Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 74 – 30th August 2026 – Cross-band Repeater – Mt Barker Launch!

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AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 30th of August, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACST. If we have to scrub due to poor weather, the backup launch date will be the 13th of September (avoiding Fathers Day).

This launch is currently planned to be performed from the Mt Barker High School Oval with the launch team arriving on site from around 9:15 AM. Note that access to the oval is via Stephenson street, and parking near the oval is extremely limited. 

TRACKING LINKS

This flight will feature our cross-band repeater payload, enabling amateur radio operators around the state to communicate via the balloon! We’ll also have our usual Wenet imagery payload along for the ride.

On this flight we will also 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!

  • FM Crossband Repeater: 145.075 MHz Input (91.5 Hz CTCSS), 438.975 MHz output.
  • Wenet Imagery on 443.5 MHz.
  • Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
  • Backup Horus Binary payload, on 434.210 MHz
  • MeshCore Experiment – 916.575 MHz, Australia (Narrow) Preset

FM Cross-band Repeater Payload

This is the first test flight of a new experimental FM cross band voice repeater based around a Yaesu FT-530 handheld transceiver.The balloon repeater should be heard on:

  • INPUT: 145.075MHz with 91.5Hz CTCSS
  • OUTPUT: 438.975MHz  – 0.5W into 1/2-wave omni

Please note that this repeater is experimental, and may have performance issues or even fail completely during the flight!

To transmit to the balloon at the maximum range of 800km (once the balloon reaches 100,000ft ++) you should only need approximately 10-20W and an 2-4dB gain antenna.

Receiving the balloon at 400km range in a handheld environment should be achievable, but to hear the repeater at the maximum range of 800km you should expect to need a 10dB gain Yagi for a 0.4uV capable receiver and 2dB feeder loss

This setup is much the same as the LEO satellites but without the doppler shift.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CAN HEAR IT BEFORE YOU TRANSMIT!

This repeater will be operated as a controlled net, with the net control callsign VK5ARG – please listen out for net control before calling!

We will be offering QSL cards to stations that make a contact with net control during the flight, so get your stations setup and give it a go!

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

Reprogrammed RS41The 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/

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.

AetherSDR:- A Revolution in HF SDR Radio Software – AREG Meeting Sept 18th

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With the rise of new coding environments and increasingly powerful SDR based HF transceivers, the world of HF Radio has never been more fascinating to explore. New software with quite amazing capabilities is appearing evryday that can leverage Sofctware Defined Radio assets in new and exciting ways,

This month, AREG is pleased to present an introduction to a new HF radio software system that will revolutionise your SDR radios, from the Hermes Lite to your high end Flex radios. Steve VK5SFA will take us through the capabilities of the new AetherSDR SDR software and provide us some demonstrations of the never before seen capabilities it brings to the table for HF Amateur Radio.

How can you take part? AREG meets at the Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, Fulham on the 3rd Friday of the month. Doors open at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start. Visitors are always welcome to come along and meet the members as well. See you there!

 

AREG Radio Direction Finding: Next event 5th September

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The next AREG foxhunt will be held on Saturday 5th September at 2.00pm, starting from the north park lands, on Lefevre Road, North Adelaide.

We will start with a 2m foot based 6 transmitter foxhunt around the parklands area.

Visitors are welcome and we do have loan equipment and training available for people to use who have never hunted before. Please let us know via email to vk5arg @ areg.org.au if you are coming so we can plan how much gear to bring.

At 3.00pm those with vehicle based hunting gear will set off looking for a collection of 2m and 70cm hidden transmitters.

Liaison during the day will be via the Summertown 70cm repeater on 439.900 MHz (-5 MHz input with 91.5 Hz CTCSS access tone).

If you would like to find out more, contact us !

Next Foxhunt: August 1st 2:00pm

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The next AREG foxhunt will be held on Saturday 1st August at 2.00pm, starting from a new location in the north park lands, on Lefevre Road, North Adelaide.

We will start with a 2m foot based 6 transmitter foxhunt around the parklands area.

Visitors are welcome and we do have loan equipment and training available for people to use who have never hunted before.

At 3.00pm those with vehicle based hunting gear will set off looking for a collection of 2m and 70cm hidden transmitters.

Liaison during the day will be via the Summertown 70cm repeater on 439.900 MHz (-5 MHz input with 91.5 Hz CTCSS access tone).

