[OZAPRS] Balloon

Wed Jul 19 10:35:03 EST 2006

Thanks all to the input so far.

I do hope the launch now goes ahead on Friday. The balloon construction 
URL is now working
http://www.alistairdickie.com

I plan to leave my home computer  with UI-View connected to the VK IS 
feed and tracking both my car and the balloon, so hopefully I if I loose 
it on direct RF I may be able to check the logs, I may even have to send 
out a BUL if I loose it in case anyone else is picking it up on RF.

I'm thinking if it reaches a potential altitude of 40'000 feet (which 
Alistair believes it may), it should hit quite a few digipeaters 
throughout VK2, so a greater concern is payload failure, rather than 
loosing the signal.

In answer to a few questions, it is no longer tethered to the clothes 
line, I've bought it in to make some mods. It should go up again some 
time this morning. I am going to continue a beacon time of 3 minutes in 
testing, although I've had a few good suggestions for smart beaconing 
settings. At the moment I am sticking to 3 minute beacons because smart 
beaconing won't really work that well when its hanging off the clothes 
line! But I am going to 'model' a few smart beacon settings. Its a pity 
I can't use altitude as part of the algorithm.

My concern with a longer beacon time is that if it beacons, say 5 
minutes before final impact, it could still be moving at around 20-30 
kph before impact, that means it could travel 2-3k before final impact. 
If the transmitter ceases transmission on impact that could be a fairly 
large search area!

I'm already thinking for my next project I will use a TNC-X with a fixed 
beacon and a PIC feeding APRS formatted telemetry into the TNC-X's 
serial port..This would also allow commands to be transmitted to the 
balloon as well (such as cutting the payload away from the balloon etc)

Anyway, I will give more updates if people are interested, and probably 
start a launch site object 12hrs prior to launch.

The Object will be IC1_LC-xx where xx is the proposed launch. I will 
change the object to IC1_LC+ once the launch has succeeded, or replace 
it with IC1_ABRT if the launch aborts.

I will also send a bulletin 12 hrs prior, and at the moment of launch .

Awaiting some feed back from CASA and the right weather now.

Regards
Craig

Andrew Rich wrote:
> I am tracking it on google earth as well (add as a network link)
>
>
> VK1HCT-11 Position
>
> http://db.aprsworld.net/datamart/googleEarth.php?call=VK1HCT-11
>
> VK1HCT-11 Line
>
> http://vk4tec.no-ip.org/cgi-bin/google_line.cgi?Call=vk1HCT-11
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Andrew Rich
> Amateur radio callsign VK4TEC
> email: vk4tec at tech-software.net <mailto:vk4tec at tech-software.net>
> web: http://www.tech-software.net
> Brisbane AUSTRALIA
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Craig Turner [mailto:craig at craigturner.id.au]
> Sent: Tuesday, 18 July 2006 11:32 PM
> To: Tony Hunt; VK / ZL APRS Users
> Subject: Re: [OZAPRS] Balloon
>
>
> Thanks Tony,
>
> We don't have a proposed launch time yet, Alistair wants to go as early
> as possible (wind is calmer for launch) I want to go as late as possible
> (worried about the power budget for a long flight!!)
>
> I will put details of the launch etc in the object status. I'm pretty
> excited by the whole thing. Its only as I was putting it together that I
> really started to see the power of APRS. I will have the ability to
> check localized weather conditions by using WX stations as I travel etc.
>
> I do wish more use was made of APRS for objects, such as repeaters etc,
> as it would help to be able to instantly know what repeaters I'm in
> range of. At the moment I am manually assembling a oziexplorer way point
> file with repeaters using the repeater map at vkham.com, but I think
> some of the repeaters there are not active. I will experiment with
> turning the waypoint file into an overlay file for UI-View as well.
>
> I'll take your advice on 40m under consideration, and it may be
> problematic as I will be running a laptop with an inverter, which may
> create a bit of hash on 40m. I'll give it a trial tomorrow in the car.
>
> I just checked, Alistair's page is down from my QTH as well. It was
> working about 2 hours ago. I'll let him know.
>
> Regards
> Craig
> VK1HCT
> Tony Hunt wrote:
>   
>> Craig ..  This is great..
>>
>> A couple of things.. I could not get your friend Alistair's URL to work
>> here..
>>
>> Just on the 40m frequency. I would sugest something a bit higher than
7045
>> .. Something above 7060 perhaps. Try 7110 or 7115 7105 even .. Its hard
>> somtimes to find a frequency clear between 7060 and 7100 .. Stations
like
>>     
> to
>   
>> run all sorts of nets at odd times on some of those frequencies. 7070
is a
>> mobile call channel and Ive been told off for being on there while
>>     
> driving..
>   
>> I guess in VK5 we wont see much if anything here unless its via the
>>     
> Internet
>   
>> feed.
>> Have you got a proposed launch time? Maybee in the status beacon of the
>> object you could include some info on launch time and wind direction
>> expected ..
>>
>> Tony  Hunt  VK5AH
>>
>>
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>> Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
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>>
>>     
>
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