The Voyage Home?

The final transmission of the day from the VE3KCL S-9 balloon at 0837Z today reported it over the North end of the Sea of Japan. It is travelling between the Asiatic Russian mainland and the island of Sakhalin, where on September 1st, 1983 Korean Airlines flight 7 was shot down by a Soviet fighter.

Current direction is Northeast (towards the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Aleutians) with a speed of 40 knots. It was just off the mainland when it shut down for the night and current direction and speed will have crossed the island within 3 hours and entered the Sea of Okhotsk, where we'll probably see it when it wakes up this evening (North American Eastern time).

During the day its messages were received by Austrian, New Zealand and Japanese stations, with most reports coming from JQ2WDO, according to the WSPRnet database.

What a Long Strange Trip it's been

The S-9 balloon is still going strong. After travelling across the Black Sea into Turkey the GPS failed, which caused the WSPR and JT-9 modes to stop working properly as they're dependent on accurate time. Some signals were picked up although there are few WSPR receiving stations across all of Asia. Signals are mostly being picked up now by a station in Sweden and a couple of New Zealand hams, usually during grey line conditions. Here are the most recent spots of the primary WSPR signal.

This is from the WSPR reporting site.

Timestamp	Call	MHz	SNR	Drift	Grid	Pwr	Reporter	RGrid	km	az
2016-04-21 11:02	VE3KCL	10.140277	-22	4	ON44	0.02	ZL1RS	RF64vs	11008	132
2016-04-21 10:38	VE3KCL	10.140270	-19	-1	ON45	0.02	ZL1RS	RF64vs	11081	131
2016-04-21 10:26	VE3KCL	10.140277	-26	-4	ON35	0.02	ZL2ABN	RE78kv	11750	134
2016-04-21 10:26	VE3KCL	10.140273	-19	-4	ON35	0.02	ZL1RS	RF64vs	11199	130
2016-04-21 00:14	VE3KCL	10.140265	-26	-4	NO77	0.02	SM0EPX/RX2	JO89si	4255	307
2016-04-20 13:02	VE3KCL	10.140263	-22	-4	MP83	0.02	ZL1RS	RF64vs	13791	102
2016-04-20 13:02	VE3KCL	10.140264	-22	-4	MP83	0.02	ZL1RS2	RF64vt	13787	102
2016-04-20 13:02	VE3KCL	10.140267	-24	-4	MP83	0.02	ZL2ABN	RE78kv	14387	105
2016-04-20 12:38	VE3KCL	10.140257	-21	2	MP83	0.02	ZL1RS	RF64vs	13791	102
2016-04-20 12:38	VE3KCL	10.140259	-21	1	MP83	0.02	ZL1RS2	RF64vt	13787	102
2016-04-20 12:38	VE3KCL	10.140261	-23	2	MP83	0.02	ZL2ABN	RE78kv	14387	105

Query time: 0.007 sec

The GPS recovered after travelling through the Middle East leading to speculation that the GPS failed due to jamming signals in the war zone. Fortunately when it woke up the following morning all was well again although tracking was unavailable through much of the day due to propagation conditions not favouring the 16 milliwatt signal.

The predictions based on winds and the next location the balloon was heard shows it crossing Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. It was then spotted in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, having crossed Uzbekistan whilst out of range of the receiving stations. It then spent a couple of days looping through Russia.

The latest report on the tracking web site shows that the balloon has almost crossed Mongolia and about to enter Northeastern China travelling East Southeast which might take it over North Korea or even back into Russia where it sidles down the coast East of China. The distance traveled is now more than 36,000 km and the altitude is still around 10,000 metres so there is no sign of a problem.

If the current wind speed and direction are maintained it could well be over the North Pacific on its way back to North America. I hope to pick it up on WSPR or JT9 once that happens.

