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

 

Tracking Weather Balloons

I bought a TTGO LoRa 32 some time ago to track satellites but they can also be used to track weather balloons.  I found some software that receives and decodes the telemetry and via Bluetooth sends it to you android phone. With the associated app on your phone you are ready to go.

https://mysondy.altervista.org/mysondygo.php

Some translation maybe required. But you can work it out.

Radiosonde - Weather Balloons

Thanks to information provided by Trevor VK8TH, I am now receiving data from Radiosondes. In my carefully cataloged equipment storage facility (junk box) I had a spare Pi-3 and RTL-SDR .   I am using software called Radiosonde Auto-RX developed by Mark Jessop VK5QI.  

Here is a Youtube video from Mark Jessop VK5QI explaining how it all works.

 

I am feeding the received data to aprs.fi

Radiosondes are usually in the air just before 00.00z and 12.00z.