Due to an unusual wind causing predictions from our normal launch sites to land far out in the Pacific Ocean, a launch from Tracy was planned. The morning of the flight the Sondehub flight prediction was inexplicably down. An alternative sites predicted a Hayward landing. Unfortunately, we had very low turnout for the launch. It was just Martin and I. After some talk of whether we should or should not launch, we decided to proceed, skipping the cross band repeater payload (the most expensive one).
Payloads:
GoPro style camera pointed straight down
JLTB HD 1080P camera with a swivel lens/camera
Repurposed Radiosonde with horus 4fsk transmissions
Meshtastic node – Rak module with GPS
Wenet – Raspberry Pi Zero 2W with an Adafruit LoRa hat RFM98W
Radar reflector
Parachute
Very soon after liftoff, the mobile antenna for wenet lost communication. I switched to the yagi antenna and was able to regain packets, while holding the yagi. We also noticed that meshtastic node was not transmitting, and amateur sondehub was not tracking Bryan’s 4fsk radisonde. Only the Wenet tracking system working (ahh!), but it required stopping the car, getting out the Yagi and hand pointing it in the general area of the balloon. After getting some new landing predictions from the Amateur Sondehub site, Martin and I drove from Tracy to Livermore. The balloon did not seem to be traveling very fast. In Livermore, I stopped to hold up my yagi, and download some packets. After spending some time there, and looking at revised predictions, the new landing zone was supposed to be near Foothill High School in Livermore. Martin and I met there, and we caught the data and some live images from just prior to balloon burst. For some reason, only about 5 images past balloon burst were captured, but GPS locations were still being transmitted. I waited there, holding the yagi to get data as close to ground as possible. The last reading was at 1,032 meters. Burst was at 31,995 meters.
After retrieval of the balloon it looks like we forgot to turn on the battery for the mestastic node. The 4fsk radiosonde is a little hard to turn on and off. I am guessing the same thing happened to Byran’s horus 4fsk payload. Below are links from the flight.
Photos from the launch flight and landing
In the above photo, you can see the three areas of reception, launch, east Livermore, then west Livermore. Just barely caught burst. The dark areas are while I was driving.
SF-HAB 