To all members who participate with AREG in the yearly River Paddling Marathon 200 event held each June long weekend, please be advised that we are holding a planning workshop to kick off 2026 this coming Friday, January 16th, starting from 7.30pm at the club rooms located at Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, Fulham.
Canoe’s ready to start the 100km version of the Marathon
This workshop is open to AREG members who have participated in the past, or who are interested in taking part in 2026. This will be an interactive discussion session where we will be reviewing what happened in past years, and where we will discuss ways of improving the event and how AREG executes the communications requirements that go with it.
Happy New Year everyone. Please be aware that the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group regular monthly meetings take a break in January during the summer holidays. The group will be back meeting in person from February 20th 2026!
The next Project Horus launch is planned to occur on Sunday the 18th of January. This will be a flight to test out a few new payload ideas, including:
A re-flight of the PiCam v3 Wenet imagery payload, now with a camera shroud to hopefully assist autofocus.
The first test of a tracking payload running a new Horus Binary v3 mode.
A Meshtastic beacon from the SA Meshtastic Users Group (which includes quite a few AREG club members!).
The launch site will be either the Mt Barker High School Oval, or the Auburn Community Oval, depending on weather conditions. This will be decided on the Wednesday before the launch.
The launch time is expected to be our usual 10AM, with launch crews arriving on-site around 9-9:30 AM.
Details of the frequencies in use on this flight are:
Primary Horus Binary Telemetry on 434.200 MHz
Experimental Horus v3 Binary Telemetry on 434.210 MHz
Wenet v2 Imagery on 443.5 MHz.
Meshtastic Payload on the Adelaide standard frequency of 918.875 MHz, ShortFast mode, Slot 16. Information on the Adelaide Meshtastic network is available here.
On this flight we encourage new listeners to try out our new web-browser-based decoding software for Horus Binary and Wenet – find out more about this further below!
The primary tracking telemetry will be transmitted on 434.200 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode. Amateurs in the Adelaide and Central SA region are also encouraged to get involved with the flight through receiving and uploading flight telemetry from our 70cm band tracking beacons. Every piece of telemetry data is valuable to the flight tracking and recovery teams so if you can help join the distributed receiver network to collect that data you will be making an important contribution to the project!
Note that you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.199 MHz for the 4FSK signal to be centred in your receiver passband and hence be decodable.
Horus Binary telemetry can now also be received using your web browser, using either a SSB receiver or even a RTLSDR!
Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:
This launch will include our first time flying our new Horus Binary v3 mode! This is an upgrade to the Horus Binary telemetry system giving users more flexibility and allowing easier addition of custom fields.
This will be transmitting on 434.210 MHz. The modulation is the same as Horus v2 (100 baud 4FSK), so it’ll sound the same, but unless you’re running our beta decoding software it will not decode correctly!
There are a few options if you want to try receiving the Horus v3 telemetry on this flight, they are:
You can find out more information about Horus v3, and how to get the beta-version software by clicking here!
Wenet Imagery – 443.500 MHz – USING NEW v2 MODE!
Imagery on this flight will be transmitted via the Wenet downlink system, which uses 96 kbit/s Frequency-Shift-Keying to send HD snapshots. Reception of the Wenet imagery requires a RTLSDR, and a 70cm antenna with some gain (a 5-element Yagi is usually enough).
We’ll once again be trying out the PiCam 3 camera (which we have had focus issues with on previous flights), this time with some new software changes, and a new shroud around the camera to reduce the effect of wind on the autofocus mechanism.
We will be using the new ‘Wenet v2’ mode, as used successfully on recent Horus launches. There is information on updating existing Wenet receive setups available here.
Wenet can now be received on almost any modern computer, and even some newer android devices, using the new WebWenet software! This operates entirely within a web browser. Information on how to get setup to use this is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euo4BGB6wUU
Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:
We encourage new listeners to try out the WebWenet software for decoding signals on this flight – however you can also still receive the signal using the Linux-based decoder, with details on this available here:
This payload will be beaconing its position approximately once a minute using the Meshtastic network. It will also be acting as a Meshtastic router, hopefully enabling packet relay over much longer distances than are usually possible.
