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Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 65 – Cross-band Repeater & Wenet – Take 2!

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We’re giving it another go! AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 7th of September, 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 14th of September.

This will be a re-flight of the Horus 63 payloads, which will include our cross-band repeater payload and Wenet imagery payload. This time we hope to achieve a burst altitude of >35km, which will enable repeater coverage between Adelaide and Melbourne! We are looking for stations in Victoria and South-West NSW to listen out for balloon telemetry, and give us a call on the repeater!

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

Details of the frequencies in use on this flight are:

  • FM Crossband Repeater: 145.075 MHz Input (91.5 Hz CTCSS), 438.975 MHz output.
  • Wenet Imagery on 443.5 MHz. (Now receivable using a web browser! See below!)
  • Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
  • Backup Horus Binary payload, on 434.210 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!

During the flight, all the payloads can be tracked lived on the SondeHub-Amateur tracker here!

FM Cross-band Repeater Payload

This will be a re-flight of our cross band voice repeater, which performed very well on Horus 63. This is 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!

Primary Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.200 MHz – HORUS-V2

Reprogrammed RS41The 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!

If you try receiving the telemetry from this flight, you’ll need a SSB-capable 70cm receiver (or a SDR), and the Horus-GUI telemetry decoder software. A brief guide on setting this up is available here: https://github.com/projecthorus/horusdemodlib/wiki/1.1-Horus-GUI-Reception-Guide-(Windows-Linux-OSX)

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:

WebHorus – 434.200 MHz

We’ve also got a guide on how to use this here: https://youtu.be/VrgqF7ly-mU

Backup Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.210 MHz – VK5ARG

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:

WebHorus – 434.210 MHz

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 will be using the new ‘Wenet v2’ mode, as trialed on Horus 64B. 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

This payload will be reverting to a PiCam v2, so we don’t hit the de-focusing issues encountered with the PiCam v3.

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/

Next AREG Meeting 15th August – Annual General Meeting – Presentation from Adrian KO8SCA on the 2026 Bouvet Island DXPedition!

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The next AREG meeting will be held on Friday the 15th of August at the Fulham Community Centre – Phelps Court, Fulham. This will be the AREG’s Annual General Meeting, which will include the election of the 2025-2026 committee.

3Y0K Logo

At this meeting we’ll have a presentation from Adrian KO8SCA on the plans for the February 2026 Bouvet Island DXpedition (3Y0K).
Bouvet Island is the most remote uninhabited island on earth, and is currently the #10 most wanted DXCC. It’s a serious challenge to even just get there, let alone get equipment onto the island, set up a station, and then work the many many stations expected to be calling. 
Adrian will be presenting via Zoom from the US (a very awkward time difference), so a big thanks to him for agreeing to present to us!

Doors open at 7.00pm and the presentation kicks off at 7.30. Everyone is welcome to attend. If you’ve never come along to one of our meetings, we’d love to see you there, all guests are welcome. For our remote members, the meeting will be broadcast via Zoom

After the talks we’ll all be given an opportunity to have an eyeball QSO among ourselves whilst enjoying a tea or coffee and a biscuit.

73, Mark VK5QI

Horus 64 A & B – Flight Reports

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In July of 2025 we tried something we hadn’t tried in a while – doing a balloon launch in Winter. Finding a weekend suitable for a large balloon launch in Winter is pretty tricky – the right balance of ground weather conditions (low wind, no rain) and a flight path that doesn’t end up hundreds of km to the east means that launches often get delayed and delayed – and that’s exactly what happened!

The intention of Horus 64 was to re-fly our cross-band repeater payload up to an altitude of at least 35km, allowing repeater coverage between Adelaide and Melbourne. Unfortunately we were never able to get the repeater payload in the air due to poor weather, but we did still do 2 balloon launches with lighter payloads.

Another objective of the launch was to experiment with, and promote the use of the new web-browser-based decoders for our telemetry transmissions. These decoders were developed by Michaela VK3FUR, and make reception of our Horus Binary tracking telemetry, and our Wenet imagery, much more accessible.

Horus 64A – 6th July 2025

What I’m now calling ‘Horus 64A’ launched on Sunday the 6th of July. It was pretty clear during the preceding week that the repeater launch wasn’t going to be possible, with the flight path prediction landing in inaccessible areas north of Waikerie. The call was made Friday night to scrub the full-size launch and send up a lightweight tracking payload under a small (100g) balloon, to give stations some telemetry to practice reception on.

Horus 64A – Waiting for launch.

