GRP005 was a project to assist a Melbourne student “Bryce”  to obtain images from a high altitude balloon for an end of school assignment.
GRP005 was released and recovered on July 11th 2017

Release location Elmore Victoria

Video still from onboard Go Pro

MTG004 and MTG003 Released and recovered 19th April 2015

Photos From the Payload Camera

Release and Landing Locations

MTG002 successfully flew to a Max Altitude of 19,582m, attributed to a fantastic team effort over the past 12 months by everyone that participated during the planning, construction, testing and the release of the balloon. Thank you to Don VK3HDX for assisting with communications between everyone on HF 40meters throughout the day, keeping everyone informed and Lui VK3ZLD our photographer on the day.

We had a perfect day for the release with just about no wind at all, upon release the balloon went straight up vertical. Throughout the day the balloon was tracked by VK3TBC, VK3HDX, VK3YSP, VK3FADI, VK3XCO, the last contact with the balloon was David VK3TBC who had a perfect fix on the payload at about 2 deg on his horizon at 353Klm away until the balloon burst, not bad for 25mw FM.

We are all excited with the performance of the FM mode transmission used on the payload and will continue further experiments with this mode and hardware in the future.

Frequency of payload UHF FM 434.650 25 mw. Modes:  Thor  Telemetry, 1200 FEC Telemetry and SSDV, Olivia  Telemetry, 4800  Telemetry and SSDV, 9600  Telemetry

Last transmission from the payload

The MARTG team setting up the balloon and connecting the parachute

Guy VK3GUY and Peter VK3XCO carefully finalizing the payload

Local resident wondering whats going on under his tree

Up and away

Thank you all those who assisted with the tracking that enabled photos to be upload to SSDV

VK3TBC, VK3HDX, VK3YSP, VK3FADI, VK3XCO

Photos sent back from the onboard serial camera on the payload

Balloon burst

We will be giving a lot more notice of the next balloon release next year to have other involved.

Next Balloon release MTG003 next year date TBA

Balloon scheduled to release Saturday 25^th of October at 10:30am Location Ancona near Bonnie Doon Vic.

Frequency UHF FM 434.650 25 mw

Modes:  Thor  Telemetry, 1200 FEC Telemetry and SSDV, Olivia  Telemetry, 4800  Telemetry and SSDV, 9600  Telemetry

Latest Prediction

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Hi all,

Just a few tips on decoding for Saturday 25^th October 2014 based on observation and testing.

Modes

Olivia and Thor (Use FLDIGI)

The payload has a function that sends out a mode identifier (called RSID). For this to work on FLDIGI, you need to click on the RX RSID button top right panel of FLDIGI. This will AutoDetect the Oliva and Thor modes and configure FLDIGI.

Also, there is another configuration item in FLDIGI that searches the entire passband in FLDIGI for the RSID signal. What this means is that, if you have incorrectly set where the frequency of the tones are going to be decoded from, it will automatically detect this and move the decoder where it needs to be. If you do not click on this configuration item, it will not search the entire passband.

The balloon has been registered with HAB and will appear as MTG002. You can download the balloon parameters of the flight (you need to be using the HAB version of FLDIGI)

1200, 4800,and 9600 FEC

To decode this you need the TNCEMULATOR program. With higher baud rates, (especially 4800 and 9600) you need to come out of the discriminator of the radio (or use a dongle like FUNCUBE). 1200 will work from an audio out but the discriminator is still better. With these modes, you need to turn off any extra sound card settings around AGC/ALC enhancements etc. All of these will add distortion to the data signal (audio will sound find, but the data waveform will be corrupted). Also, it is not recommended to use VAC for the higher speeds. This is because they sometimes insert pops and clicks which can wipe out a perfectly good data  packet. You will need to adjust audio input levels so that it’s not too loud or too soft going into the application. Red bar about 1/2 to 3/4.

4800/9600

There is a button to reverse the phase called “reverse”. If you are coming out of the discriminator and you are not decoding the packets, then, tick this check box.

SSDV

There is a mode that has been setup called SSDV. On this payload, images will be transmitted using 1200 baud and 4800 baud. All you need to do is select SSDV RX.

General notes

With both programs, you will need to set the call sign and lat,long (decimal degrees) and enable logging. In the TNC program it’s the enable web logging checkbox. In FLDIGI it’s in the configuration item.

Telemetry

SSDV

Modes

Thor           Telemetry

1200 FEC Telemetry and SSDV

Olivia         Telemetry

4800          Telemetry and SSDV

9600          Telemetry

Above all, have fun on the day ! Cheers /DD VK3TBC