Project Horus 70A/B Report – Test & Tune Flights

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Horus flights 70A & 70B were ‘test & tune’ flights, giving receiving stations a chance to update their decoding software to receive our new ‘Horus Binary v3’ telemetry mode. These were run on the 15th and 29th of March, with just a single tracking payload flown on each launch.

Horus 70A – 15th March 2026

This was the first of the test & tune flights, launched at 10:30AM on a nice calm and sunny day at Mt Barker.

Waiting for launch!

The payload on this flight was a single Vaisala RS41-SGE radiosonde, reprogrammed with the RS41ng open-source firmware. A Hwoyee 200g balloon was used, with a slow ascent rate targeting around 23-34km burst altitude – we ended up achieving a burst of 28.7km! The payload landed in a paddock approximately 15km to the north of Lameroo.

We had a great turnout of receivers on this flight, with 34 stations uploading telemetry for the new Horus Binary v3 mode. These were as follows:

AX5AA, BARC_4, Gum, VK3BQ, VK5AI, VK5AKK, VK5ALG, VK5APR, VK5ARG, VK5BL, VK5CV, VK5DSP, VK5GY, VK5HS/p, VK5HW, VK5KX, VK5LN, VK5NEX, VK5OCD, VK5OI, VK5PJ, VK5QI-9, VK5SFA/R, VK5ST, VK5ZAR, VK5ZM, VK5ZMD, VK5ZMK, VK5ZTS, VK5RK, VK5IS, webhorus-jms, webhorus-jyyrhv, webhorus-p9zuu5

Horus 70A Receiving Stations (Green dots)

The longest received distance was to Andrew VK3BQ with a range of 529km, and the last packet was received by Ivan VK5HS at 113km range, both excellent efforts!

A dashboard for the flight is available by clicking here.

Horus 70B – 29th March 2026

Another calm launch day! This time around we used a smaller 100g balloon, targeting about 20km altitude. The payload was also a re-programmed Vaisala RS41 radiosonde, however this time it was modified to run off a single AA battery. This reduces the runtime to < 8 hours, but also reduces the payload mass to less than 40 grams!

Horus 70B just before release.

We ended up with a slow flight tracking north from the Mt Barker launch site, ascending to 23825m before bursting and landing north of Kersbrook.

Screengrab of the Sondehub-Amateur tracker during the flight, showing many receiving stations

We had a great round up of receiving stations, with 34 unique callsigns contributing to the tracking effort! It was also great to see a few new callsigns on the list compare to the previous flight. The full list of receiving stations is as follows:

BARC_RRR, Gum, MILEEND, VK5AKK-H, VK5AKK-V, VK5ALG, VK5ALG Mac ,VK5APR, VK5ARG, VK5BL, VK5CV, VK5DSP, VK5FLY, VK5GA, VK5HS/p, VK5HW, VK5KX, VK5LN, VK5NEX, VK5OCD, VK5OI, VK5QI-1, VK5QI-9, VK5ST, VK5ZAP, VK5ZBI, VK5ZM, VK5ZMD, VK5ZTS, VK5RK, vk5is, vk5st-991, vk5zts-1, webhorus-p9zuu5

The longest reception on this flight was by Michael VK5LN in Pt Lincoln, at a range of 285km – great work Michael!

A dashboard for this flight is available by clicking here.

Next Project Horus Launches

Thanks to everyone that updated their tracking software and received these launches! We’re now much more confident in being able to move to Horus Binary v3 telemetry on our upcoming flights – having tracking redundancy through the many home stations receiving our flights really helps in ensuring they can be safely tracked and recovered.

Our next launch is planned to occur on Sunday the 26th of April, with a backup date on Sunday the 3rd of May. We are also expecting to perform a launch in mid to late May as part of the LaunchBox program. More details on these launches should be release in the next few weeks!

AREG April 17th Meeting – Software Defined Radio for Radio Amateurs

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Modern amateur radio is changing rapidly, and Software Defined Radio (SDR) is at the centre of that change. Many amateurs already own an SDR — or use one indirectly — but few have had the chance to understand how it actually works or why it feels so different from traditional radios.

This upcoming lecture will provide a plain‑language introduction to SDR, aimed specifically at amateur radio operators, not engineers or programmers.

Block diagram of a typical SDR Radio system (courtesy https://www.rfglobalnet.com)

Rather than focusing on mathematics or theory, the talk will explain SDR concepts using familiar radio ideas: receivers, mixers, filters, IF stages, and transmitters — and show how these functions are now being done in software instead of hardware.

Topics will include:

  • What “software defined” really means in a radio
  • Why SDRs can see so much spectrum at once
  • The role of analogue‑to‑digital converters and why bit‑depth matters
  • Why some SDRs are better at weak‑signal work than others
  • How modern SDRs replace IF strips with digital processing
  • What limits SDR transmit power and why filtering still matters
  • How SDRs are used by amateurs, researchers, and modern networks

The lecture will also touch on GNU Radio, the most widely used SDR software framework, explaining what it does and why it has become so important — without requiring any programming knowledge.