Through 2025 AREG and Project Horus have been participating in the LaunchBox program, a reimagining of a STEM program that AREG was a part of back in the 2010s, where we flew student-built payloads on high altitude balloon launches. Fleet Space has re-started the program and expanded it Australia-wide, with hundreds of year 7-8 students participating in the 2025 program!
As part of the program Project Horus has now performed 2x high altitude balloon launches, one as part of the ‘Summit to the Stratosphere’ event on November the 2nd, and another on the 14th of December.
Horus 67 – 2nd November 2025 – “Summit to the Stratosphere” Event
As the planned culmination of the 2025 LaunchBox program, Fleet Space held an all-day STEM event at the Mt Barker Summit Sport & Recreation Park. This was mainly targeted at the students participating in the program, but was also open to the public. During the program the student teams were competing for one of two payload slots on a high-altitude balloon launch to be performed on the day. There were a range of displays, including the CSIRO ‘Mission Control’ truck (who let us show the SondeHub Tracker and imagery on their huge video wall), robotics displays, and a lot more! Over 700 people (students and public) attended the event over the course of the day.
AREG ran a ground station and display stand at the event, which was a great opportunity to promote amateur radio to the public. Thanks to everyone that helped out on the stand throughout the day, and in particular Peter VK5KX for bringing all of his receiver equipment!
The weather was pretty bleak all morning, with high winds and showers causing the launch team to have to quickly bring the payloads undercover a few times during launch preparations. Gusty winds around the launch site’s grandstand were monitored using ‘sounding’ party balloons, which showed strong wind shear not far above the ground – the balloons flew sideways! This resulted in the decision to not launch the student payloads, instead launching the tracking and camera payloads, along with a lightweight Robinson Aerospace RASCube-LB PCB stack, essentially the same payloads that were flown on Horus 66. The camera payload had the LaunchBox mascot, ‘Scout’, sitting in front of the camera – unfortunately Scout wasn’t secured that well and broke off at launch.
Many hands made easy work of the balloon fill, even as it started to rain again, and a lull in the wind was taken advantage of to get everything in the air. Unfortunately we were all a bit busy at the time and don’t have any video footage or imagery of the launch! The payloads quickly ascended into a thick cloud layer, and the chase teams headed off to the south-east to get in place for recovery.
Imagery was receiver right through the flight thanks to multiple ground stations being deployed. The ground-station at the launch site was unfortunately affected by RF interference from the CSIRO video wall – thankfully Autumn VK5CLD’s receiver was able to get most of the missing packets! The thick cloud layer did make for a lot of grey images on ascent, leading us to wonder if the camera was still functional, but eventually the flight made its way out the top and gave us the nice black-sky images we were hoping for.
At just over 18.2km altitude the balloon burst, much lower than we had expected. The payloads tangled up after burst, resulting in a higher than expected descent rate, and even some damage to one of the payloads boxes.
Michaela VK3FUR and Geordie VK3CLR were able to recover the payloads shortly after landing, discovering that almost 2/3 of the balloon was tangled up with the parachute, explaining the high descent rates.
Horus 67 (LaunchBox) Flight Statistics
Launch Date:
2025-11-01T23:32:21Z
Landing Date:
2025-11-02T00:50:57Z
Launch Site:
-35.07782, 138.89282
Landing Site:
-35.61543, 139.75464
Distance Travelled:
98 km
Maximum Altitude:
18202 m
Horus 67 Flight Path
Preparing for and performing this launch was a huge effort, made much easier by the many volunteers that helped out on the day. In particular I’d like to call out Michaela VK3FUR, Geordie VK3CLR, and Harper VK1TTY, who travelled all the way from Victoria to help out with the event!
Telemetry Reception Stats
The primary tracking payload (HORUS-V2) was received by the following callsigns:
A dashboard showing Wenet reception statistics is available here.
Horus 68 – 14th December 2025 – Student Payload Launch
Horus 68 was the follow-up to November’s launch, with the aim of finally launching the two winning LaunchBox payloads. This was a much quieter launch compared to the last, with a small team performing the launch from the Mt Barker High School oval, with the student teams watching the SondeHub tracker and live imagery online.
