Tag Archives: UKHAS

May 24 2013

Near-Space Amateur Radio Balloon Flight 29.494 MHz

sp9uob_frontThe SEBA-3 high-altitude amateur radio balloon, with a 29.494 MHz RTTY transmitter, launches Saturday, May 25. Other balloons carrying 434 MHz transmitters are also launching this weekend.

One of the 434 MHz balloons PIE will have live video streaming of the launch and from the chase car via the British Amateur TV Club website at http://www.batc.tv/ (select “Live Events” then UKHAS Balloon Launches)

The IARU Region 1 website announcement regarding SEBA-3 says:

On Saturday May 25 at 1000 UT (1100 BST), the team from the club SP9PDF – directed by Tomasz, SP9UOB – will conduct another experiment of flight of an unmanned stratospheric balloon.

The balloon, with the code name SEBA-3, will start from the place of the nationwide amateur radio picnic named “ŁOŚ” (long.: 18.6689 E, lat.: 51.0399 N, QTH locator: JO91IA).

A telemetry transmitter with 500mW power, placed in the capsule of the balloon, will operate on RTTY 50 baud on 29.494 MHz USB with the shift 240 Hz, 7N2. ATV transmission from the camera in the capsule of the balloon is also planned.

Detailed instructions in English for configuring the software are available on the website: http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:tracking_guide

We invite everyone to follow the flight through listening to the tracker, or to visit the website: http://spacenear.us/
—

SSDV picture from a previous PIE balloon - Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI

SSDV picture from a previous PIE balloon – Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI

Among the 434 MHz balloons launching this weekend are:

– PIE built by Dave Ackerman M6RPI on Sunday from Brightwalton with live streaming of launch and from the chase car at http://www.batc.tv/
The PIE balloon will be transmitting images using Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV)
Callsign: PIE
Frequency: 434.075 MHz and 434.650 MHz 600Hz shift 600 Baud 8 bits no parity 2 stop bits

– BABSHAB from Great Tew, Oxfordshire
Exact location: Within 500m radius around latitude 51.956468, Longitude -1.416999
Callsign: BABSHAB
Frequency: 434.075 MHz RTTY 450 shift 50 Baud 7 ascii bpc No parity and 2 stop bits.

– XABEN50 launches about 11:30 BST on Sunday, May 26
Callsign: uXABEN Frequency 434.350MHz 7N1 ASCII FSK RTTY

Tracking site: http://spacenear.us/

Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) Guide http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:ssdv

The free balloon software dl-fldigi can decode many different amateur radio digital modes, download Windows, Mac or Ubuntu Linux versions at
http://wiki.ukhas.org.uk/projects:dl-fldigi

World-wide Amateur Radio High Altitude Balloon announcements
http://www.arhab.org/hab_launch_list.php?daysBack=30

To get details of upcoming UK balloon launches subscribe to the UKHAS Mailing List by sending a blank email to this address:
ukhas+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Oct 21 2012

434.301 MHz PICO Balloon Reaches Sweden

James Coxon M6JCX launches PICO a 434.301 MHz USB RTTY balloon – Image David Bowkis M0MDB

PICO, a single foil balloon was launched by James Coxon M6JCX on Saturday, October 20, 2012 from Suffolk in the UK. It carried GPS and a miniature radio transmitter sending RTTY (ascii-8) on 434.301 MHz USB running 10 mW output.

During the 19 hour flight it crossed the North Sea and landed somewhere in central Sweden.

Continue reading →

Sep 1 2012

Cambridge University Space Flight at EMF 2012 Milton Keynes

EMF 2012 badge of attendee Graham Shirville G3VZV

EMF 2012 badge of attendee Graham Shirville G3VZV

The technology camp EMF 2012 being held at Pineham Park, Milton Keynes runs from Friday August 31 to Sunday, September 2. BBC TV reports that two 20m high masts linked by microwaves have been erected for the event, one at the campsite and the other in the car park of a data centre 2.5 km away.

Among the weekend of presentations are some by radio amateurs such as Adam Greig M0RND (formerly M6AGG). Adam is a member of the UK High Altitude Society (UKHAS) and Cambridge University Space Flight (CUSF) and will be talking about High Altitude Ballooning. The balloons use 434 MHz for the telemetry and video image downlinks.

Continue reading →

Jul 17 2012

PIE1 – Raspberry Pi Sends Live Images from Near Space

A Raspberry Pi

Dave Akerman M6RPI has used a Raspberry Pi computer board as the flight computer on a High Altitude Balloon (HAB) and sent back live images from near space at an altitude of almost 40 km.

SSDV picture from a previous PIE balloon - Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI

SSDV picture from a previous PIE balloon – Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI

The balloon, appropriately called PIE1, was launched from Brightwalton, in Berkshire on July 14, 2012. The images were transmitted on 434.650 MHz (300 bps, 600 Hz shift) in the amateur radio 70cm band using the Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) standard.

PIE1 reached an altitude of 39,994 metres and images were received as far away as Northern Ireland (that’s over 500 km, not bad for just 10 mW on 434.650 MHz!).

See the images sent by PIE1 http://sanslogic.co.uk/ssdv/live

The full story and pictures are on Dave Akerman’s website http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=592

Read The Register article http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/17/pi_ascent/

Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:ssdv

UK High Altitude Society http://www.ukhas.org.uk/

High Altitude Balloons have featured at a recent AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford.

You can watch a video online of the presentation that Cambridge University Spaceflight gave called “Teddy Bears in Space” at http://www.batc.tv/channel.php?ch=1
In the Archive List category box select AMSAT then click Select Category then in the stream box select Teddys and click on Select Stream

Or download a copy of the video at http://www.batc.tv/vod/Teddys.flv

This years AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium takes place Sept. 15-16 details at
http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium/twelve