Category Archives: Horus

Project Horus news and events

Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 63 – 1st December 2024 – Cross-band Repeater – Mt Barker Launch!

Posted on by

AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 1st of December, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACDST. If we have to scrub due to poor weather, the backup launch date will be the 8th of December.

UPDATE 27th Nov: 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 a new cross-band repeater payload, enabling amateur radio operators around the state to communicate via the balloon! Along with this will be a newly built Wenet Imagery payload, using a PiCam v3 in autofocus mode.

  • 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
  • TheThingsNetwork tracking payload, using the AU915 band-plan.

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

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 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)

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.

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.

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 be experimenting with a PiCam v, which we previously flew with only partial success on Horus 59. This time around many software updates have been written, hopefully allowing the PiCam v3’s autofocus to work on a balloon launch. This flight aims to test out these software changes, and gather data to help improve performance on future launches.

Wenet imagery from Horus 62

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. 

Note: Stations that are already ready to receive Wenet are advised to update to the latest testing version for this flight. See here for instructions: https://gist.github.com/darksidelemm/cdc36a90ca96b87d148fdd7d68d5d5fe

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 test a new antenna, and try and beat our previous range records on the 915 MHz band.

Project Horus 62 – Flight Report

Posted on by

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

Launch Date:2024-08-11T00:51:46.000000Z
Landing Date:2024-08-11T02:54:32.000000Z
Launch Site:-34.05267, 138.66930
Landing Site:-33.66618, 138.51952
Distance Travelled: 45 km
Maximum Altitude:34635 m

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!

Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 62 – 11th August 2024 – Horus goes North!

Posted on by

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

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

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)

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.

Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 61 – 26th May 2024

Posted on by

This launch was a success, with the payload recovered close to the predicted landing area! A short writeup will be posted in the next few weeks, but for now the flight dashboard can be viewed here. The next Horus launch should be sometime in early July.

AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 26th of May, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACST. If we have to scrub due to weather, the backup launch date is the 2nd of June.

UPDATE: This launch will be conducted from the Mt Barker High School Oval.

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 team will be arriving on site from around 9:00-9:30 AM. Visitors are welcome!

This will be one of the smallest launches we’ve done in a while, with the payload mass for this flight totalling under 300g, and currently including:

  • 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 will also be a live dashboard showing telemetry from the flight, which is available here.

Predicted flight path as of Friday 24th May.

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)

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 will be using Riuhu FR1505 Lithium AA cells instead of the Energizer L91 cells that we usually fly. With suspiciously similar specifications, and at 50% of the price of Energizers, these are worth investigating! We’ll be looking closely at the voltage of this and the primary payload throughout the flight.

TheThingsNetwork Payload – 915 MHz LIPD Band

This flight will also fly a LoRaWAN payload built by Liam VK5ALG, this time 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.

Future Launches

This year we hope to increase our launch cadence with more smaller launches, giving more club members (and the wider amateur radio community!) the opportunity to get involved with our flights. We’ve currently got a few ideas in the works, including:

  • A night launch with a modulated optical beacon.
  • A return of the HQ Wenet payload
  • 360˚ Video Camera
  • Airborne Meshtastic node experiment

Stay tuned!

 

Horus 60 Flight Report

Posted on by

Horus 60 was launched on the 20th of August 2023 as part of AREG’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, and featured our popular SSTV imagery payload along with a new high-quality Wenet imagery payload and other experimental payloads.

On this launch we had Geordie VK3CLR along for the chase, who put together a great video of the day’s activities, and tells the tale better than I could write it up here!

Thanks again to Geordie for producing this!

A dashboard showing telemetry from the flight is available here, and the main statistics from the flight are shown in the following table:

Horus 60 Flight Statistics

Launch Date: 2023-08-20T00:22:27.000000Z
Landing Date: 2023-08-20T02:35:26.000000Z
Launch Site: -35.07586, 138.85677
Landing Site: -35.34007, 139.67903
Distance Travelled: 80 km
Maximum Altitude: 35407 m

Horus 60 Flight Path

SSTV Payload Results

The SSTV payload produced excellent imagery throughout the flight, though unfortunately we had a GPS fault again (likely due to interference from an adjacent payload), so no position/altitude overlays were shown on the images.

Images were received from many people around the Central SA area, with submissions for the SSTV reception certificate from: VK5KVA, VK5KX, VK5ST, VK5ZBI, VK5AV, VK5MA, VK5CLD, VK3FUR/5 and VK5ZM. If you received imagery from the flight, please email us at vi25areg@areg.org.au to get your certificate!

Horus 60 SSTV Reception Certificate Sample

Wenet HQ Imagery Payload

Horus 60 also had the first flight of a new Wenet imagery payload, this time utilising a PiCamera HQ and a large lens, promising much higher quality imagery than we’ve captured previously.

While previous attempts at using higher quality optics have had issues with defocusing in cold temperatures, on this flight the camera performed perfectly, with some of the best quality imagery we’ve seen from a Horus launch in a very long time!

Wenet imagery from Horus 60

As per tradition, just before packing up the Wenet payload, the chase team took a group photo near the landing site:

The chase team: Mark VK5QI, Drew VK5CLD, Will VK5AHV, Michaela VK3FUR and Geordie VK3CLR

Thanks to all that helped receive the Wenet imagery:

VK3TNUpi4-1: 94460 packets (23.06 MB)
VK5CLD-9: 106422 packets (25.98 MB)
VK5KX-9: 165174 packets (40.33 MB)
VK5IS: 102056 packets (24.92 MB)
VK5QI-9: 113723 packets (27.76 MB)

The more receivers we have during a flight, the higher chance we have of obtaining clear imagery for live display on ssdv.habhub.org!

Primary Telemetry Reception – VI25AREG

For this flight, the primary telemetry payload used the VI25AREG callsign, and performed flawlessly (as we always hope it will!). We had many receivers on this flight, with statistics on who received how many packets in the following table:

CallsignReceived PacketsPercentage of Flight ReceivedFirst-Received Altitude (m)Last-Received Altitude (m)
BARC-RRR177795.8%664255
VK3APJ27014.6%114956738
VK3BKQ36219.5%2602227416
VK3IRV613.3%3186834503
VK3TNU71438.5%83549180
VK5ALG144678.0%8646738
VK5AMH169391.3%1731964
VK5APR159085.8%12406700
VK5ARG176094.9%477911
VK5BD137173.9%55186738
VK5CLD23512.7%239934005
VK5CLD-9151681.8%34222
VK5DJ66235.7%978424529
VK5DSP-hab62433.7%257436700
VK5IS168290.7%7233247
VK5KX158085.2%124022
VK5KX-9143777.5%895570
VK5LN110259.4%116837329
VK5NEX152982.5%9646738
VK5QI-9134872.7%33916031
VK5RK107858.1%166129780
VK5RR-VK5FO43523.5%147636700
VK5ST-4146679.1%31466816
VK5TRM159786.1%15871018
VK5ZBI158585.5%12206777
VK5ZQV79743.0%156016777
vk5mhz54629.4%376124970

Thanks to all that received!

Radiation Sensor Payload – HORUSRADMON

This payload was added on somewhat last-minute, and included a photo-diode-based radiation sensor, with the aim of investigating gamma ray levels throughout the flight, similar to what has been performed on previous flights.

Horus 60 Radiation Sensor Results

As expected, the radiation count increased throughout the ascent, before falling again above 20km altitude due the Regener-Pfotzer Maximum effect. Some noise was observed on the sensor just after burst, likely due to the turbulence from the initial fast descent.

Thanks to everyone that received telemetry from this payload, even with the short notice of it’s inclusion in the flight!

CallsignReceived PacketsPercentage of Flight ReceivedFirst-Received Altitude (m)Last-Received Altitude (m)
BARC-RRR89991.7%609189
VK3BKQ40.4%3480635038
VK5ALG66367.7%10926727
VK5ALG-942843.7%844976
VK5APR79180.7%12186804
VK5ARG86288.0%5071209
VK5CLD-970772.1%34716
VK5DJ32032.7%277846727
VK5DSP-hab31432.0%262166727
VK5KX-971573.0%901276
VK5QI-967669.0%34616113
VK5RK28429.0%301316644
VK5ST-478880.4%28462375
VK5TRM76578.1%17621264
vk5mhz191.9%28043471

Helium Tracker Payload

This flight also saw a new LoRaWAN payload from Liam VK5ALG, which was received via the Helium Network using the 923 MHz ISM band. On this flight the furthest reception report was from a station in Peterborough, at approximately 250km range. Future flights of this will use a higher gain antenna, and we hope to see even higher reception ranges.

We hope to have positions from this payload showing up on the SondeHub-Amateur tracker on future launches!

Conclusion

A big thanks to everyone that participated in this launch, from those that came along to the launch site, chased, or received telemetry and imagery from home!

We hope to perform a few more flights later this year, including the return of a cross-band repeater payload!

 

Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 60 – Sunday 20th August

Posted on by

UPDATE 21/8: Thanks to all that helped track this flight, it was a great success! A blog post with more information, including lots of great images, will be up in about a week.

Horus 60 Flight path prediction as of 17th August

As part of the VI25AREG celebrations, AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 20th of August, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACST. Backup dates if we have to slip due to weather are the 27th of August… and that’s it!

This launch is currently planned to be performed from the Mt Barker High School Oval with the launch team arriving on site from around 9:00 AM. Note that access to the oval is via Stephenson street, and parking near the oval is extremely limited. 

The payloads for this flight will include:

  • A FM-SSTV Transmitter on 145.100 MHz
  • A Wenet Imagery transmitter on 443.500 MHz
  • Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
  • Experimental Radiation Sensor payload (Horus Binary telemetry) on 434.210 MHz 

Details on these payloads are available further below.

Tracking of the flight will be via the SondeHub-Amateur tracker, available by clicking this link.

A dashboard showing telemetry from the payloads is available at this link.

Details on the payloads flying are available below:

Primary Telemetry – 434.200 MHz – VI25AREG

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)

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.

There will also be an experimental radiation sensor payload (HORUSRADMON) on 434.210 MHz (434.209 MHz USB dial frequency). If you can only receive one, prioritise the 434.200 MHz signal.

FM SSTV Imagery – 145.100 MHz

This launch will most likely be flying a FM SSTV transmitter operating on 145.100 MHz FM. It will run approximately 200mW transmit power. The transmitter will have 1 minute gaps between image transmissions to avoid overheating the transmitter. This payload last flew on Horus 59 with good results.

SSTV image from Horus 59

The payload will be transmitting images using the PD120 SSTV mode throughout the flight, and can be decoded using any SSTV software capable of decoding this mode (pretty much all of them!). This mode is what was commonly broadcast from the International Space Station.

Examples of suitable software you can use to decode the SSTV pictures include:

Any FM receiver (including handhelds) should be capable of receiving this payload, though as with the cross-band repeater, a Yagi antenna may be necessary for reliable reception at the edges of the transmitter footprint.

We’ve also setup a temporary 2m SSTV skimmer up at AREG’s remote HF receive site, which (if it works!) will post received images here: https://botsin.space/@aregsstv/tagged/PD120

We will have some digital certificates available for listeners that submit an image from the highest 1km of the flight (to be determined after the flight has finished). Email your images to vi25areg@areg.org.au !

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 be trialing a PiCamera HQ, with a much larger lens. This will hopefully give us much higher quality imagery than we’ve seen previously, so long as we don’t hit focus drift issues like we have seen on previous flights.

Wenet imagery from a previous launch.

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 (Due to be released at the beginning of August 2023), with update instructions available here.

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

Horus 59 Flight Report

Posted on by

Horus 59 came about as a result of the Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program launch, as we still an almost-full cylinder of Helium left over. Launch planning progressed through February, resulting in a launch on Sunday the 25th of February 2023.

The following payloads flew on this launch:

  • A FM-SSTV transmitter, sending imagery in the PD120 mode on 145.100 MHz;
  • A Wenet imagery transmitter on 443.500 MHz, with the new Pi Camera v3;
  • A Geiger-Tube based radiation sensor payload on 434.210 MHz (the same one that flew on Horus 58 and SHSSP 2023);
  • A LoRaWAN beacon, provided by Liam VK5ALG; and
  • Our usual Horus Binary telemetry payload on 434.200 MHz.

Iain Crawford VK5ZD captured much of the days events on video:

Launch Planning

This launch aimed to get more AREG club members involved in the launch planning process. Mark VK5QI ran a series of workshops in the lead-up to the launch, working through the regulatory and planing aspects of a high-altitude balloon launch. The day before the launch a smaller group got together to test telemetry reception and go through some of the more practical aspects of a launch. We hope to run more workshops like this for future launches!

Some of the launch planning group working through practicing filling a balloon.

Preparations & Launch

The launch team gathered at the Auburn Community oval at 9AM and started preparing for the flight. This launch saw many spectators, including a few from the mid-north. Iain VK5ZD was also on-site to document the launch activities, with a video to come soon (once he’s back from a holiday!). The launch site weather was perfect, with mostly clear skies and only light winds.

AREG Club Members preparing the balloon for launch, with many onlookers! (Imaged by the Wenet payload waiting to be launched)

All the payload were powered on, tested and sealed up, and the balloon was filled. This was a ‘fast fill’ launch, using up all the leftover gas from the previous SHSSP 2023 launch, and went smoothly.

The balloon and payloads were raised into the air, with the final payload handed over to Jackson (son of AREG member Brett VK5TLE) to perform the launch!

Launch!

Chase & Recovery

After the launch, the chase teams (and there were 7 of them on this launch!) headed north-east to get closer to the predicted landing area, pulling in at a rest stop south of Hanson, SA.

Chase Teams waiting for the balloon to burst near Hanson, SA

Peter VK5KX was set up here with his portable rotator station, receiving telemetry from all payloads:

Peter VK5KX’s portable tracking setup

While waiting at the Hanson rest stop the balloon was spotted flying at 30 km altitude, almost directly above the rest stop location! Appearing as a small white dot, many of the chasers were able to watch the balloon travel across the sky for about 20 minutes, before seeing it disappear when it burst at 32,807 metres altitude.

Iain, Ady, Drew and Mark watching the balloon drift along at 30km altitude.

The chase teams didn’t have far to travel to get to the landing area, only 7km to the North-East of Hanson, just off the Barrier Highway. All the teams were able to get into position to watch the payload descend into an empty paddock, a great experience for the new balloon chasers!

 

Horus 59 Flight Path

The payloads were quickly recovered, with the mandatory Wenet Payload group photo being taken once the payload were back at the cars:

Horus 59 Chase Team Group Photo, taken by the Wenet Payload camera.

FM-SSTV Payload Results

Apart from an issue with the onboard GPS receiver, the FM-SSTV payload transmitted imagery fine all throughout the flight. So far we’ve received a few reception reports from the Adelaide area, and also Pt Lincoln, though we expect this payload would have been receivable well into Victoria. If you received imagery from this flight, please let us know!

A selection of images received by Mark VK5QI’s home station in Adelaide are shown below:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Wenet Payload Results

The new camera (A Raspberry Pi Camera v3) under trial on this launch produces images with excellent colour and low distortion, however as it ascended the lens started to de-focus, resulting in all the images above a few km altitude being quite blurry.

This is most likely due the extreme cold the camera was subjected to resulting in physical variation of the lens-to-sensor spacing. Whether this can be compensated for will be determined through some on-ground experiments (dry ice might be involved…), though it’s likely we’ll look at other camera options for future launches.

A selection of photos taken by the Wenet payload camera are shown in the following gallery:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

LoRaWAN Payload Results

On this flight Liam’s LoRaWAN payload featured an upgraded antenna, and even though the maximum altitude of this flight was 500m below when the LoRaWAN payload was previous flown (Horus 58), it was received another 50km further afield, by a TheThingsNetwork station in Ballarat, Victoria. We’ll try out this payload again on future launches, hoping to get even longer reception reports!

LoRaWAN Payload Coverage Map

Receiver Statistics – Horus Binary Telemetry

The Horus Binary payload proved to be as reliable as ever, reporting position and sensor data throughout the flight. A Grafana dashboard summarising the telemetry data from the flight is available here.

We saw a total of 25 unique callsigns receiving on this flight, with reception statistics for each station shown below:

Horus 59 - HORUS-V2 Receiver Statistics

CallsignReceived PacketsPercentage of Flight ReceivedFirst-Received Altitude (m)Last-Received Altitude (m)
BARC-RRR160.9%115763437
N0CALL10.1%33473347
VK3TNU pi3-384145.0%1342415292
VK5AJQ141375.7%90211681
VK5AKH94050.3%6888536
VK5AKK176394.4%5501030
VK5ALG170791.4%7261427
VK5ALG-9181297.1%311536
VK5APR10.1%10811081
VK5ARG183498.2%309570
VK5CLD-9151881.3%310536
VK5DJ98252.6%1040512276
VK5DSP-hab136873.3%77754207
VK5EME-5181497.2%6381342
VK5FADE824.4%19364044
VK5HI160.9%1469014867
VK5IS184899.0%406570
VK5KX#2935.0%1143813232
VK5KX-9164988.3%669570
VK5KX-i555229.6%13942570
VK5LN155183.1%43735363
VK5NEX178695.7%12951342
VK5NTM177795.2%1842806
VK5QI-9164588.1%310606
VK5ST-4150780.7%7261797
VK5ZBI107057.3%67393600
VK5ZQV56430.2%1406930447

Horus 59 - HORUSGEIGER Receiver Statistics

CallsignReceived PacketsPercentage of Flight ReceivedFirst-Received Altitude (m)Last-Received Altitude (m)
BARC-RRR155483.0%1011890
VK3TNU pi3-390048.1%1182115415
VK5AKH82043.8%6884562
VK5AKK173792.8%5671697
VK5ALG173792.8%6391929
VK5ALG-9180296.3%312500
VK5ARG182897.6%312598
VK5CLD-9167689.5%312500
VK5CV147879.0%9873986
VK5DSP-hab134271.7%77796660
VK5KX-9180296.3%733530
VK5QI-9181697.0%311530
VK5ST-4178995.6%6391122
VK5SWR603.2%2223923376

Receiver Statistics – Wenet Imagery

This flight saw 10 receiver stations contributing packets to the live imagery on https://ssdv.habhub.org/. Thanks to all that helped out with this!

