PS-29 APRS PICO balloon Mel-Syd

[VK3YT]

Hi,

FYI,

PS-29 is in the air, heading to Sydney from Melbourne.
Solar powered party balloon
50mW TX, APRS only on 145.175Mhz, with pre-emphasis alternating between packets.
Callsign VK3YT-11

http://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=12&call=a ... tail=86400
No manual tracking is required.

Prediction:


Regards,
Andy

[VK2FAK]

Hi all....

Ok Andy will keep an eye out for it....is a ways off yet..


Seems all the local APRS sites are down or gone.....r I just can't get them....?

http://www.aprs.net.au/live/sydney-area ... ctive-aprs

[VK2FAK]

H all...


Ok Andy, did this Balloon have reduced timing or no timing over night or low battery....?

Nothing heard from it now for 33mins...

[VK3YT]

Hi John,
The tracker is in shutdown mode to conserve power.

Part of the test was for a smaller battery to bring the total weight to 7.6g. Looks like this is a bit too small!
The second test is to see if the envelope will survive the sunrise

Should wake up on sunrise.
Regards,
Andy

[VK5EI]

Interesting Andy, we are all enjoying the experimenting

[VK2FAK]

Hi all...

Andy...the only problem with that idea for the Battery test, is that if the Balloon drifts off the coast during the night you may never know if it wakes up or not....

As it should have woken up,,,but no new Rx on the APRS as yet..

[VK3YT]

Hi all...

Andy...the only problem with that idea for the Battery test, is that if the Balloon drifts off the coast during the night you may never know if it wakes up or not....

As it should have woken up,,,but no new Rx on the APRS as yet..

Yes John, that was a risk, but selecting an in-land flight path for APRS coverage hasn't been easy.
Yesterday path was the best we have seen in weeks, and the prediction was changing constantly.
The window was only about one hour, so it was possible that the balloon went further east than expected during the night.

Regards,
Andy

[VK2FAK]

Hi all....

Andy, have you done an updated flight path.....based on those possible outcomes....would be interesting to have an idea where it may be.....

[VK3YT]

Hi all....

Andy, have you done an updated flight path.....based on those possible outcomes....would be interesting to have an idea where it may be.....

Here is an updated prediction