Through 2025 AREG and Project Horus have been participating in the LaunchBox program, a reimagining of a STEM program that AREG was a part of back in the 2010s, where we flew student-built payloads on high altitude balloon launches. Fleet Space has re-started the program and expanded it Australia-wide, with hundreds of year 7-8 students participating in the 2025 program!

As part of the program Project Horus has now performed 2x high altitude balloon launches, one as part of the ‘Summit to the Stratosphere’ event on November the 2nd, and another on the 14th of December.

Horus 67 – 2nd November 2025 – “Summit to the Stratosphere” Event

As the planned culmination of the 2025 LaunchBox program, Fleet Space held an all-day STEM event at the Mt Barker Summit Sport & Recreation Park. This was mainly targeted at the students participating in the program, but was also open to the public. During the program the student teams were competing for one of two payload slots on a high-altitude balloon launch to be performed on the day. There were a range of displays, including the CSIRO ‘Mission Control’ truck (who let us show the SondeHub Tracker and imagery on their huge video wall), robotics displays, and a lot more! Over 700 people (students and public) attended the event over the course of the day.

AREG ran a ground station and display stand at the event, which was a great opportunity to promote amateur radio to the public. Thanks to everyone that helped out on the stand throughout the day, and in particular Peter VK5KX for bringing all of his receiver equipment!

The weather was pretty bleak all morning, with high winds and showers causing the launch team to have to quickly bring the payloads undercover a few times during launch preparations. Gusty winds around the launch site’s grandstand were monitored using ‘sounding’ party balloons, which showed strong wind shear not far above the ground – the balloons flew sideways! This resulted in the decision to not launch the student payloads, instead launching the tracking and camera payloads, along with a lightweight Robinson Aerospace RASCube-LB PCB stack, essentially the same payloads that were flown on Horus 66. The camera payload had the LaunchBox mascot, ‘Scout’, sitting in front of the camera – unfortunately Scout wasn’t secured that well and broke off at launch.

Many hands made easy work of the balloon fill, even as it started to rain again, and a lull in the wind was taken advantage of to get everything in the air. Unfortunately we were all a bit busy at the time and don’t have any video footage or imagery of the launch! The payloads quickly ascended into a thick cloud layer, and the chase teams headed off to the south-east to get in place for recovery.

Imagery was receiver right through the flight thanks to multiple ground stations being deployed. The ground-station at the launch site was unfortunately affected by RF interference from the CSIRO video wall – thankfully Autumn VK5CLD’s receiver was able to get most of the missing packets! The thick cloud layer did make for a lot of grey images on ascent, leading us to wonder if the camera was still functional, but eventually the flight made its way out the top and gave us the nice black-sky images we were hoping for.

At just over 18.2km altitude the balloon burst, much lower than we had expected. The payloads tangled up after burst, resulting in a higher than expected descent rate, and even some damage to one of the payloads boxes.

Michaela VK3FUR and Geordie VK3CLR were able to recover the payloads shortly after landing, discovering that almost 2/3 of the balloon was tangled up with the parachute, explaining the high descent rates.

Horus 67 (LaunchBox) Flight Statistics

Horus 67 Flight Path

Preparing for and performing this launch was a huge effort, made much easier by the many volunteers that helped out on the day. In particular I’d like to call out Michaela VK3FUR, Geordie VK3CLR, and Harper VK1TTY, who travelled all the way from Victoria to help out with the event!

Telemetry Reception Stats

The primary tracking payload (HORUS-V2) was received by the following callsigns:

BARC-RRR,VK1TTY,VK4XSS,VK5AI,VK5AKK,VK5ALG,VK5ALG-9,VK5ARG,VK5CV,VK5DEN,VK5DJ,VK5GA,VK5GY,VK5HS,VK5HW,VK5IS,VK5KX-9,VK5KX-i5,VK5LA,VK5LN,VK5MAS,VK5NEX,VK5OCD,VK5PE,VK5PJ,VK5QI-9,VK5ST-4,VK5TUX,VK5ZAR,VK5RK,VK3ZAZ,VK5TRM,VK5ZMD

A dashboard showing reception statistics is available here.

