SSTV High Altitude Balloon Event in NY June 29

after a quick calculation, ..................Jim goes to look for his long lost helmet.

 

Not sure if you have thought of this yet, but be sure to use the proper "balloon approved" APRS path. I know the standard "terrestrial" path can cause havoc when used from space (and/or high altitude).

 

Using WIDE2-1 and beaconing once per minute..is this correct?

 

Looks correct according Bob Bruninga's site (http://aprs.org/balloons.html).

Good luck, I have noted this event in my calendar and will be listening on both frequencies!

 

We had one come down on a golf course, but behind the storage building near the clubhouse.
Can you imagine the sight of that while golfing? Our payload had some orange paint or
reflective striping, but still....might have been distracting. The golf course folks were very
nice about letting a group of hams come retrieve the gear on the property.

We had one land in Lake Michigan. Thankfully, it was floating not too far off shore,
and they found a boater willing to help recover it. Another one landed in a marsh,
and wasn't retrieved until February I think....the 6 foot reeds made it hard to spot,
even with a drone. It helped to have the water frozen to make the walk in.

I don't always get involved with retrieval, but hey, it's fun to listen to, track, and
hear the stories generated by the excitement!

 

I think is an outstanding idea and look forward to trying to receive images from here in coastal Virginia.

 

How often will a picture be sent?

.

 

Looking like every 6 minutes - 3 minutes to transmit then 3 minute rest for the transmitter - I hope this will be enough so it doesn't overheat, although it will be cold up there

 

Have you thought of using a different mode like Scottie 2 that has a shorter transmit cycle?

 

I was using a python program on the raspberry pi (pysstv) to covert to robot36 originally but it took at least 4 minutes just to covert the photo, then about another 3 to transmit it, so total time was like every ten minutes. I found a c program online to covert the pic to Martin1 which takes like 3 seconds so really I could transmit every 3 minutes but I think I should probably put a delay in to give the transmitter rest.

 

Thank you

 

I guess battery life is of concern, too. Do you want a ton of images at the start of the mission, or a smaller amount of image spread out? (Rhetorical question - I'm sure nobody's ever done this exactly how you plan to - so no real experience to fall back on - only theories).

I will say that the baofeng batteries seem to last forever in standbye, but I don't have much experience with how long they last while Tx'ing. Which baofeng are you using, and what power setting will it be on? Also, are you using one of the "extended life" batteries, or just the standard?

 

Make sure you label the outside of the payload, in case it gets lost.
There is still hope of recovery. Did you see this posting recently?

https://london.ctvnews.ca/high-altitude-research-balloon-found-one-year-after-disappearing-1.4444668

One year later!

 

I do have the extended battery and I'm using the UV-5R..I could probably get away with using it on low power to get more time (2 watt vs 5 watt) or I can put a bigger delay in the code. Total flight time is estimated to be around 2.5 hours, so 1 picture every 6 minutes would be about 25 pictures total maybe...which works out to be around 75 mintues of transmit time which could be reasonable. My goal is to get at least one good picture of the upper atmosphere like this hopefully but probably not as good resolution.
I'm also curious how far the range will be, how many people will listen in and upload their images to the website. Hope it is fun and educational for all!

 

Thanks! That's a great idea!