PICO balloon HF payload testing

[VK3YT]

Hi all,

PS-21 will be a PICO HF payload, planned for release next weekend 20-21 Sept.
The payload will be under testing this weekend 13-14 Sept.

Details:

TX 15mW
Olivia 8/250 on 10.142Mhz. (Dial freq at 10.141Mhz, low tone at 1Khz)
JT65 at 10.142Mhz
WSPR at 10.1402Mhz (standard WSPR freq on 30m).

For testing the transmissions will be alternating between Olivia, WSPR and JT65.
Test antenna is an inverted V 6m high.

Currently WSPR is being received in VK5 and VK8.

Assistance with testing is greatly appreciated.

Please send comments/results to this forum, directly to vk3yt@comms.net.au, or on IRC #picospace channel.

Hope to see you on SNUS!

Andy

[VK2FAK]

Hi all...

Ok Andy , will tune up and leave the radio running see how we go..

John

[VK2FAK]

Hi Andy....

Getting a good copy here in Sydney.....-14 db.. on WSPR.. mind you, for some reason it was only half of the WSPR signal expected....1m not 2m...?

John

[VK3YT]

Should be 2m John, looks like you caught the second half!

[VK2FAK]

Hi all....

Lets us know when and if your change modes...picospace or here..

John

[VK3YT]

Hi John,
The modes are cycled through automatically, we should have Olivia first, then WSPR and 2 packets of JT65, one encoding the callsign and altitude, and one for the lat/lon.
Andy

[VK3BQ]

Listening for wspr in Melbourne.

0046 -24 -1.7 10.140204 0 VK3YT QF22 10

[VK3MIX]

Is the idea to be able to decode all 3 without changing frequency?

I've managed to do Olivia (not successfully yet - bad checksum)and JT65 but not WSPR or is WSPR a bit to low to be possible?

[VK3YT]

Is the idea to be able to decode all 3 without changing frequency?

I've managed to do Olivia (not successfully yet - bad checksum)and JT65 but not WSPR or is WSPR a bit to low to be possible?

Hi Andrew,
Same problem here I can't receive them all without changing freq.
Regards,
Andy

[VK3MIX]

Hi Andy,

Has Olivia been working your end?
I don't think I have received one which has come back good. So far they all seem to have a bad check sum at my end.

$$VK3YT,4,03:15:37,-35.7T62,144.9024,50,8.86,4,3,3703,0-0006*EDD2

Cheers,
Andrew

[VK3YT]

Hi Andy,

Has Olivia been working your end?
I don't think I have received one which has come back good. So far they all seem to have a bad check sum at my end.

$$VK3YT,4,03:15:37,-35.7T62,144.9024,50,8.86,4,3,3703,0-0006*EDD2

Cheers,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,
If you haven't already done it, try to turn off RSID, set the FEC block to 8, and tune margin to 100 and see if that helps.
Regards,
Andy

[VK2FAK]

Hi all..

If this was a Satellite I would say its in a tumble....lol

This is Olivia on 30m...

[VK3MIX]

Hi Andrew,
If you haven't already done it, try to turn off RSID, set the FEC block to 8, and tune margin to 100 and see if that helps.
Regards,
Andy

That was one of first things I did. 15mw at ground level might be just a tad weak for me to receive however JT65 seems to be no issues.

[VK5EI]

Receiving WSPR on 30m no problem but unable to see any JT65 or Olivier, no traces on SpecLab

[VK2FAK]

Hi all...

Seem to be having some issues with IRC..

Not sure if the Beacon was running last evening, but I lost most of the signals....and other VK3's with a little bit more power were coming in at -25 dB on wspr......so I don't think the 10dBm made the distance....

[VK5EI]

last reports
Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az
2014-09-13 21:24 VK3YT 10.140209 -20 0 QF22le 0.01 VK3KCX QF22qd 37 97
2014-09-13 21:24 VK3YT 10.140210 -14 0 QF22le 0.01 VK5MR PF96lh 709 308
2014-09-13 21:24 VK3YT 10.140207 -24 0 QF22le 0.01 VK8KMD PG66wh 1891 323

[VK2FAK]

Hi all...

I guess Andy has turned it off to do some work....

Prop seems to be a bit all over the place.....but I think some altitude may help quite a bit..

[VK3YT]

Thanks all,

The tracker is back now.

WSPR now alternates between 30m and 40m.

Will see how things go today.

None of Olivia packets were received yesterday, which is supposed to be the primary telemetry channel.

Regards,
Andy

[VK2FAK]

hi all..

Mornin Andy

yeah I gathered it was giving us problems...but altitude may help Olivia...

the issue with WSPR is that there is no position data..

[VK3YT]

hi all..

Mornin Andy

yeah I gathered it was giving us problems...but altitude may help Olivia...

the issue with WSPR is that there is no position data..

Technically we can encode position data in WSPR packets, but that means we can't rely on the network of spotters to get the data as it will not be standard beacons.
Bit of work though, for now I might just use the power field for altitude. Then we will know roughly where the balloon is!