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VK7AX > WIA 25.12.15 13:05l 54 Lines 2226 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 30953-VK7AX
Read: GUEST
Subj: [WIA-News] Pico balloon detected circumnavigating the earth
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<VK7AX
Sent: 151225/1200Z 30953@VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC [Ulverstone] $:30953-VK7AX
From: VK7AX@VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
To : WIA@WW
Pico balloon detected circumnavigating the earth
Date : 23 / 12 / 2015
Author : Type your name here
The Aussie solar powered pico balloon PS-56 that had a catastrophic GPS
tracking failure, has been tracked by its weak CW signal,
having encircled the southern hemisphere. I
t was put up by Andy Nguyen VK3YT from Melbourne on Saturday November 28,
who said it passed the usual pre-flight tests, but shortly after it went
up there were no WSPR or JT9 packets, but the balloon payload sent the
default Morse code sequence only.
That situation has been likened to the historical docudrama film on the
Apollo 13 moon mission which used the phrase, 'Houston, we have a problem'.
Andy VK3YT put out a call for a watch-out for the balloon.
Not giving up easily, hard-core VK and ZL trackers took up the challenge.
The ingenuity of radio amateurs trackers has enabled this balloon flight
to be tracked without a working GPS.
He explained that using the Sun greyline at sunset and sunrise,
antenna bearing and wind prediction, the balloon position could be estimated.
PS-56 was tracked like this continuously for a week by Bob ZL1RS,
before it got to South America, and went out of range.
However by December 13 it popped up again on his waterfall,
and tracking resumed.
Bob ZL2RS further narrowed the position down to between South America
and South Africa.
Fast forward to Saturday December 19, John VK2FAK and Joe VK5EI spotted
PS-56 with strong signal strength.
Then on last Sunday December 20 in the morning Bob ZL1RS he had the
position PS-56 based on the limited data available.
Andy VK3YT said: "Thanks to the efforts of trackers,
it has been confirmed as having circumnavigated the Southern Hemisphere,
and is still flying." Earlier Andy VK3YT achieved a record distance flight
with PS-46 that went around the southern hemisphere twice,
and leaving South Africa in storm on July 18, 2015,
was lost just short of its third circumnavigation.
(Sourced from the WIA Website)
http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2015/20151223-1/index.php
(Posted to the Packet Radio Network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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