If you would like to find out more, contact us via the website!

AREG Annual General Meeting 21st August

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Now for our next general meeting, members are firstly reminded that this meeting is our Annual General Meeting. We are looking for some new committee members to join the team as we say thank you to our president, Gerard VK5ZQV who is stepping down from the role after 3 years. If you feel you would like to become involved in steering AREG into the future, please consider nominating for the committee.

Introducing the Kestrel Project

At our AGM we will also have a special presentation from Derek VK5TCP.  He has been developing a community-provided distributed Receiver network for aviation, maritime and amateur radio traffic, built from an operator’s perspective, opened up so anyone with an SDR and an antenna can join it. Nicknamed Kestrel, it allows monitoring of all sorts of radio services. Derek is currently integrating ADSB, AIS, AM/FM/SSB, Meshtastic, Meshcore, scanners, remote switching, and more.

An example below is his integration of ATC Air traffic control receivers with ADSB aircraft tracking.

More advanced features and strategies will be discussed as part of the presentation. . He continues to develop and expand the platform and is looking for others to use it and contribute if you can. This will be a fascinating look at what can be done with SDR technology today and is one not to be missed.

AREG AGM Details

The AGM will be held on Friday August 21st at the Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, Fulham. Doors will open at 7.00.pm with the AGM being held at 7.30pm. The technical talk will be held on conclusion of the AGM, with tea and coffee served afterwards.

Visitors are welcome – we hope to see you there!

17th July Meeting: Designing and Fabricating Printed Circuit Boards

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The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held on Friday 17th of July, starting at 7.30pm. This month, we have Ivan VK5RS coming to show us how he got started designing and then getting fabricated professional looking printed circuit boards for his personal amateur radio projects.

He will take you through the process from end to end, including what software he was using to design and lay out boards and then how he gets them fabricated so that he can bring his projects to life. He will bring along some samples of his work and  will be able to answer your questions if you are interested in starting a similar journey. This is particularly useful for those in Amateur Radio who want to continue home brewing their own projects.

The meeting will take place at the Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, in Fulham. Doors will open at 7.00pm. Visitors are most welcome. A short business meeting will follow the presentation. We hope to see you there!

VHF UHF Field Day Contest June 2026 – Report

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AREG members made the effort to head out into the field for the 2026 WIA WInter VHF/UHF Field Day contest, setting up a portable VHF/UHF station at the club’s HF receive site west of Tarlee. The hill that the site is located on is very well placed for VHF/UHF activity with at least a 100km path back into Adelaide for many stations.

The Station

The station operated as VL5X for the day, and consisted of a tri-band 2m/70cm/23cm colinear on a roughly 5m pole strapped to the fence, plus a 6m end fed half wave vertical also strapped to the fence.

The eqiupment used was an Elecraft K3 running 100W on 6m and an Icom IC-9700 operating across the 2m, 70cm and 23cm bands.

On Air Activity

The majority of activity was on FM, although several contacts were achieved with SSB on 2m and 23cm as well. 6m was almost exclusively an SSB operation, although there were a couple of contacts on 6m FM as well on 52.525 MHz.

VL5X (Green) and where we worked during the event

Other AREG On Air Activity

Members participated in various ways in the event. On site we had visits from Nathan VK5OG, Mark VK5QI and Dean VK5HQ, whilst out and about we had Michael VK5MN operating from Yorke Peninsula and Steve VK5AG operating from Stirling. We also had several members activate from their home QTHs including Steve VK5SFA (VL5L) and Charlie VK5VC.

All up, combined with the other amateurs across Adelaide also participating we were provided with a steady flow of QSOs across the day. Thanks to everyone who took part and we wait with interest to see how we placed!

 

Next Foxhunt: Saturday 4th July 2.00pm – North Park lands (New venue)

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The next AREG foxhunt will be held on Saturday 4th July at 2.00pm, starting from a new location in the north park lands, on Lefevre Road, North Adelaide.

We will start with a 2m foot based 6 transmitter foxhunt around the parklands area. Visitors are welcome and we do have loan equipment and training available for people to use who have never hunted before.

At 3.00pm those with vehicle based hunting gear will set off looking for a collection of 2m and 70cm hidden transmitters. Liaison during the day will be via the Summertown 70cm repeater on 439.900 MHz (-5 MHz input with 91.5 Hz CTCSS access tone).