Heading for Asia

Having just made landfall in France before shutting down last night, balloon S-9 woke up this morning over Hungary, presumably having travelled over Austria and Germany, and possibly Switzerland. So far today it has also crossed Romania, clipping Moldova and Ukraine along the way. It is now over the shores of the Black Sea, on a track towards Turkey. It has also picked up a little altitude at 10,100 metres, a bit higher than it was when over the Atlantic.



With about 3 more hours (as of 0900 EDT) of good sunlight left, it has a good chance of making it to Turkey before shutting down for the night.

Landfall in Europe

The balloon has crossed Portugal and Spain and is heading for the Bordeaux region of France (a personal favourite of mine!). It is only 80 metres lower than it was a couple of days ago, having climbed somewhat since yesterday. I surmise this is because we've moved into an area with higher barometric pressure. If the on-board altimeter were a barometric type, that wouldn't matter, but using GPS to measure altitude means that the actual altitude will be reported, which will be at the atmospheric density where the balloon's buoyancy and weight are at equilibrium.

Now we can see how many countries the balloon can visit during its lifetime. As far as I can tell, this is a record duration flight of all of them so far.

Europe Bound?

VE3KCL's S-9 Balloon Experiment has certainly been making the rounds of the North Atlantic, first doing a loop around Greenland, then another around Iceland before almost returning to the point where it passed by Newfoundland in the first 24 hours of its journey, although it is now travelling in the opposite direction.

You can see in the map below the most likely nighttime path has been added to the map in blue, while the daytime path, reported by the on board GPS, is shown in red. The night time paths are calculated from NOAA wind predictions, as explained on the web page.

Last night's path hasn't been added yet but it is fairly easy to imagine. The last report yesterday was somewhat Southeast of Iceland and during the night it traveled Southwest where at daybreak it started reporting again off the coast of Newfoundland. Perhaps now it will find fair winds to Europe. It is still maintaining altitude at 9990 metres, or 32,776' so it seems to be holding together well.

This morning (as of 0900 EDT, 1300Z) most of the reports are from North American stations including two from Ontario in FN25. Its most recent report was picked up by only two stations, VE1VDM (near Truro, NS) and W3BH (Pennsylvania).

Fickle Winds

Dave, VE3KCL, has launched yet another balloon experiment. This one, now in its third day, is taking a different path to any of those we've seen before.

Right now it's being heard in Sweden. You can look for it on the wsprnet web page and try to hear it on WSPR and/or JT9 on 30m.

Can this Really be the End?

It certainly looks that way for the most recent VE3KCL balloon experiment. The last report was at 1930Z today - long before dark when the battery runs down and it stops reporting. Also telling is the altitude at which the last report was observed - a mere 410 metres.

So after 10 hours it seems to have landed in the middle of Martha's Vineyard. I wonder if someone will find it? When zoomed in you can see its last report in Manuel F. Correllus State Forest but it may well have crossed or even landed in Martha's Vineyard Airport at it was still at 410m at its last report. The shorter of the two runways it was closest to at the time is only 3,328' long so the balloon would have only been 500' from the airport grounds where the track ends. So while its descent was probably mostly vertical it may well have continued to travel Eastward a little bit.

Nothing about it in the Martha's Vineyard news that I could find, though.

VE3KCL Balloon - part 2

I tracked the balloon until faded out. Here are the data recorded by WSJT-X in the JT9 mode.

