PS-60 PICO balloon APRS Olivia

[VK3YT]

Hi all,

The wind pattern looks interesting this weekend over the Eastern states and PS-60 will be up there to explore.

Planned for release at 7am Sat 30 Jan 2016
Solar powered party balloon, 10mW TX
APRS on 145.175Mhz
Olivia 8/250 with RSID on 434.649Mhz USB (Dial frequency)

Tracking as PS-60 on SNUS http://tracker.habhub.org/#!mt=roadmap& ... ay&f=PS-60
and VK3YT-11 on APRS.FI http://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=11&call=a ... &tail=3600

Prediction:


Assistance with tracking is appreciated.

Instructions for tracking here http://picospace.net/?p=736
Ignore the payload list in df-fldigi as that doesn't support autoconfig for Olivia yet.

Andy

[VK3KCX]

Hi Andy, great to see another UHF mission, I hope the weather picks up a bit. I know that there are a lot of people out there that have never fiddled with Olivia mode, just in case anybody was thinking about it and wanted an opertunity to try and decode some before Saturday morning I have set up a test signal on 434.650 dial frequency, 1500 Hz. on the waterfall. the TX will air every 5 min, ~5W into a vertical antenna from my Mt. Dandenong QTH.

I'll make sure that it is off well before theh launch, please contact me if this causes any problems.

- David.

[VK5PJ]

Hi,
have just noticed that PS60 has stopped sending its latitude...

at 06:11Z I get..

• $$PS-60,279,06:11:06,-34.0869,139.8777,9445,99.03,9,3,11,4328,1270 0103*A5BD

the next decode at 06:15 and after have a vacant latitude value

• $$PS-60,281,06:15:55,,139.9230,9475,101.12,11,3,9,4348,1003 0101*4BC5
  $$PS-60,283,06:21:17,,139.9784,9426,100.29,13,3,9,4320,1187 0106*03D8
  $$PS-60,292,06:40:58,,140.2001,9420,112.03,14,3,7,4348,0937 1102*CA57

unsure what this signifies as I still get a valid checksum that uploads.

[VK3KCX]

I did a lot better this time, my last decode was @ 2:05 from -37.1519 140.6281 - a distance of 422Ks on a 6 dB vertical stick.
Pretty happy with that!

- David

[VK3YT]

Thanks for tracking guys,
Looks like there might be issue with missing lat in some of the telemetry, I will have a look and try to find out what happened.

Regards,
Andy

[VK2QW]

HABHUB doesn't seem to be showing any UHF spots. I've been receiving and uploading OK for the last 30mins or so. Not showing on the tracker.

Tony VK2QW...

[VK5PJ]

Hello Tony,
check your decode line, you may find there is no values for latitude in there. This happened some time yesterday arvo, seems PS60 has stopped sending that value and there are two comma's in there (see my earlier post)

HABHUB doesn't seem to be showing any UHF spots. I've been receiving and uploading OK for the last 30mins or so. Not showing on the tracker.
Tony VK2QW...

Regards,

[VK2QW]

Thanks Peter,

I should have realised that was the problem.

Cheers,

Tony VK2QW...

[VK3KCX]

Not sure what is going on there, I had some good UHF decodes earlier today when it was in VIC.

[VK1JA]

What Hz should I be seeing PS-60 on the waterfall?

[VK3YT]

Thanks Peter,

I should have realised that was the problem.

Cheers,

Tony VK2QW...

Yes Tony, looks like the issue was with the missing lat in a number of packets. I have a good number of samples from you and Peter that will help with finding out what happened.
Thanks
Andy

[VK3YT]

What Hz should I be seeing PS-60 on the waterfall?

With the dial freq of 434.649Mhz the Olivia tones should start between 1100 and 1500hz
Regards,
Andy

[VK2XTC]

Whoever wrote the prediction software seems to have nailed it !!

The match between the predictions and actual is really close .

That's some piece of code .


Brian

[VK3ZYC]

PS60 seems to be sending lats and longs atm.

$$PS-60,947,09:45:59,-37.7433,150.6699,9496,91.11,11,3,-38,3200,0120 0101*B6BB

Jim, Vk3zyc

[VK1KW]

PS-60 is missing the Lat number again consequently the uploads do not seem to appear in the HABHUB tracking data.
Secondly the DL-FLDIGI does not fill the line of parameters above the green decode line however it says the checksum is good and I now have corrected the upload problem I was having with W10.
Noted also DL-FLDIGI hangs / dies and requires a reload. Maybe due previous W10 upload problem buffer full maybe?
Would be nice to have PS-60 in the active payload list.
Regards

[VK1KW]

PS-60 close by and decoding most Olivia data with good checksum but only those with Lat data included seem to be used by HABHUB tracking.

[VK1KW]

Of course the problem with APRS and /or UHF means that it may only be seen over the continent where APRS may be received.
But the third option is UHF and WSPR/JT9 to know where it is most of the time.
And APRS good for up and down flights but problematical due FEW APRS stations can receive that APRS type of fast coding for some reason plus packet crashes.
I assume its necessary to have open squelch decoding to capture APRS data?
but good fun

[VK5EI]

The flight prediction model is very close, Im getting dizzy looking at it