The Wenet imagery payload was receiver by the following stations:

• VK4XSS: 3772 packets (0.92 MB)
• VK5QI-Mac (using VK5KX’s antennas): 32514 packets (7.94 MB)
• VK5KX-9: 62465 packets (15.25 MB)
• VK5CLD-9: 63899 packets (15.60 MB)
• VK5ALG-9: 64 packets (0.02 MB)

A dashboard showing Wenet reception statistics is available here.

Horus 68 – 14th December 2025 – Student Payload Launch

Horus 68 was the follow-up to November’s launch, with the aim of finally launching the two winning LaunchBox payloads. This was a much quieter launch compared to the last, with a small team performing the launch from the Mt Barker High School oval, with the student teams watching the SondeHub tracker and live imagery online.

Graeme VK5RE captured the launch well:

With the payloads on their way, the launch team quickly packed up and departed for the predicted landing area near Nildottie. Peter VK5KX and Matt VK5ZM were setup on a lookout overlooking Palmer, running the primary ground station for this flight. Peter also had a 915 MHz Yagi on his tracking mount, with Ed from Robinson Aerospace receiving telemetry from the RASCube-LB payloads.

Despite some signal fading due to the payloads swinging around, we had excellent imagery reception throughout the flight:

Balloon burst occurred as expected, just above 31km altitude, and the payloads descended to a landing a few km to the east of Nildottie. After obtaining access permission from the landowner, the chase teams were able to drive in and recover the payloads which were all in good condition.

Horus 68 (LaunchBox Student Payloads) Flight Statistics

Horus 68 Flight Path

Telemetry Reception Stats

The primary tracking payload (HORUS-V2) was received by the following stations: BARC-RRR,VK3BKQ,VK3IDK,VK5AI,VK5AKK,VK5AKK-1,VK5ALG,VK5ALG-9,VK5ARG,VK5BL,VK5CV,VK5FD,VK5GY,VK5HW,VK5KX-9,VK5KX-i5,VK5LN,VK5NE,VK5NEX,VK5OCD,VK5QI-9,VK5RM,VK5SJ,VK5ST-4,VK5WE,VK5ZAP,VK5ZM,VK5ZMD,VK5ZRL,VK5RK,VK5IS,VK5ZMD

The backup tracking payload (VK5ARG) was received by: BARC-RRR,VK5ALG,VK5ALG-9,VK5ARG,VK5KX-9,VK5QI-9,VK5ST-4,VK5ZM,VK5ZRL/2

The furthest receiver was VK3BKQ, located near Melbourne at ~602 km range!

The Wenet imagery payload was received by:

• VK5ZM: 44491 packets (10.86 MB)
• VK5KX-9: 249921 packets (61.02 MB)
• VK5QI-9: 194109 packets (47.39 MB)
• VK5ALG-9: 41995 packets (10.25 MB)
• VK5IS: 506 packets (0.12 MB)

Dashboards showing detailed telemetry for each payload are available at the following links:

• Primary Telemetry – HORUS-V2
• Backup Telemetry – VK5ARG
• Wenet Imagery – VK5ARG

Conclusions & Upcoming Activities

Thanks to Fleet Space for running the LaunchBox program – we’re proud to be involved in this once again and to be able to share the fun of high altitude balloon launches and amateur radio with a wider audience! The LaunchBox program will be back next year, and you can expect at least 2 balloon launches as part of this.

We next expect to launch sometime in Early/Mid January 2026, making use of some leftover helium. This will likely comprise of 1 or 2 flights with Horus Binary tracking payloads onboard, and possibly a Meshtastic payload from the SA Meshtastic Users Group.

In 2026 we’re hoping to get back to launching some of our larger payloads, including the cross-band repeater and possibly even our DVB-S video payload – stay tuned!

The next Project Horus launch will be on Sunday the 14th of December, as part of Fleet Space’s LaunchBox STEM program.

LaunchBox is a reimagining of a STEM program that AREG was a part of back in the 2010s, where we flew student-built payloads on high altitude balloon launches. Fleet Space has re-started the program and expanded it Australia-wide, with hundreds of year 7-8 students involved. The ‘Summit to the Stratosphere’ event held on the 2nd of November had over 700 attendees, but due to weather issues we were not able to launch the student developed payloads, hence this second launch!

Apologies – the writeup for the November 2nd Launch is still in progress…

Above the clouds on the November 2025 LaunchBox flight!

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

The launch time is expected to be our usual 10AM, with launch crews arriving on-site around 9-9:30 AM.

TRACKING LINKS

• Flight Tracking via SondeHub-Amateur: https://amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz=9&qm=12h&mc=-35.0677,139.23902
• Live Wenet Imagery: https://ssdv.habhub.org/

Details of the frequencies in use on this flight are:

• Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
• Backup Horus Binary telemetry on 434.210 MHz
• Wenet v2 Imagery on 443.5 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!

Primary Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.200 MHz – HORUS-V2

The 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 may 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. Note that this payload may not fly if we need to cut weight!

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 used successfully on Horus 64B and Horus 66. 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 62 launched just after 10AM on the 11th of August, from the Auburn Community Oval. Weather conditions were excellent, with light winds and a clear sky – great for taking photos! The flight reached an altitude of 34km (6km higher than we expected!), and landed in a paddock north of Clare. Unfortunately the Wenet imagery payload stopped transmitting part-way into the ascent but it did continue to capture pictures to its internal SD card, like this great shot of the Adelaide area from 28km altitude:

Launch

We had a good turnout at the launch site, with quite a few AREG members and some visitors from the mid-north areas.

A big thanks to Michaela VK3FUR for capturing some great photos of the launch activities at the Auburn Community Oval! Some of these photos are in the slideshow below:

Flight, Tracking, Chase and Recovery

After launch, the chase teams headed north to visit Matt VK5ZM and Peter VK5KX, who had set up a tracking station to the north-east of Clare to provide reliable Wenet reception throughout the flight. Using Peter’s auto-tracking antenna system as a guide, we were even able to spot the balloon mid-flight, and continue to watch it right until it burst at an altitude of 34640m, well over 6 km higher than the expected burst altitude of 28km!

Horus 62 flight path

After burst the chase teams headed onwards to the predicted landing area, hoping to catch a glimpse of the payload on descent. While we were able to spot it on the way down, it was a bit too far away for any photos…

The payloads landed on the edge of a paddock, and the chase teams headed to a nearby farmhouse to get permission to enter the area. The farmer was friendly and had no problems with us driving in to recover the payloads, however we soon received a phone call from the neighbouring farmer, who had been given a heads up about the payloads landing, and had already picked them up!

Unfortunately not as much care was taken with the payloads as normal, so some will require some repairs and rebuild to be flight-ready again.

Horus 62 Flight Statistics

Wenet Payload

This flight used our ‘Wenet HQ’ payload, which features a Picam HQ camera, with a fairly decent lens in front of it. The payload also used Ruihi batteries instead of the usual Energizer Lithiums.

While the payload initially performed fine, for an unknown reason it stopped transmitting at about 14km on ascent. We were quite concerned that the entire payload might have shut down (perhaps due to battery failure?), however on recovery we found that it was still operating, and analysis of the SD card contents showed it had been capturing images all throughout the flight, right up until we opened the box to turn it off.

A selection of the best photos from the payload are as follows:

Wenet imagery from Horus 62

Thanks to Peter VK5KX, Matt VK5ZM, Autumn VK5CLD and Peter VK5APR for running Wenet receive stations for this flight!

Horus Binary Telemetry Payloads

Both of the Horus Binary telemetry payloads performed perfectly throughout this flight (as we would hope, given these are our primary tracking payloads!). The test payload running a single Ruihi Lithium AA cell performed fine, indicating these cells are probably suitable for use on future launches in place of the Energizer AAs.

Thanks to the following stations that helped track these payloads:

HORUS-V2 Payload: BARC-RRR, VK3APJ, VK3TNU, VK5AKH, VK5AKK, VK5ALG, VK5ARG, VK5CLD-9, VK5HW, VK5IS, VK5KX-9, VK5KX-i5, VK5LN, VK5NEX, VK5NTM, VK5QI-1,VK5QI-9, VK5RK, VK5SFA, VK5SPJ, VK5ST-4, VK5TRM, VK5TUX, VK5WE, VK5ZM, VK5ZQV, VK5ZMD

VK5ARG Payload: BARC-RRR, VK3TNU, VK5AI, VK5AKH, VK5AKK, VK5ALG, VK5ARG, VK5CLD-9, VK5KX-9, VK5NEX, VK5QI-9, VK5ST-4, VK5TRM, VK5WE, VK5ZBI, VK5ZM, VK5MHZ

Full statistics on how many packets each station received, and their reported Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), are available on the flight dashboard.

TheThingsNetwork Payload

Liam’s TheThingsNetwork payload performed very well this flight, with 91 stations receiving telemetry, including one to the east of Bendigo, over 630km away! A map showing the receiver locations is below, with more detail available on the flight dashboard.

Conclusion

Thanks to all that took part in this flight, from those helping at the launch site, chasing, tracking, or just watching at home! We’re hoping to get another few flights off before the end of the year, so stay tuned to the AREG blog!

Update 7th Aug: Launch is now planned to be from the Auburn Oval, with predictions trending generally north, landing near Spalding.

AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 11th of August, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACST. If we have to scrub due to weather, the backup launch dates will be either the 18th or 25th of August (though we will try and avoid the 18th due to the Remembrance Day contest).

TRACKING LINKS

• Flight Tracking via SondeHub-Amateur: https://amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz=9&qm=12h&mc=-33.86622,138.6735
• Live Wenet Imagery: https://ssdv.habhub.org/
• Telemetry Dashboard: https://grafana.v2.sondehub.org/d/cdtrdbygdijgga/horus-62?orgId=1&from=now-3h&to=now&refresh=1m

This launch is currently planned to be performed from the Auburn Community Oval, with the launch team arriving on site from around 9:00-9:30 AM.

This will be a bit bigger than our last flight, and will feature a re-flight of our new Wenet ‘HQ’ imagery payload. The payload list currently stands at:

• Wenet HQ imagery on 443.5 MHz.
• Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
• Experimental Horus Binary payload, using a different battery brand, on 434.210 MHz
• TheThingsNetwork tracking payload, using the AU915 band-plan.

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

There is also a flight telemetry dashboard available here.

Primary Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.200 MHz – HORUS-V2

The 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)

Listeners that already have Horus-GUI installed are encouraged to update to the latest version, which is available at this link.

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.

Experimental Battery Payload – Horus Binary 434.210 MHz – VK5ARG

An experimental 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.

This payload is another test of the Riuhu FR1505 Lithium AA cells, which performed well on our last launch. This time we’ll be flying a ‘cut down’ tracking payload, weighing in at only 35g and using a single AA lithium cell.

Wenet Imagery – 443.500 MHz

Imagery on this flight will be transmitted via the Wenet downlink system, which uses 115kbit/s Frequency-Shift-Keying to send HD snapshots. Reception of the Wenet imagery requires a Linux computer, a RTLSDR, and a 70cm antenna with some gain (a 5-element Yagi is usually enough).

This payload will re-fly the PiCamera HQ, which was previously launched on Horus 60. We hope to get a clearer day this time to get some nice imagery of our state, rather than just images of cloud!

Wenet imagery from Horus 60

A guide on how to get set up to receive the Wenet signal is 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. Listeners who are already setup to receive Wenet should consider updating their decoding software to the latest version with update instructions available here. If you received Horus 60, then no software updates are required.

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

TheThingsNetwork Payload – 915 MHz LIPD Band

This flight will also fly a LoRaWAN payload built by Liam VK5ALG, relaying positions via TheThingsNetwork (TTN), a global Internet-of-Things network with hundreds of receiver gateways across Australia. You can find out more about how TheThingsNetwork works here.

The aim of this payload is to see what kind of range is possible on the 915 MHz band, and also test a new telemetry gateway which will forward TTN telemetry to the SondeHub-Amateur tracker.