HAB and WSPR

HAB stands for a High Altitude Balloon. Amateurs send these up at regular intervals. A growing number manager to circumnavigation the globe, not just once but multiple times.  A few years ago I used to receive signals from them when they were using JT9 on 30m. A few days ago I noticed a balloon about 3000km to the west, using the 'amateur.sondehub.org' website.  And so I undertook some research. It turns out that this particular one was using 20m WSPR, Beaconing every 10 minutes for two consecutive cycles.  The first is in a standard format but the second two minute segment is modified to send GPS status, altitude, speed, temperature and battery voltage.

I tuned to 20m and set WSJT-X  to WSPR mode. And before long I was receiving VE3OCL. (Click on the Callsign to open the Amateur Sondehub site.) You may have decoded a HAB without even knowing as they just show up on WSJT-X looking like a normal station. 

This particular one seems to be using the U4B - Balloon tracker, made by QRP Labs. Not bad for a massive 1.8g!

There is always something more to explore with Amateur Radio.

 

Links:-

 

http://lu7aa.org/wsprx.asp?other=ve3ocl&launch=20230402124700&SSID=34&banda=20m&balloonid=04&timeslot=2&tracker=qrplabs 

https://amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz=5&qm=1d&mc=-11.3508,116.85059&f=VE3OCL-34

 

https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FVE3OCL-34&timerange=604800&tail=604800

 

DXCC Achieved!

Well, it has been a long time coming but tonight we achieved our 100th contact from the balcony.  The last 5 countries were, Mexico, South Africa, Belize, Cuba and Canada.

There was a little drama, as I updated JTAlert and for some reason it stopped logging contacts to Winlog32 (heart-rate raised just a little).  On reading the help file a solution was found.  Yes, I know reading the help file is cheating! 

Nonetheless, we are there, at least with Digital. CW and Voice, I guess are the next challenges.

There may need to be some antenna work required. Yes, in that regard I'm the eternal procrastinator!