Full details to follow but just a short post to say that Anstey has had the ride of her life and has landed safely near Lameroo in the Murray Mallee. She flew to at least 36km altitude. Here is a photo gallery of the events from today!
Liftoff
Flight
Recovery
Launch Preparations to fly
Anstey the Echidna into space are continuing. Her spacecraft is ready and flight plans are being reviewed ready for liftoff.
The AREG group who are flying this payload for the Tea Tree Gully Library have been working feverishly in the background building the payloads to carry Anstey on her epic journey. Mark VK5QI has worked some long hours to get everything ready, as has many members of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group looking to receive as much of the SSDV imagery as possible.
Launch is planned for 11:00am Saturday (barring unforsean circumstances). The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will have both it’s launch and chase teams on site from 10:00am to make the final preparations.
The flight track prediction is also now firming up. It looks like it will be a long drive, with landing predicted to be north of Parrakie on the Adelaide to Pinnaroo road. Stations as far away as Melbourne should be able to hear the telemetry beacon as the balloon reaches apogee.
You can track the balloon payloads via one of the channels below:
This is the live track imagery.
How can you get involved?
The Horus telemetry system is based on a “distributed listener” principle with multiple receivers listening for the same frames, increasing the chance of picking them up correctly. Amateur Radio operators across SE Australia
are encouraged to set up their 70cm receivers and tune to the 100 baud RTTY telemetry frequency of 434.650MHz.
The more people we have collecting telemetry data and forwarding it to the internet, the greater the chance of us recovering the payloads!
Instructions of what software to download and use to decode the telemetry and forward it to the Internet can be obtained from the habhub,org website.
Also DONT FORGET, there is another balloon flying on Sunday for Launchbox – details to follow!
Project Horus is having a very busy month! Next weekend, Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th of December we are flying a balloon on each day for two separate groups.
Saturday 3rd December – Tea Tree Gully Council – Horus 39
AREG was approached recently by the Tea Tree Gully Council Library to undertake a rather unique balloon flight. Their mascot, “Anstey the Echidna” wanted to go into space, having already been around the world to France, Italy, Ireland, Japan and New Zealand. Of course the Project Horus crew was happy to oblige!
Tea Tree Gully Library – Anstey in Space
We are hoping to not only record the film of Anstey’s journey on a GoPro camera, but the images from the flight are also going to hopefully be beamed down to earth live over the new ‘Wenet’ SSDV system that the project team is developing. Amateur Radio operators will be able to help out with the flight through telemetry collection from across SE Australia.
Horus 39 Flight Details
Anstey checking out the previous flight, learning how it is done!
Liftoff is planned for 11:00am ACDT – 3rd December from a location near Mylor in the Adelaide Hills. The payloads will be:
Anstey’s flight path is predicted to take her at least 30km up into the stratosphere, and roughly 150km down range into the Murray Mallee. AREG and North East Radio Club members will be tracking the flight from a number of locations, and will have chase teams following Anstey on her journey.
Sunday 4th December – LaunchBox – STEM in Schools Program – Horus 40
The second flight of the weekend will take place on Sunday 4th December. This is a flight for LaunchBox for one of the Schools here in Adelaide. Once again student science experiments will be flown, hopefully inspiring more young people to take up a career in science.
Horus 40 Flight Details
Liftoff is planned for 10AM ACDT from Mt Barker High School. The payloads will be:
How can you get involved?
The Horus telemetry system is based on a “distributed listener” principle with multiple receivers listening for the same frames, increasing the chance of picking them up correctly. Amateur Radio operators across SE Australia are encouraged to set up their 70cm receivers and tune to the 100 baud RTTY telemetry frequency of 434.650MHz.
The more people we have collecting telemetry data and forwarding it to the internet, the greater the chance of us recovering the payloads!
Instructions of what software to download and use to decode the telemetry and forward it to the Internet can be obtained from the habhub,org website.
Note: Changed meeting week this month – 4th Friday (not the normal 3rd)
SSDV Experimental Payload – ‘Wenet’
Mark VK5QI and David VK5DGR have been working on a slow scan digital image payload for the balloon system which transmits at 115kbit/s on a new downlink channel. This system makes uses of the UKHAS SSDV server to stitch together images from packets uploaded by multiple receivers. You can read more about the system on Mark VK5QI’s blog.