Weather at the launch site turned out to be ideal, with low winds and clear skies. Unfortunately the flight path predictions were unchanged, so a full launch was still not possible. Mark VK5QI and Will VK5AHV filled the (very small) balloon with a few interested onlookers, and the balloon was released on time at 10AM.

The flight proceeded as expected until about 15km altitude, where we suspect that some of the insulation around the payload gave out, resulting in a sudden drop in temperature and the failure of the tracking payload at just under 17km altitude. No further signals were received. A dashboard showing telemetry from this flight is available at this link.

Thanks to the stations that received telemetry from this flight: BARC-RRR,VK3APJ,VK3APJ-2,VK5AI,VK5AKK,VK5ALG,VK5APR,VK5ARG,VK5CBM,VK5CV,VK5FD,VK5GA,VK5GY,VK5IS,VK5KX-i5,VK5LN,VK5NEX,VK5NTM,VK5QI-9,VK5RK,VK5ST-4,VK5TRM,VK5ZAR,VK5ZBI-1,VK5ZBI-2,VK5ZM,VK5ZMD

Horus 64B – 13th July 2025

Our second try at the repeater launch was for the following weekend. Again, as we got closer to the launch day the weather forecasts were looking pretty poor. This time we had a combination of very high wind speeds at the launch site, as well as a flight path that would take the payloads east into Victoria, landing somewhere inside the Murray Sunset National Park.

Not a very good flight path prediction!

When it became clear that a full-size launch was once again not going to be possible, the plan pivoted to another smaller launch – this time with a tracking payload *and* an imagery payload, accepting that these payloads might not be recovered on the launch day.

Michaela VK3FUR was able to quickly build up a Wenet imagery payload to fly on this launch. This payload also included software which alternated between the ‘classic’ Wenet modulation (in use since ~2018), and a new ‘Wenet v2’ mode, which is more spectrally efficient. We also added on a PiCam v3 as one last test to see if we could get the auto-focus behaving correctly. Michaela drove over from Melbourne along with Geordie VK3CLR and Alex VK3SNP the day before the launch! You can read her writeup on the payload and flight here.

Launch!

On arrival at the launch site, it was immediately obvious that a full-size launch would have been a very bad idea – it was windy! After finding a sheltered spot to fill, it was decided to try flying a 600g Hwoyee balloon to give the imagery payload a bit more time in the area. Filling went fairly quickly, with many hands available to help out with ‘balloon management’.

Launching was a bit more challenging – with wind gusts picking up right as we were preparing for launch, and the balloon almost hitting the ground! The entire launch was captured by Autumn VK5CLD:

Reception Experiments

With the flight heading to the east at over 200 kph we decided it wasn’t worth chasing, and instead headed up to a lookout near Palmer to attempt to track the payloads for as long as possible.

Many different antenna setups receiving imagery and telemetry!

Peter VK5KX and Matt VK5ZM were already on-site, with Pete’s tracking antenna setup, and Matt’s ‘pelican case portable’ receiver. After the launch crew arrived, we had some fun trying out different reception setups, including receiving Wenet imagery using a mobile phone, RTLSDR, and a 18-element yagi! (Worked great, but very difficult to point accurately!). Michaela demonstrated a cheap Wenet reception setup which she describes in her blog post.

Burst, Landing & Delayed Recovery

With a 600g balloon, we had expected a burst altitude around 30km. Unfortunately the balloon failed at just over 20km altitude, and we suspect it might have been due to a collision with one of the payloads!

The payloads descended under parachute to a landing approximately 13km north-east of Underbool, Victoria. The last telemetry packet was received by VK5TRM at an altitude of just over 1km, from 130km away. The last imagery packets were received at an altitude around 2.2km by VK5KX’s portable setup, at a range of 250km.

The next day, Michaela & company visited the predicted landing area (a bit of a detour, while heading home to Melbourne) and were able to spot the payloads. A short walk across a paddock, and the payloads were easily recovered.


Michaela was able to create a time-lapse showing the images captured by the payload in the last few hours after landing, before the battery failed:

Wenet Payload Imagery

Unfortunately we hit the PiCam v3 focus issues again – this time we think it was caused by the autofocus algorithms not handling the movement of the payloads during flight. Essentially all of the images taken after launch were out of focus. On our next launch we will most likely switch back to the PiCam v2 or PiCam HQ.

The ‘Wenet v2’ modulation performed well, and we’ll be switching to this on all future launches. Further information on how to receive this will be provided before the next launch.

