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