Unlike analog SSTV, SSDV sends down compressed JPEG images via some form of data link. Written by Philip Heron, the SSDV software converts a JPEG image into a set of packets which can be transmitted via a radio link and then re-assembled on the ground. Unlike regular JPEG images, if a packet is lost, SSDV will still produce a full image, albeit with some portions missing.
Wenet RX software running within a Ubuntu Virtual Machine
At the meeting Mark and David will give you an insight into how it works. This system will be demonstrated in the field as well during coming Horus flights.
Meeting Time
The clubrooms will be opened from 7.45pm with the presentation starting at 8.00pm. Visitors are most welcome! You will find us here:
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Horus 38 was to be the first flight in a long time featuring payloads only for AREG and the Project Horus group. It also marked the welcome return of Terry VK5VZI to the project (who had been travelling for work for some time), who brought many new faces to the event. It was fantastic to see new people taking an interest in Project Horus.
However, as always it seems when we try these flights for ourselves, Murphy seems to come out to play, ensuring things dont quite go to plan…..
The Flight Outline
The payloads for this flight were planned to be the standard 100 baud RTTY beacon, the SSDV live imaging payload (with improved modem software), several GoPro cameras (we had one pointing up and one pointing out – the plan being to see the balloon grow in size through the flight), and we had our commandable standard flight termination payload. The main objectives were to get some more video footage for AREG’s own use, and to conduct a further test of the SSDV system under flight conditions.
Flight Preparation
Preparations for lift off went smoothly and the balloon train was quickly assembled. Since all of the payloads had been pre-assembled, the weights of everything were already known which sped up the process of getting the flight off the ground.
SSDV Ground Station
In addition to the team at Mt Barker, we also had Peter VK5KX and Andrew VK5AKH setup at Palmer on the back of the Mt Lofty ranges ready to receive the SSDV telemetry and relay it to the Internet. We had high hopes that would improve the number of pictures we could capture during the flight.
Launch
This launch, like Horus 37, was conducted under challenging conditions with squalls and wind gusts sweeping through the area prior to lift off. The surface winds were proving unpredictable, with periods of calm followed by 40-50km/h winds. We had successfully launched in conditions like this previously, but like all things, our luck had to run out eventually, and so it did this day!
At release, the wind picked up again at the wrong moment. While we avoided the payloads hitting the ground when letting it go, it then encountered a more serious obstacle. A final gust of wind pushed the balloon train into the path of a tree on the edge of the oval. For a second we thought it might just clear it, but no – alas it collected it full on. Then, after an agonizing 20-30 seconds, it freed itself (although not before mashing the polystyrene payload boxes fairly well), only to get snagged a second time in the next street. There it met it’s destruction when three of the four payloads were ripped from the balloon. The RTTY beacon, the SSDV experiment and the camera payload were all left mangled and grounded, while only the balloon cutdown payload continued on it’s flight.
David VK5DGR has “kindly” conducted a post mortem of the event on his blog which you can see here:
After going and collecting our battered payloads, we regrouped. We still had a balloon in the air to chase. So, with that, we reconfigured our chase cars and switched primary tracking to the backup telemetry feed. Unfortunately this precluded most amateurs from joining in (as the secondary is also the flight termination telecommand system and so is deliberately kept somewhat obscure for obvious reasons). We apologies for not being able to involve everyone this time. Dont worry, however, because there are two more flights planned for the very near future!
After the nasty takeoff, the flight itself went well. Murphy however wasn’t done with us yet. We had decided to bring the remaining payload down early, in order to make recovery as easy as possible. The button was pushed, the commands were acknowledged, but the payload didn’t detach! Hearts sank again as we realized we would have to track it all the way and hope that it didn’t land somewhere inaccessible. The pre-flight predictions were all based on the full payload weight being there. Once three quarters of it was left behind, the ascent rate became much higher, changing the landing zone (based on the original predicted burst height) considerably.
Luck wasn’t completely with Murphy however, and we finally had some when the balloon burst early of it’s own accord. At around 27km altitude, descent began, giving the ground crews a repreive and a relatively easy to recover landing location.
