Quick Flight Report:

Thanks to everyone that helped launch and track today’s launch! It was a little bit breezy at the launch site, but with many hands we were able to get everything in the air.

Unfortunately the MeshCore payload on this flight wasn’t heard from after launch – we are unsure of the cause of this and will have to do some more investigations and testing before trying again later in the year.

The other Horus Binary tracking payloads performed well and were tracked by many stations around South Australia and Victoria. The flight reached a maximum altitude of 38.461km, well above the expected 30km altitude, before bursting and descending to a landing near Hopetoun, Victoria. The payloads were spotted on descent, and picked up by a local landowner!

Horus 73 Flight Path

Telemetry dashboards for the two tracking payloads are available here:

• HORUS – https://grafana.v2.sondehub.org/goto/dSLhzvfDg?orgId=1
• VK5ARG – https://grafana.v2.sondehub.org/goto/i9otzvBDg?orgId=1

Our next Project Horus launch will probably not be until after Winter and should hopefully see the return of the Cross-Band repeater – see you then!

Launch Announcement Info (old):

Project Horus’s next launch is currently planned for Sunday the 28th of June. Launch time is planned for 10AM, with launch crew on-site around 9:15-9:30AM.

On this flight we will be running a MeshCore experiment provided by Liam VK5ALG. This consists of a MeshCore repeater, using the “Australia (Narrow)” Settings (NOTE: This is not the standard South Australian settings!). Please check the end of this post for information how to configure your node for this flight!

This flight will have the following tracking payloads:

• Primary: ‘HORUS’ 434.200 MHz
• Backup: ‘VK5ARG’ 434.210 MHz

You can find more information about how to decode this telemetry further below.

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

TRACKING LINKS

• • Flight Tracking via SondeHub-Amateur: https://sondehub.org/go/areglaunch

Primary Telemetry – Horus Binary v3 – 434.200 MHz – “HORUS”

The primary tracking telemetry will be transmitted on 434.200 MHz using the new Horus Binary v3 4FSK data mode.

To receive telemetry, you’ll need either a SSB-capable 70cm receiver (think IC-7100/705/9700, FT-817, etc), or a SDR (e.g. RTLSDR or AirSpy), and some kind of 70cm antenna. Horus Binary is very robust, so it doesn’t take much antenna to receive this telemetry – a small vertical will work just fine!

Our decoding software is available for a range of platforms:

• Windows / Mac – Horus-GUI – If you’re running Windows or a newer Mac, you can use our ‘Horus-GUI’ telemetry decoder software! Make sure you are on v0.6.0 or newer to decode the Horus Binary v3 telemetry. We have a detailed guide on setting this up, which is available by clicking here!
• Windows / Mac / Linux / Android / iPhone – WebHorus – On almost any platform (including many mobile phones!) you can also decode the Horus Binary telemetry in a web browser using either audio input, or a RTLSDR (Android / Chrome only) by clicking this link! 
• Raspberry Pi / Linux – If you have a spare RTLSDR and a Raspberry Pi (or other linux machine), you can set up a dedicated Horus Binary receiving station by following this guide.

Amateurs in the Adelaide and Central SA region are 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!

Backup Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.210 MHz – VK5ARG

A backup tracking payload will be transmitting on 434.210 MHz also 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:

WebHorus – 434.210 MHz

MeshCore Repeater Payload – “SA-HorusHAB-VK5ALG-RP”

This flight will include a MeshCore repeater payload operating using the “Australia (Narrow)” settings. This should allow relaying of messages from the Victorian MeshCore network into South Australia. This payload does not have an onboard GNSS receiver, so will not be beaconing a valid position.

To communicate via this payload, you will need to configure your MeshCore node as follows:

• Radio Settings -> Selected Preset -> “Australia (Narrow)”
  • For reference, the Australia (Narrow) preset uses the following Settings:
    • Frequency: 916.575 MHz
    • Bandwidth: 62.5 kHz
    • Spreading Factor: 7
    • Coding Rate: 8
• Experimental Settings -> Path Hash Size -> Default Path Hash Size -> 2-byte
• Do not enable repeater mode on nodes in South Australia! 

Communication on MeshCore will be mostly via the Public chatroom.

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone that helped track today’s flight! The launch was a huge success, with the payload reaching 28.8km and landing in a paddock near Lameroo. All payloads were recovered in good condition. Stay tuned for a writeup within the next few weeks!

Project Horus’s next launch is currently planned for Sunday the 14th of June, with a backup date the following weekend. Launch time is planned for 10AM, with launch crew on-site around 9:15AM. This flight will be for CSIRO, flying a thermal imaging payload.

This flight is very dependent on low cloud-cover conditions. It may be cancelled and re-scheduled at late notice. 

This flight will have the following tracking payloads:

• Primary: ‘HORUS’ 434.200 MHz
• Backup: ‘VK5ARG’ 434.210 MHz
• Wenet Imagery: 443.500 MHz

You can find more information about how to decode this telemetry further below.

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

TRACKING LINKS

• Flight Tracking via SondeHub-Amateur: https://sondehub.org/go/areglaunch
• Live Imagery: https://sondehub.org/go/aregimages

Primary Telemetry – Horus Binary v3 – 434.200 MHz – “HORUS”

The primary tracking telemetry will be transmitted on 434.200 MHz using the new Horus Binary v3 4FSK data mode.

To receive telemetry, you’ll need either a SSB-capable 70cm receiver (think IC-7100/705/9700, FT-817, etc), or a SDR (e.g. RTLSDR or AirSpy), and some kind of 70cm antenna. Horus Binary is very robust, so it doesn’t take much antenna to receive this telemetry – a small vertical will work just fine!

