, If changing (lowering) the bias increases the anode current, then highly likely the tubes are OK. If there is doubt about one tube or the other, you can remove the anode connection to each one in turn and see if there is still varying anode current when the bias control is varied. By "...

Hi Andrew,

VK4JAM QG62lr 0352 -19 -0.7 1824 @ VK3YT1C53VVQ7 86.4kmph 5, 3, 17.5°C, 3.984V 0.7V
VK4JAM QG62lr 0353 -16 -0.6 1824 @ 271J1/Z15ATAV -19.415,146.119,9269m, 01C3

... you have it 100% OK now

Bob VK3ZL made a superb job of Steve's 2m GS-31 amplifier ... the construction methods and finish were of 'commercial quality' and a credit to his abilities. There were more than a few moments of quiet reflection here when his passing was announced ... http://www.vklogger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7...

Awwwww ... and we love you too PS-46

PS-46 moved south and crossed the track it traveled on for the first circumnavigation. Hopefully it has drifted out of the 'quiet air' it had been hanging in for the past days and will move onwards to the east again at a decent speed. http://www.qsl.net/zl1rs/images/ps46_2.jpg PS-46 current position...

... PS-46 is testing our ability to receive weak signals using our antenna systems during these propagation conditions, antenna gain becomes paramount For receiving on HF (particularly the lower bands like 30m) it is not so much gain, but an improvement in Signal to Noise that gives a better result...

FB Phil, I ran a couple of predictions at different heights (only 100m different) and the results were quite different. PS-46 will do what it will do :) I did a lot of playing with antennas to receive the HF telemetry from these 25mW PS balloons over the last year. As you noticed, the present system...

Oh how things can change in 24 hours! According to the reality of the present situation (only a few hundred km traveled since yesterday and the present speed of 21km/hr) and the latest Hysplit 'model' from NOAA now shows 4 or 5 days doing loop-the-loops in the Atlantic Ocean before moving slowly acr...