Flight Track Profile for Horus 38
The Recovery
At the end of the day, the teams converged on an empty paddock outside of Sanderston on the Murray Plains and collected the remains of the payload from the flight. Not an ideal day, but one which ended well with a successful recovery. The teams were close enough to actually see the balloon land, something we have missed for a few flights, so at least our tracking and tactical work is at the top of our game.
There are lots of lessons to learn from this flight. The main one will be to reconsider the layout of the payloads on the balloon train. With three 70cm transmitters and one 70cm receiver we had taken to spacing out the payloads considerably. This long train is what compromised the take off, and ultimately lead to the partial failure of the flight. The team is also reviewing our flight manual to consider the surface winds in more detail. Ultimately, even after 38 flights, there is still more to learn. Thats the fascinating aspect of this corner of the hobby!
73’s till next time de Project Horus
Mark VK5QI, Kim VK5FJ, Matt VK5ZM and Grant VK5GR at Maker Fare 2016
The Amateur Radio Experimenter’s Group achieved it’s goals of putting amateur radio before the public at the Adelaide Maker Faire 2016 held on November 6th, with a huge amount of interested generated from the stand and the 15 minute presentation given at the event by Mark VK5QI on Project Horus. Those who manned the stand couldn’t be happier with the response, and genuinely hope to hear further from a number of people who have had their interest sparked in the hobby in the near future!
A huge thank you has to go to Kim VK5FJ who coordinated AREG’s presence, as well as to Mark VK5QI who prepared much of the Project Horus material for the stand. A number of other members also spent most of the day there manning the stand promoting Amateur Radio, as well as to those members behind the scenes who helped with preparing publicity handouts and business cards for the event (Scott VK5TST, Gary VK5FGRY and Mark VK5QI). A huge thank you to all of you as well!
AREG certainly hopes to be back at the Maker Faire in 2017!
How does the amateur radio service relate to the maker movement you might ask? In many ways, amateur radio is the grandfather of the maker movement. People have been tinkering and experimenting, building their own equipment and radio stations, all in the quest to communicate with each other for well over 120 years!
Today, the range of things within Amateur Radio to get involved in building, designing, inventing or experimenting with is even broader, really only limited by your imagination! 
The following article from Makezine.com in the USA gives you a great introduction to the relationship between the Maker Movement and Amateur Radio.
The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group is today at the Adelaide Maker Faire 2016! Billed as the largest Maker Faire in the southern hemisphere, this is a great opportunity to come and find out more about Amateur Radio!
You can find the event in the grounds of the new Tonsley TAFE campus! AREG will be there from 10am to 4pm. Come and say hello!
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The Amateur Radio Experimenters
Group is planning another High Altitude Balloon Launch. Designated Horus 38, it will be an internal project team flight carrying payloads specifically for AREG members. Multiple payloads will be included.
UPDATE: Due to the high wind conditions at the launch site, most of the payloads did not make it off the ground (including the video and SSDV payloads). Currently only the LoRa Cutdown payload is in the air. Chase teams are en-route to recover this payload now.
Flight Track Prediction
The following is the predicted track for the balloon tomorrow. We will be targeting a 5m/s ascent rate, a 30km burst altitude, and 7.5m/s descent rate.
SSDV Experimental Payload – ‘Wenet’
Mark VK5QI and David VK5DGR have been working on a slow scan digital image payload for the balloon system which transmits at 115kbit/s on a new downlink channel. This system makes uses of the UKHAS SSDV server to stitch together images from packets uploaded by multiple receivers. It first flew on Horus 37, and after some refinement will be flown again on this flight. Information on this system is available here.
We are also going to fly an upward facing and an outward facing camera, and hope to collect images of the balloon expanding and (hopefully) bursting, as well as some HD video imagery similar to what was achieved back on Horus 12. Thanks to Scott VK5TST and Josh VK5JO for the loan of the GoPro Hero3 cameras for this flight.
The standard RTTY 70cm telemetry payload will be flying as well. Listen out on 434.650MHz USB, 100 baud ASCII-7N1. You can get involved through capturing telemetry data and relaying it back to the chase team via the Internet (details on how to setup and operate dl-fldigi are available here: ukhas.org.uk/projects:dl-fldigi
Visitors from the Amateur Radio service are welcome to come along to the launch this time (as it is not for a school or other organisation). Launch details at this stage are below, however keep watching the website closer to the time for confirmation and up to date details:
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