PS-32 Australia Day PICO balloon HF payload

[VK3YT]

Hi,

FYI PS-32 is in the air, released at 7am Australia Day 26/1/2015.

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

Dial frequency 10.138700Mhz and 14.095600Mhz (standard WSPR dial frequencies) for both WSPR and JT9.
With a different offset this will be simultaneously tracked with PS-31.
(You don't need to do anything extra to track multiple balloons)

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

Tracking as PS-32 on SNUShttp://picospace.net/tracker/new
WSPR call sign is VK3ANH http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3anh

Prediction


Assistance with tracking is appreciated.

[VK1JA]

Great stuff Andy

I'll do what I can to track both PS-31 and PS-32.

PS-31 has an offset of 1000HZ for JT9, what offset does PS-32 use?

This will put WSRP in the standard 1400Hz-1600Hz audio band, and JT9 at 800Hz/1000Hz/1200Hz, depending on flights.

EDIT - I just worked it out - it's at 1200HZ

[VK5EI]

No reports from PS-32 for several days, I presume MIA

[VK3YT]

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



Predicted path


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!

[VK3DXE]

I'm watching for it across 20m and 30m on both WSPR and JT-9. Kids have their fingers crossed...

[VK3YT]

Hi,

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

Andy