A selection of images from the flight as shown below:

Flight Statistics

The following stations received the ‘ITSWINDY’ Horus Binary Telemetry during this flight: AAA-RX,Angaston-RX,BARC-RRR,VK3APJ,VK3BKQ,VK3FUR,VK3TNU,VK5AKK,VK5ALG,VK5ARG,VK5BRL,VK5CBM,VK5CLD-9,VK5FD,VK5GA,VK5GY,VK5HS,VK5HW,VK5IS,VK5KAW,VK5KX-i5,VK5LN,VK5NE,VK5NEX,VK5PJ,VK5QI-9,VK5RK,VK5ST-4,VK5WE,VK5ZAR,VK5ZBI,VK5ZBI-2,VK5ZM,VK5ZMD,VK5ZQV,vk5cv,vk5trm

The furthest reception was from VK3BKQ near Geelong, at a distance of 495 km!

You can find a breakdown of packets received on the flight dashboard, available at this link.

The following stations received imagery packets from the ‘Wenet Classic’ transmitter (VK3FUR):

  • VK5LA: 28413 packets (6.94 MB)
  • VK3TNU-2: 45224 packets (11.04 MB)
  • VK5KX-9: 23358 packets (5.70 MB)
  • vk5cld-2: 4438 packets (1.08 MB)
  • VK5QI-9: 24411 packets (5.96 MB)
  • VK5HS: 20952 packets (5.12 MB)
  • VK5ZM: 6831 packets (1.67 MB)
  • VK5CLD-9: 20679 packets (5.05 MB)
  • VK3SNP: 225 packets (0.05 MB)
  • VK5IS: 15612 packets (3.81 MB)

The following stations received imagery packets from the ‘Wenet v2’ transmitter (VK4XSS):

VK3SNP: 35751 packets (8.73 MB)
VK3SNP-M: 619 packets (0.15 MB)
VK5QI-PHONE : 1252 packets (0.31 MB)
Vk3fur-mobile: 6984 packets (1.71 MB)
VK5ZM: 15631 packets (3.82 MB)
vk3clr: 600 packets (0.15 MB)
VK3FUR: 47417 packets (11.58 MB)
VK5KX-9-v2: 22843 packets (5.58 MB)

Thanks to everyone that received telemetry and imagery on this flight, and in particular thanks to those stations that gave WebHorus and WebWenet a go!

Next Horus Launch – August / September

We still want to try and get the cross-band repeater in the air. This will hopefully happen in late August or early September – information will be posted here once a date is finalised.

We can also announce that we will be performing high-altitude balloon launches for Fleet Space later in the year, as part of their LaunchBox STEM program. The first of these launches is expected to occur in mid-October.

AREG July 2025 Meeting – “Contest Station Planning and Design” by Grant VK5GR

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Grant’s talk was recorded and is available here:

The next AREG meeting will be held on Friday the 18th of July at the Fulham Community Centre – Phelps Court, Fulham. (Not at last month’s venue in St Peters – we’ll probably be back there at a future meeting!)

This month’s presentation is from Grant VK5GR, on considerations around setting up a station for a large worldwide amateur radio contest!
Grant will take you through various considerations when designing a HF contest station, starting with HF Propagation analysis and station location selection (and how to use the ARRL HF Terrain Analysis package). We will then take us through some station design ideas intended to maximise your ability to be heard at the right times and on the right bands to maximise your competitiveness. Ways of operating multiple HF transmitters from one location will also be discussed, as well as the types of gear to consider. Finally, he will take a look at contest logging systems and show how easy it is to record your QSOs. During the evening, Grant will specifically work through the planning that has so far taken place around the AREG effort to activate VL5X in this year’s 80th Oceania DX Contest during the October long weekend.

Doors open at 7.00pm and the presentations kick off at 7.30. Everyone is welcome to attend. If you’ve never come along to one of our meetings, we’d love to see you there, all guests are welcome. For our remote members, the meeting will be broadcast via Zoom, and the talk will be recorded for later viewing on Youtube.

After the talks we’ll all be given an opportunity to have an eyeball QSO among ourselves whilst enjoying a tea or coffee and a biscuit.

73, Mark VK5QI

Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 64 – NOW 13th JULY 2025 – TELEMETRY & WENET ONLY

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Update: Thanks to everyone that helped out with this launch! A full writeup will be published in the coming weeks.

AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 13th of July, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACST.

This launch is currently planned to be performed from the Mt Barker High School Oval with the launch team arriving on site from around 9:30 AM. Note that access to the oval is via Stephenson street, and parking near the oval is extremely limited. We are expecting significant wind gusts at the launch site – be prepared!

TRACKING LINKS

Details of the frequencies in use on this flight are:

  • Wenet Imagery on 443.5 MHz. (Now receivable using a web browser! See below!)
  • Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz – callsign ‘ITSWINDY’

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!