Graeme VK5RE captured the launch well:
With the payloads on their way, the launch team quickly packed up and departed for the predicted landing area near Nildottie. Peter VK5KX and Matt VK5ZM were setup on a lookout overlooking Palmer, running the primary ground station for this flight. Peter also had a 915 MHz Yagi on his tracking mount, with Ed from Robinson Aerospace receiving telemetry from the RASCube-LB payloads.
Despite some signal fading due to the payloads swinging around, we had excellent imagery reception throughout the flight:
Balloon burst occurred as expected, just above 31km altitude, and the payloads descended to a landing a few km to the east of Nildottie. After obtaining access permission from the landowner, the chase teams were able to drive in and recover the payloads which were all in good condition.
The primary tracking payload (HORUS-V2) was received by the following stations: BARC-RRR,VK3BKQ,VK3IDK,VK5AI,VK5AKK,VK5AKK-1,VK5ALG,VK5ALG-9,VK5ARG,VK5BL,VK5CV,VK5FD,VK5GY,VK5HW,VK5KX-9,VK5KX-i5,VK5LN,VK5NE,VK5NEX,VK5OCD,VK5QI-9,VK5RM,VK5SJ,VK5ST-4,VK5WE,VK5ZAP,VK5ZM,VK5ZMD,VK5ZRL,VK5RK,VK5IS,VK5ZMD
The backup tracking payload (VK5ARG) was received by: BARC-RRR,VK5ALG,VK5ALG-9,VK5ARG,VK5KX-9,VK5QI-9,VK5ST-4,VK5ZM,VK5ZRL/2
The furthest receiver was VK3BKQ, located near Melbourne at ~602 km range!
The Wenet imagery payload was received by:
VK5ZM: 44491 packets (10.86 MB)
VK5KX-9: 249921 packets (61.02 MB)
VK5QI-9: 194109 packets (47.39 MB)
VK5ALG-9: 41995 packets (10.25 MB)
VK5IS: 506 packets (0.12 MB)
Dashboards showing detailed telemetry for each payload are available at the following links:
Thanks to Fleet Space for running the LaunchBox program – we’re proud to be involved in this once again and to be able to share the fun of high altitude balloon launches and amateur radio with a wider audience! The LaunchBox program will be back next year, and you can expect at least 2 balloon launches as part of this.
We next expect to launch sometime in Early/Mid January 2026, making use of some leftover helium. This will likely comprise of 1 or 2 flights with Horus Binary tracking payloads onboard, and possibly a Meshtastic payload from the SA Meshtastic Users Group.
In 2026 we’re hoping to get back to launching some of our larger payloads, including the cross-band repeater and possibly even our DVB-S video payload – stay tuned!
The next Project Horus launch will be on Sunday the 14th of December, as part of Fleet Space’s LaunchBox STEM program.
LaunchBox is a reimagining of a STEM program that AREG was a part of back in the 2010s, where we flew student-built payloads on high altitude balloon launches. Fleet Space has re-started the program and expanded it Australia-wide, with hundreds of year 7-8 students involved. The ‘Summit to the Stratosphere’ event held on the 2nd of November had over 700 attendees, but due to weather issues we were not able to launch the student developed payloads, hence this second launch!
Apologies – the writeup for the November 2nd Launch is still in progress…
Above the clouds on the November 2025 LaunchBox flight!
This launch is currently planned to be performed from the Mt Barker High School Oval, which is accessible from Stephenson Street, Mt Barker.
Mt Barker Launch Site
The launch time is expected to be our usual 10AM, with launch crews arriving on-site around 9-9:30 AM.
Details of the frequencies in use on this flight are:
Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
Backup Horus Binary telemetry on 434.210 MHz
Wenet v2 Imagery on 443.5 MHz.
On this flight we encourage new listeners to try out our new web-browser-based decoding software for Horus Binary and Wenet – find out more about this further below!
The primary tracking telemetry will be transmitted on 434.200 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode. Amateurs in the Adelaide and Central SA region are also encouraged to get involved with the flight through receiving and uploading flight telemetry from our 70cm band tracking beacons. Every piece of telemetry data is valuable to the flight tracking and recovery teams so if you can help join the distributed receiver network to collect that data you will be making an important contribution to the project!
Note that you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.199 MHz for the 4FSK signal to be centred in your receiver passband and hence be decodable.
Horus Binary telemetry can now also be received using your web browser, using either a SSB receiver or even a RTLSDR!
Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:
A backup tracking payload may be transmitting on 434.210 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode, and can be received in the same way as the primary tracking payload, with information above. For this payload you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.209 MHz. Note that this payload may not fly if we need to cut weight!
Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:
Imagery on this flight will be transmitted via the Wenet downlink system, which uses 96 kbit/s Frequency-Shift-Keying to send HD snapshots. Reception of the Wenet imagery requires a RTLSDR, and a 70cm antenna with some gain (a 5-element Yagi is usually enough).
We will be using the new ‘Wenet v2’ mode, as used successfully on Horus 64B and Horus 66. There is information on updating existing Wenet receive setups available here.
Wenet can now be received on almost any modern computer, and even some newer android devices, using the new WebWenet software! This operates entirely within a web browser. Information on how to get setup to use this is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euo4BGB6wUU
Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:
We encourage new listeners to try out the WebWenet software for decoding signals on this flight – however you can also still receive the signal using the Linux-based decoder, with details on this available here:
The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held this coming Friday, November 21st . The presentation this month is by Dean VK5HQ who will take people through the work that the AREG Repeater sub-group has undertaken at Summertown to rebuild it and prepare it to become the SA Repeater network hub repeater. He will also take you though the rest of the linked repeater network sites to give you an understanding of the reach and operation of the central SA network.The meeting was held at the Fulham Community Centre.
UPDATE: Even with the wild weather, we were able to successfully get a launch in the air! Thanks to everyone that helped out with launch, promoting AREG and recovering the payloads. A writeup will be posted at some point. We expect our next launch to be sometime early-mid December.
The next Project Horus launch will be on Sunday the 2nd of November, as part of Fleet Space’s LaunchBox ‘Summit to the Stratosphere‘ STEM event, which is the culmination of this year’s LaunchBox program.
LaunchBox is a reimagining of a STEM program that AREG was a part of back in the 2010s, where we flew student-built payloads on high altitude balloon launches. Fleet Space has re-started the program and expanded it Australia-wide, with hundreds of year 7-8 students involved. Two lucky teams will have their payloads flown on a high-altitude balloon launch into the stratosphere!
Adelaide as seen from Horus 66
This launch will be held at the Mt Barker Summit Sport & Recreation Park, with a launch time expected to be 10AM, though this is very much subject to change on the day. Please note that the launch site will be closed to the public until after the launch time – see below for how you can get involved with the launch through receiving our tracking and imagery payloads!
A full-scale launch will include our regular tracking payloads, a Wenet imagery payload, and 2 of the student payloads. If the weather on the day is poor, we have the following backup options:
Details of the frequencies in use on this flight are:
Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
Backup Horus Binary telemetry on 434.210 MHz
Wenet v2 Imagery on 443.5 MHz.
On this flight we encourage new listeners to try out our new web-browser-based decoding software for Horus Binary and Wenet – find out more about this further below!
The primary tracking telemetry will be transmitted on 434.200 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode. Amateurs in the Adelaide and Central SA region are also encouraged to get involved with the flight through receiving and uploading flight telemetry from our 70cm band tracking beacons. Every piece of telemetry data is valuable to the flight tracking and recovery teams so if you can help join the distributed receiver network to collect that data you will be making an important contribution to the project!
Note that you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.199 MHz for the 4FSK signal to be centred in your receiver passband and hence be decodable.
Horus Binary telemetry can now also be received using your web browser, using either a SSB receiver or even a RTLSDR!
Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:
A backup tracking payload will be transmitting on 434.210 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode, and can be received in the same way as the primary tracking payload, with information above. For this payload you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.209 MHz.
Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:
Imagery on this flight will be transmitted via the Wenet downlink system, which uses 96 kbit/s Frequency-Shift-Keying to send HD snapshots. Reception of the Wenet imagery requires a RTLSDR, and a 70cm antenna with some gain (a 5-element Yagi is usually enough).
We will be using the new ‘Wenet v2’ mode, as used successfully on Horus 64B and Horus 66. There is information on updating existing Wenet receive setups available here.