VK5LO: 63593 packets (15.53 MB)
VK5IS: 126191 packets (30.81 MB)
VK3TNUpi4-1: 7311 packets (1.78 MB)
VK5CLD-9: 40111 packets (9.79 MB)
VK5PW: 110448 packets (26.96 MB)
VK5KX: 56684 packets (13.84 MB)
VK5AKH: 40550 packets (9.90 MB)
VK5QI: 146240 packets (35.70 MB)
VK5ALG: 98107 packets (23.95 MB)
VK5ST: 638 packets (0.16 MB)

Conclusion

Even with some payload issues, Horus 59 was a successful launch and saw lots of AREG club members get involved in the planning, execution, and chase aspects of the flight. Thanks to all that came out for the day, and also thanks to those that helped receive telemetry throughout the flight!

Project Horus’ next launch will likely not be for a few months, and will hopefully see the return of the DVB-S transmitter payload, and live video from the stratosphere!

Horus 59 - Flight Statistics

MetricResult
Flight Designation:Horus 59
Launch Date:2023-02-25 23:29Z
Landing Date:2023-02-26 01:42Z
Flight Duration:~2 hours, 12 min
Launch Site:-34.02935, 138.69128
Landing Site:-33.70648, 138.88831
Distance Traveled:40 km
Maximum Altitude:32,807 m

Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 59 – 26th February 10AM

Posted on by

The AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 26th of February, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACDT.

This launch will be performed from the Auburn Community Oval, with the launch team arriving on site from around 9:15 AM. Spectators are welcome!

The payloads for this flight will include:

  • A FM-SSTV Transmitter on 145.100 MHz
  • A Wenet Imagery transmitter on 443.500 MHz
  • Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
  • Radiation Sensor Payload on 434.210 MHz

Details on these payloads are available further below.

Tracking of the flight will be via the SondeHub-Amateur tracker, available by clicking this link.

A dashboard showing telemetry from the primary and radiation sensor payloads is available here.

Details on the payloads flying are available below:

Primary Telemetry – 434.200 MHz

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)

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.

FM SSTV Imagery – 145.100 MHz

This launch will most likely be flying a FM SSTV transmitter operating on 145.100 MHz FM. It will run approximately 200mW transmit power. The transmitter will have 1 minute gaps between image transmissions to avoid overheating the transmitter. This payload last flew on Horus 50, and has since been upgraded to support higher resolution imagery.

SSTV Imagery Example

The payload will be transmitting images using the PD120 SSTV mode throughout the flight, and can be decoded using any SSTV software capable of decoding this mode (pretty much all of them!). This mode is what was commonly broadcast from the International Space Station.

Examples of suitable software you can use to decode the SSTV pictures include:

Any FM receiver (including handhelds) should be capable of receiving this payload, though as with the cross-band repeater, a Yagi antenna may be necessary for reliable reception at the edges of the transmitter footprint.

We’ve also setup a temporary 2m SSTV skimmer up at AREG’s remote HF receive site, which (if it works!) will post received images here: https://botsin.space/@aregsstv/tagged/PD120

If you do receive images, please post them to Social Media and on Twitter include the #horus59 hashtag so everyone can see them! Reception reports would also be appreciated, please send these to vk5arg@areg.org.au

Radiation Sensor Payload – 434.210 MHz

A radiation sensor payload, using a Geiger-Muller Tube, will also be launched on this flight. This will be transmitting on 434.210 MHz, also using the Horus Binary 4FSK  data mode. The aim of this payload is to investigate the variation in radiation exposure throughout the flight, and compare it with data from previous launches.

This telemetry can be decoded using the same Horus-GUI software as the primary telemetry. Note that you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.209 MHz for the 4FSK signal to be centred in your receiver passband and hence be decodable.

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 most likely be trialing the new Raspberry Pi Camera v3, which will hopefully bring improved image quality (if it works!).

Wenet imagery from a previous launch.

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 (December 2022), with update instructions available here.

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