During the flight, all the payloads can be tracked lived on the SondeHub-Amateur tracker here!

Primary Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.200 MHz – HORUS-V2

Reprogrammed RS41The 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!

If you try receiving the telemetry from this flight, you’ll need a SSB-capable 70cm receiver (or a SDR), and the Horus-GUI telemetry decoder software. A brief guide on setting this up is available here: https://github.com/projecthorus/horusdemodlib/wiki/1.1-Horus-GUI-Reception-Guide-(Windows-Linux-OSX)

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:

WebHorus – 434.200 MHz

We’ve also got a guide on how to use this here: https://youtu.be/VrgqF7ly-mU

Wenet Imagery – 443.500 MHz

Imagery on this flight will be transmitted via the Wenet downlink system, which uses 115 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).

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 – ‘Classic’ Mode

This payload will be alternating between standard Wenet transmissions and an experimental new version of Wenet which runs at a slightly lower baud rate and a narrower bandwidth. The transmitted mode will change between images, so if you aren’t decoding anything immediately, be patient and wait for the next image!

You can try out receiving the new version of the Wenet signal using WebWenet at this link:

Wenet Web Receiver – 443.5 MHz – Experimental Wenet ‘v2’ Mode

 

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)

Please note the transmit frequency of 443.5 MHz, which may require listeners to re-configure their Wenet setup. 

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

AREG June 2025 Meeting – “ESP32 – A magic microcontroller that can do anything!” by Adam Jenkins – NOTE DIFFERENT MEETING VENUE!

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This month’s presentation was recorded and is now available on Youtube here:

The next AREG meeting will be held on Friday the 20th of June at a new meeting venue we are trialing – the St Peters Youth Centre, on Cornish Road, Stepney, within Linde Reserve.

This month’s presentation topic will be from Adam Jenkins, on ESP32 Microcontrollers!

ESP32 Development Boards Review and Comparison - Maker Advisor

Adam will discuss the possibilities inherent in the ESP32 microcontroller for communications. With built-in Bluetooth, WiFi, and a dual-core CPU, the ESP32 is changing the maker world and opening up new possibilities that will enhance radio projects—from remote station control and APRS beacons to digital mode interfaces and portable logging tools. Adam will discuss the capabilities of the ESP32, programming basics, and how it can interface with RF hardware.

Doors open at 7.00pm and the presentations kick off at 7.30. Everyone is welcome to attend. If you’ve never come along to one of our meetings, we’d love to see you there, all guests are welcome. For our remote members, the meeting will be broadcast via Zoom, and the talk will be recorded for later viewing on Youtube. After the presentation we will be holding a Special General Meeting to vote on a special resolution for updates to the AREG constitution. AREG members please check your emails for information on this!

After the talk and meeting we’ll all be given an opportunity to have an eyeball QSO among ourselves whilst enjoying a tea or coffee and a biscuit.

How to find us this month!

The St Peters Youth Centre building is located at the end of Cornish Road, Stepney, with the main entrance off Cornish Road. You can find

Parking is available at:

  • Cornish Road, Stepney
  • The Linde Reserve Carpark, off Nelson Street, Stepney (including a Jolt EV charger!)
  • Even more parking in the other Linde Reserve carpark, off Stepney Street; and
  • Parking across Nelson Street, in The Avenues Shopping Centre.

73, Mark VK5QI

AREG April Meeting – Good Friday Park Picnic / Foxhunt / HF Activation

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For April’s meeting (on Friday the 18th of April, the Good Friday public holiday), AREG will not be holding a meeting at the Fulham Community Centre. Instead, we’ll be trying something a bit different and meeting up in a park for a BBQ lunch, HF activation, and some fox-hunting!

We’ll be meeting at the lower section of the Morialta Conservation Park from around 11AM with parking available off Moritalta Falls Road. We’ll be near one of the BBQ areas, so look out for a red AREG flag!

We’ll have a HF station going to activate the Morialta Conservation Park (VKFF-0783) so listen out for VK5ARG on the bands! There will also be a fox-hunting (amateur radio direction finding) course set up around the park, with plenty of equipment available to borrow and give fox-hunting a go.

If you’re coming along, we suggest you bring a chair, drinks, and food for lunch (the club will provide some basic BBQ fare too).

Hope to see you there!

AREG March 2025 Presentation: RADE – Machine Learning for Speech over HF Radio

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At our March meeting we had an excellent presentation from David Rowe, VK5DGR, on the new Radio Autoencoder digital voice mode! Thanks very much to David for giving the presentation, and pushing the state of the art in Amateur Radio!

This presentation was recorded, and is now available for viewing on Youtube: