Live tracking
HabHub live tracking
Day 2 update: 11-Oct-2016
Day 1 update: 10-Oct-2016
Photos of the launch
Transmitter photos
Like the former flights, this one also uses a special U3S firmware version on an Arduino Nano board.
Live tracking
The map below is updated automatically with the latest received position during the balloon's flight. During the balloon's night time the battery is quickly depleted, so from just after sunset there are no more reports until daylight.
Live HabHub tracking
The following HabHub map is done using a program that David SM0ULC wrote that extracts the data from WSPRnet and feeds it to HabHub. This is still under development!
Day 2 update: 11-Oct-2016
The GPS is not working, so S19 is off frequency and has no new GPS coordinates. Jim N2NXZ captured the VE3KCL S19 balloon off time by 1 minute slow (see below). His PC clock was set backwards about 1 min +/- a few second to capture this. Jim says "Good signal so far this morning."
Day 1 update: 10-Oct-2016
Dave VE3KCL had a successful launch of S19 (see photos below) at dawn local time on 10-Oct-2016. S18 climbed to over 10,000m. Unfortunately the SIM28 GPS is STILL not working over 10,000m despite new attempts by Dave to find a solution to this problem.
Photos of the launch
Dave VE3KCL managed to launch S19 early in the morning local time on 10-Oct-2016, from the astro-turf of the local cricket field. 10km wind and wet ground dragging the antenna did not make it easy. You can feel the tension, looking at the pictures below. Look at the body language. Anxious Dave watching... will he clear the boundary? Did he hit a 4, or a 6? Hah! A six! Made it!
Transmitter photos
The S19 transmitter is a U3S, with special firmware installed on a miniature Arduino board for low weight. The firmware is v3.08 plus enhancements for sending additional balloon telemetry over WSPR. The flight uses 2 party balloons and is transmitting on JT9 and WSPR 20m and 30 meters with normal and telemetry WSPR, using a two band antenna. The transmissions use a 12 minute frame and callsign is VE3KCL. The WSPR frequencies are 14.097035 and 10.140135, and telemetry is channel 2. The GPS is the SIM28 which previously caused problems on S17 and earlier flights. Dave writes: "a new gps power scheme to try and avoid altitude blindness. Previously the gps was found to drop out of " balloon mode " if the reset pin was used. On S17 the gps was not reset and it worked above 10km where it usually went blind but would not achieve a 3d lock if started above 10km. This time I installed a ldo regulator with an enable pin on the gps 3.3v supply and the gps is being power cycled between the two Jt9 transmissions.... and it works well on the ground..."
See S4 flight page for details of the special WSPR telemetry.
Dave writes: "Trying a new wire hanger on this version that should allow me to balance the solar panel more evenly. tripole antenna has 2 hangers on the bottom to hold elements apart."
