Launch Announcement - 11th July (6:15am) London - Mission Impoppable 6

[Andrew Mulholland]

Another year, another group of Westminster school students have caught the ballooning bug! They are moving forward with the single planned launch this year from Vincent Square in central London tomorrow (Monday 11th) at 6:15am. This once again has special permission from the CAA along with a requirement to work closely with ATC on the day. The early start is a requirement from the CAA.

The balloon is a 1000g balloon aiming for 27km altitude.

The payload includes 2 identical custom Pi Pico trackers with 2 identical high accuracy PM (2.5, 5 and 10) sensors, 2 NO2 sensors, a range of atmospheric sensors, a muon detector and a collection of cameras. In addition to this, there is a Raspberry Pi Flextrak sending back pictures and a Radiosonde backup.
The launch features 3 (transmitting) trackers. The duplicate Pi Pico (WSHAB3) won't be transmitting, only saving to SD card.

• WSHAB1 - 434.275MHz, LoRa Mode 1 (including SSDV) - Raspberry Pi Flextrak

• WSHAB2 - 434.425MHz, LoRa Mode 1 (no SSDV, issues with mode 0, so had to go mode 1) - Custom Raspberry Pi Pico tracker. This one sends back most of the atmospheric data.

• WSRTTY - 434.600MHz, RTTY 100 baud, 540Hz shift, ASCII-7, no parity, 2 stop bits - This is a reprogrammed Radiosonde RS41, only really there in case all else fails...

Predictions have it slowing drifting south right now.

I know the students will appreciate any help tracking.

Many thanks
Andrew - Westminster School

[John Laidler]

Andrew,

I'll give it a go from Devon but realistically I won't be able to see it until it gets quite high.  I've set up a 3 element Yagi about 6m off the ground pointing towards you and dug out my pre-amp to boost the signal should it stagger down here. Some photos enclosed.  Ignore the power supply in one of the photos - it is an innocent bystander.

I've configured it for the SSDV channel but if you would give the atmospheric data a higher priority I will change frequency.

Best regards,

John 

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[Oliver de Peyer]

I have picked up your previous flights from my flat in Clapham Junction (Indeed I even picked up SSDV whilst the payloads were still on the ground, which shows how insane LORA is - there is no line of sight at all)

I will try and get set up although I usually have to start my morning commute around then.

Ol

M0LVR

On 10 Jul 2022, at 17:21, Andrew Mulholland <gba...@gmail.com> wrote:

Another year, another group of Westminster school students have caught the ballooning bug! They are moving forward with the single planned launch this year from Vincent Square in central London tomorrow (Monday 11th) at 6:15am. This once again has special permission from the CAA along with a requirement to work closely with ATC on the day. The early start is a requirement from the CAA.

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[Andrew Mulholland]

Unfortunately after a delay with Swanwick ATC (correct person not being on the desk at the right time), holding the launch back 30 mins, they have decided not to allow the flight to go ahead as air traffic has now picked up...

So we are going to have to cancel the flight and look at doing it again in August or September.

Thanks everyone for setting everything up to track the payload!

[John Laidler]

That's disappointing for everyone, especially the students. Cancelled at T minus not many seconds and with a good weather forecast too.

Best wishes for the relaunch. 

John

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