Live tracking
30-May-2020 update
26-May-2020 update
20-May-2020 update
19-May-2020 update
18-May-2020 update
Day 9 update: 05-May-2020
Day 6 update: 02-May-2020
Day 3 update: 29-Apr-2020
Day 1 update: 27-Apr-2020
Launch photos
Transmitter
This is the 7'th test flight of the new U4B tracker. For details see below.
U4B-7 was launched from Toronto by Dave VE3KCL on 27-Apr-2020.
U4B-7 uses callsign VE3OCL and the old-style telemetry channel 03. The WSPR report is at minutes :04 :14 :24 minutes past the hour, followed at :06 :16 etc by the QRP Labs telemetry packet.
Live tracking
30-May-2020 update
26-May-2020 update
Circumnavigation!
20-May-2020 update
Third consecutive day of operations for the normally unreliable U4B-7!
19-May-2020 update
18-May-2020 update
U4B-7 woke up and worked again today. For reasons best known only to itself.
Day 9 update: 05-May-2020
No transmissions on day 7 or 8. The tracker has issues starting up reliably in the morning.
Day 6 update: 02-May-2020
No transmissions on day 4 or 5. The tracker has issues starting up reliably in the morning.
Day 3 update: 29-Apr-2020
U4B-7 did not transmit on Day 2. Apparently there are still some problems with the tracker when there is no battery onboard (as on this flight). But it operated normally on day 3.
Today Bill W4HBK copied the balloon glyph on his own receiver in Florida (above left); alongside the glyph of U4B-6 (above right). Beautiful picture!
Day 1 update: 27-Apr-2020
Nice screenshot from the W4HBK grabber, showing the balloon glyph and the slow-Hellshreiber "7" next to it.
Launch photos
Transmitter
This is the 7th test flight of the new U4B tracker. U4B-7 was assembled by Dave VE3KCL. This YouTube video explains the features of the U4B tracker.
U4B-7 includes a balloon glyph just prior to the WSPR transmission at :04 :14 :24 etc minutes past the hour. This is the same as on the -6 flight, BUT, now there is a little slow-Hellshreiber "7" to the bottom left of the balloon! See day-1 update above, for how it looks.
The BASIC program listing:
5 LET C = 34 6 PRINT BT 7 IF BT < 3200 8 SLEEP 10 1 9 GOTO 6 10 ENDIF 11 SLEEP 1 1 15 PRINT BT 16 OUT 7 1 17 PRINT BT 18 IF BT > 2800 20 OUT 7 0 21 GOTO 26 22 ENDIF 24 OUT 7 0 25 GOTO 11 26 LET FR = 26999850 27 OUT 9 0 28 GPS 304 "$PSIMNAV,W,3*3A" 29 OUT 9 CL 30 PRINT BT 32 IF BT > 3800 33 LET I = 1 35 GOTO 40 38 ENDIF 39 LET I = 0 40 SLEEP 10 3 41 CW 0 14096995 12 0 " VE3OCL" 42 HELL 0 14096960 12 7 "7" 43 CW 0 14096960 5 0 "*01IFLCNAP8Q7R6R5S0S0S5R6R7Q8PANCLFI*" 65 TELE 70 GOTO 15 VE3OCL channel 34 start miniute warmup min 3 120 ohm resitor between A7 and gnd A0 and gnd shorted to put radio in usb mode
Photos