Our decoding software is available for a range of platforms:

• Windows / Mac – Horus-GUI – If you’re running Windows or a newer Mac, you can use our ‘Horus-GUI’ telemetry decoder software! Make sure you are on v0.6.0 or newer to decode the Horus Binary v3 telemetry. We have a detailed guide on setting this up, which is available by clicking here!
• Windows / Mac / Linux / Android / iPhone – WebHorus – On almost any platform (including many mobile phones!) you can also decode the Horus Binary telemetry in a web browser using either audio input, or a RTLSDR (Android / Chrome only) by clicking this link! 
• Raspberry Pi / Linux – If you have a spare RTLSDR and a Raspberry Pi (or other linux machine), you can set up a dedicated Horus Binary receiving station by following this guide.

Amateurs in the Adelaide and Central SA region are 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!

Backup Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.210 MHz – VK5ARG

A backup tracking payload will be transmitting on 434.210 MHz also 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:

WebHorus – 434.210 MHz

Wenet Imagery – 443.500 MHz

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. 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:

Wenet Web Receiver – 443.5 MHz

Wenet imagery from Horus 62

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:

https://github.com/projecthorus/wenet/wiki/Wenet-RX-Instructions-(Linux-using-Docker)

During the flight, the live imagery will be available at this link: http://ssdv.habhub.org/

Horus 71 was a flight for Fleet Space, as part of their 2026 LaunchBox STEM program. In this program, the participating schools compete to have their RASCube-LB flown under a high altitude balloon – launched by AREG!

This is the third launch we’ve performed for Fleet Space, with the previous two reported on in this post.

The winning schools this round were The Gap State High School in Queensland, and Ashdale Secondary College in Western Australia – congratulations to the teams!

Launch

While we did have a lot of cloud cover (making day unsuitable for a launch of the CSIRO payload, still to be launched), we couldn’t have asked for calmer launch site weather! Setup for the launch and filling went smoothly, with many helpers on-site to make things easier. At the launch site we also had Ed from Robinson Aerospace, capturing video of the event on behalf of Fleet Space, to share with the student participants.

The balloon train was able to be raised perfectly vertically into the air, and after a small delay to let a light aircraft clear the area, we had a short countdown and a perfect launch!

Thanks to Andy VK5AKH for the launch footage!

Chase & Recovery

Out on the chase this flight were:

• Mark VK5QI, Will VK5AHV and Autumn VK5CLD
• Ed Robinson & Father
• Peter VK5APR

With the predicted flight path heading out towards Karoonda, the chase teams headed off to Tailem Bend to grab an early lunch. While waiting around, they noticed the balloon had burst slightly earlier than expected at an altitude of 26.969 km, somewhat lower than the expected 31 km. The teams quickly ran back to their cars and headed off for the landing area, which ended up being only 24km to the west of Tailem Bend. The last few km of the descent dropped almost straight down, and the teams were able to get in position to watch the payloads land (with a bit of a bounce!) in an empty paddock (footage from Autumn VK5CLD):

Horus 71 Flight Statistics

Horus 71 Flight Path

Wenet Payload & Imagery

Due to the issues with the ‘HQ’ imagery payload, the Wenet payload on this flight was using a PiCamera v2. Usually we have good success with these, but unfortunately it looks like newer models of these still have thermal drift problems. During this launch we noticed the focus drifting out of alignment as we passed into the tropopause. Still, we ended up with quite a few nice photos! We’re hoping to have the Wenet ‘HQ’ payload back in operation for the next launch.

Thanks to Peter VK5KX for setting up his excellent ground station to receive imagery on this flight! His station received the bulk of the image data that was seen live on the web, with a small amount coming from Mark VK5QI’s chase car receiver.

Telemetry Reception Statistics

On this flight we had the following receivers for the telemetry payloads:

• Primary (‘HORUS’): BARC_RRR, Gum, VK3APJ,   VK3BKQ, VK3BQ, VK3TAP, VK5AH, VK5AI, VK5AKK, VK5ALG, VK5APR, VK5ARG, VK5BRL, VK5DLW, VK5DSP, VK5FD, VK5GA, VK5GY, VK5HW, VK5KX, VK5KX-9, VK5LN, VK5NEX, VK5OCD, VK5QI-1, VK5QI-9, VK5ST-5, VK5TUX, VK5ZAP, VK5ZAR, VK5ZMD, VK5RK, vk5is, vk5mhz, webhorus-p9zuu5
• Secondary (‘VK5ARG’): BARC_RRR, VK3APJ, VK3BKQ, VK3BQ, VK5ALG, VK5APR, VK5ARG, VK5BRL, VK5KX-9, VK5QI-9, VK5ST-5

The longest receive distance was by VK3TAP, at a range of 627km!

SondeHub-Amateur Tracker Showing Horus 71 flight and receivers

You can find dashboard with per-receiver reception information at the following links:

• HORUS: https://grafana.v2.sondehub.org/goto/iIqJZjADR?orgId=1
• VK5ARG: https://grafana.v2.sondehub.org/goto/WgJ_WCAvR?orgId=1

Thanks to everyone that helped received telemetry on this flight!

Next Launches

Our next launch will most likely be for CSIRO – we’ll be looking out for a weekend with clear weather to get their imaging payload in the air. This could be happening as soon as the 14th of June, however given the generally poor weather we have in Winter, we can expect this to shift to the right. Stay tuned to this website and the VK5 local broadcast for launch updates.

Following this, we hope to finally fly the VHF/UHF cross-band repeater again, hopefully sometime in July/August.