Whether you are:

  • Curious about SDR but unsure where to start
  • Using an SDR “black box” and want to understand what’s inside
  • Interested in digital modes, weak‑signal work, or experimentation
  • Wondering how modern radios differ from classic superhets

…this session is designed to demystify SDR and connect it back to the radio principles amateurs already know.

No prior SDR experience is required — just an interest in radio.

So when are where is this event? AREG meets at the Fulham Community Centre, off Phelps Court, in Fulham, Adelaide. Doors open at 7.00pm, Friday 17th April.

This month the meeting will begin with a short Special General Meeting to address a minor change to the group’s constitution, followed by the presentation which will likely start around 7.45pm.

For our regional members, the meeting will, as usual, also be interactively streamed via Zoom. If you are a regional amateur and are interested in finding out a little more about AREG, guest passes are available to our Zoom meetings on request. Please contact our secretary – via vk5arg@areg.org.au

 

Foxhunting today! 2pm Victoria Park Wetlands

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A reminder that the next foxhunt run by the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be run at 2pm today, starting with a foot based hunt around the Victoria Park Wetlands in the south park lands in the City, off Beaumont Road via South Terrace.

A vehicle based hunt will follow starting from ~3pm on both the 146 and 438 MHz amateur bands.

Fox hunts are now run monthly on the 1st Saturday of the month and are open to everyone to participate in. We hope to see you there!

 

AREG March Special Meeting – WSPRDaemon Wideband SDR Radio

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March General Meeting – Change of Time and Venue

Firstly, AREG wishes to advise that we will not be holding our normal March Friday night meeting on the 20th of March, as our meeting venue is not available this month due to it being used as a polling booth for this year’s state election. Instead, AREG is pleased to announce that we have a special guest presenter, Rob Robinett AI6VN, who will join us online from California via Zoom at a special meeting time of Saturday March 7th at 10AM Australian Central Summer Time.

WsprDaemon: A low cost, high performance, all band WSPR decoding system

Rob Robinett, AI6VN, will present an in-depth overview of WSPRDaemon, a low-cost, wideband software-defined radio (SDR) system designed for continuous monitoring of the MF and HF spectrum. WSPRDaemon uses the 16 bit / 128 Msps  RX-888 SDR receiver to digitize the entire 0-64 MHz spectrum which enables the simultaneous recording and reporting of 51 signals: all 11 of the WWV, WWVH and CHU time signals, all 18 of the 2200m – 6 meter WSPR bands, and all 22 of the FT4 and FT8 bands.

When the RX-888 is clocked by a GPS-Disciplined Oscillator, WSPRDaemon records WWV with sub-microhertz accuracy while WSPR ‘spots’ are reported with 0.01 Hz accuracy. That accuracy results in Doppler shift measurements like those shown in the above spectrogram, and from which radio scientists are gaining insights into previously poorly understood ionospheric dynamics, Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs), and space-weather-driven propagation effects.

The system operates continuously 24/7 and automatically uploads WWV/CHU recordings to HamSCI servers where they are archived and made available for scientific research and collaborative analysis.

The presentation will cover system architecture, SDR hardware considerations, time and frequency accuracy requirements, software processing chains, and examples of real-world data products, including observations captured during geomagnetic storm events. Rob will also discuss how WSPRDaemon integrates into the HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) framework and how amateur radio operators can deploy stations that contribute meaningful, research-grade data.

This talk will be of particular interest to members involved in SDR, weak-signal modes, propagation research, frequency metrology, and advanced amateur experimentation.

 

Next Project Horus Launches – Horus Binary v3 Test & Tune Flights – Sunday 15th & 29th March

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UPDATE: Thanks to everyone that received our first test & tune flight on the 15th of March! We had a great turnout of receivers, with 34 stations tuning in to the telemetry! We’ll be back for another one of these test & tune flights on Sunday the 29th of March, at the same launch time!

Project Horus will be performing their next high-altitude balloon launch on Sunday the 29th of March – aiming for a 10:30AM launch time on both Sundays.

These launches will be flying our new ‘Horus Binary v3’ tracking payloads, and are intended to give receiving stations more opportunities to get setup to decode this new mode before we switch to it on future launches!

These will be ‘fire-and-forget’ launches – no chase, no recovery – there is no need to set up portable receiver stations – see what you can receive from home!

To be able to receive the Horus Binary v3 telemetry on this flight you will need to update to the latest versions of our decoding software – more details below!

Both launches are 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 10:30AM, with launch crews arriving on-site around 10:00 AM. Please note that we are not intending to chase or recover these payloads!

TRACKING LINKS

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.

The v3 update adds much more flexibility in the telemetry format, giving payload developers the ability to add extra sensors and send much more data than was previously possible.

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!