Wenet can now be received on almost any modern computer, and even some newer android devices, using the new WebWenet software! This operates entirely within a web browser. Information on how to get setup to use this is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euo4BGB6wUU
Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:
We encourage new listeners to try out the WebWenet software for decoding signals on this flight – however you can also still receive the signal using the Linux-based decoder, with details on this available here:
Horus 66 was launched to test out some payloads for the upcoming Fleet Space LaunchBox STEM event (November 2nd), and to help chase teams test out their equipment. Unlike our Horus 65 attempt, the weather was excellent this time around, and no balloons were lost!
The launch was performed from the Mt Barker Summit Sport & Recreation Park, which is where the LaunchBox STEM event will be hosted. This gave us a chance to test out the site and see how well we could receive telemetry and imagery.
Also on this launch was a RASCube-LB payload from Robinson Aerospace, with the aim to validate the radio link (on the 915 MHz LIPD band) on a real launch. These payloads have been used in the LaunchBox program, and 2 of these will be launched at the event.
Setup & Launch
We had a good number of attendees at the launch site, including Laura from Fleet Space, and Simon from Robinson Aerospace. Peter VK5KX had his automatic tracking ground-station, on which we added a 915 MHz Yagi to support reception of the RASCube-LB payload. Matt VK5ZM brought his portable ground station, and we also had a few chase cars along to test out their systems.
Launch preparations went smoothly, with only light winds at the site. The launch was performed right on time at 10:30AM, with the balloon visible for about 10 minutes, before it ascended through clouds.
Filling the balloon, photo by VK5ZM
Just after launch, photo by VK5ZM
Just after launch, photo by VK5ZM
Flight & Recovery
The flight progressed as expected from our predictions, heading swiftly to the north-east, before slowing and turning to the west as it rose up to a maximum altitude of 35100m before balloon burst.
Horus 66 Flight Path
The landing was in mallee scrub approximately 10km north-east of Overland Corner, in the Riverland. Peter VK5PE, Bruce VK5MRB and Ivan VK5HS were able to access the landing area and recover the payloads for us – thanks guys!!
Bruce VK5MRB (left) and Peter VK5PE (right) at the landing site.
Wenet Imagery
For this launch we flew a PiCamera v2, to ensure we didn’t hit the focus problems encountered with the PiCam v3 on the last few imagery attempts. We ended up with excellent imagery throughout the flight, though we did hit some haze and colour balance issues at times.
The small number of Wenet receivers for this flight did an amazing job, with almost 100% image reception from launch through to landing. The following stations contributed imagery data:
VK5ZM: 85705 packets (20.92 MB)
VK5HS/p: 115982 packets (28.32 MB) (Running WebWenet)
VK5APR: 17450 packets (4.26 MB) (Using WebWenet on their mobile phone at the launch site!)
VK5QI-9: 137530 packets (33.58 MB)
VK5KX-9: 301637 packets (73.64 MB)
VK5IS: 214118 packets (52.27 MB)
VK5HS: 176737 packets (43.15 MB)
A dashboard showing telemetry from the Wenet payload is available here.
Horus Binary Tracking
As usual, we had a good roundup of receivers from all around South Australia tracking the Horus Binary payload. The following callsigns were seen to submit telemetry:
A dashboard showing telemetry from this flight, including per-receiver reception statistics is available here.
The longest distance reception was by Michael VK5LN, at a range of 426km. At the launch site, Peter VK5KX’s tracking system was able to continue receiving the payload as it descended behind hills, likely through some combination of knife-edge refraction and tropospheric ducting. The last packet received from the launch site was at 178km range, 2300m altitude, and a reported elevation from the launch site of -0.1 degrees (with 4 degree elevation hills in the way!).
Peter’s IC-705 receiving Horus Binary telemetry just before landing.
The last Horus Binary packet received by Peters station. -0.1 degrees elevation!
Peter’s ground station looking directly at hills.
Up Next – LaunchBox – Sunday 2nd November
Our next launch will be as part of Fleet Space’s LaunchBox program, occurring on Sunday the 2nd of November. This launch is primarily an event for the student participating in the LaunchBox program, so at this stage we don’t expect the site will be open to the general public around the launch time, though it should be open later in the day.
You can still get involved by receiving telemetry and imagery from the flight, and tracking the launch online. In particular we are looking for more Wenet imagery receivers, as these live images provide great engagement for the students!
More details on tracking this flight will be posted on the AREG website within the next week.
