Live tracking
Day 8 update: 25-Dec-2018
Day 7 update: 24-Dec-2018
Day 6 update: 23-Dec-2018
Day 5 update: 22-Dec-2018
Day 4 update: 21-Dec-2018
Day 3 update: 20-Dec-2018
Day 2 update: 19-Dec-2018
Day 1 update: 18-Dec-2018
Launch photos
Transmitter photos
U3B24 uses callsign VE3KCL on telemetry channel 04 and was launched from Toronto, Canada on 18-Dec-2018.
Live tracking
Day 8 update: 25-Dec-2018
Christmas Day, U3B24 passed North of Hawaii on its way towards US West coast; but had an altitude problem, caused probably by high altitude icing. The extra weight caused U3B24 to descend to just under 7,000m at one point before thawing out a bit and recovering some altitude. Worrying...
Day 7 update: 24-Dec-2018
New speed record! The telemetry data compression represents speeds as range 0 to 82 knots, in steps of 2 knots. Hence 84 knots is reported as 0, 86 knots is reported as 2, and so on. The decoding logic contains a calculation of the distance traveled since the last report; this is used to determine whether or not 84 knots should be added to the reported value (range 0 to 82 inclusive). However, the logic does not cater for the case where the speed wraps around to zero another time, at 168 knots! So it under-reports the speed by a 84 knots!
Today U3B24 was moving so fast that it broke through 168 knots, the moment this happened is in the telemetry below.
168 knots is 311 km/hour. Quite a speed!
Day 6 update: 23-Dec-2018
Day 5 update: 22-Dec-2018
"a lot of assumptions..... was watching on Kiwisdr from Novobirsk Russia... unmistakable trace on frequency and on time but the kiwi would not decode it... it stopped at 8:35z which I took to be about 15 degrees of sunshine.. or 103 degrees east lon. plugging that it should be over Japan at about midnight on the 24th...with attached hysplit. I guess we will see tomorrow... hihi"
Day 4 update: 21-Dec-2018
Day 3 update: 20-Dec-2018
Day 2 update: 19-Dec-2018
Day 1 update: 18-Dec-2018
Launch photos
Transmitter photos