Time	dB	DT	Freq	Call	Grid	Text
1137	-11	-0.8	2476	VE3KCL	FN03NU
1144	-7	-1	2476			4353.0502157
1145	-11	-0.8	2476			07843.122815
1149	-9	-1	2475	VE3KCL	FN03PV
1156	-9	-1	2473			4353.8461145
1157	-12	-1.2	2473			07831.133829
1201	-12	-0.7	2472	VE3KCL	FN03RV
1208	-10	-1	2468			4353.6379135
1209	-10	-1	2468			07818.756850
1213	-15	-1.1	2473	VE3KCL	RN03UV
1220	-14	-1	2471			4351.1441127
1221	-16	-1.1	2470			07804.920867
1225	-14	-1	2468	VE3KCL	FN03XU
1232	-15	1	2454			4346.8269104
1233	-15	-0.8	2451			07751.767890
1237	-12	-1	2460	VE3KCL	FN13BS
1244	-16	-1	2445			4340.67300084
1245	-16	-1	2440			07737.519883
1249	-18	-1	2461	VE3KCL	FN13EP
1256	-21	-0.9	2441			4331.4491066
1257	-19	-1	2437			07721.483A23
1301	-22	-1.1	2455	VE3KCL	FN13HL
1308	-23	-1	2452			4320.7750057
1309	-22	-1	2454			07707.400A23
1313	-24	-1	2482	VE3KCL	FN13KH
1320	-25	-1	2542			4315.6263087
1321	-25	-0.9	2549			07653.209A15
1325	-25	-0.8	2503	VE3KCL	FN13NF
1332	-26	-1	2523			4312.4709146
1333	-26	-0.8	2524			07639.208920
1337	-26	-0.9	2473	VE3KCL	FN13QE
1344	-26	-0.9	2477			4310.1699168
1345	-26	-1	2478			07624.540907
1349	-27	-1	2474	VE3KCL	FN13TD
1356	-28	-0.9	2476			4307.6818172
1357	-27	-1	2476			07610.158923

The last position report at 1349Z was from just Northwest of Syracuse, New York. I switched over to WSPR about 30 minutes later but didn't receive any reports even though there were signals decoded from over 1800 kilometres away. There are plenty of other WSPR receiving stations that will now be tracking the balloon so a later report will hopefully be able to show the position of the balloon as it makes it way toward the Atlantic.

Breaking News - VE3KCL - another balloon flight

Several flights have been reported here before. There was another that got as far as the mid-Atlantic a few weeks ago published on the QRP Labs web site. The site does not mention a flight happening right now, but I was monitoring JT9 on 30m a few minutes ago and received some transmissions which look suspiciously like a balloon flight,. Here's what I saw.

• [1137] -11 VE3KCL FN03NU
• [1144] -7   4353.0502157
• [1145] -11 07843.122815
• [1149] -9   VE3KCL FN03PV
• [1156] -9   4353.8461145
• [1157] -12 07831,133829
• [1201] -12 VE3KCL FN03RV
• [1208] -10 4353.6379135
• [1209] -10 07818.756850
• [1213] -15 VE3KCL FN03UV

There may have been other transmissions between 1137 and 1144 as I was transmitting in two of those 1-minute slots, although based on the pattern I think that unlikely. The above lists the time in UTC, the signal strength in dB and the content of the transmission. The frequency is 10.140468 MHz. The DT (delta time, which is the difference between the balloon's clock and mine) is not shown but has varied between -0.8 and -1.2 so far.

FN03NU is centred over Lakefront Park in Oshawa, while 12 minutes later it was ENE of the former position in the Bowmanville area. The transmission at 1201 show it in FN03RV which is still on the lake shore East of Wilmot Creek over Lovekin (an easy grid square locator with map is on the http://www.qrz.com/gridmapper). So it appears to have been released not that long ago. The last reading shown above is over Lake Ontario directly South of Port Hope. Click the map for a larger view.

I don't know what the telemetry means and was unable to find it on the web site. It appears to have changed from the previous flight. 

That's all for now. I'll see how long I can track it today and report back here.

Balloon Experiments in the Southern Hemisphere

There's been a lot of coverage of the balloon launches of VE3KCL in this blog (see S-4 and S-3), an Australian Ham, Andy VK3YT has been using single (rather than double) party balloons and managed to have them circle the (southern part of the) globe several times in one flight.

He launched PS-50 on August 23rd and keeps a log of his exploits on the "Pico Space" web site. At the time of writing, the balloon has traversed about 170 degrees of longitude at around 40 degrees South latitude.

Like VE3KCL's payloads, Andy is using WSPR and JT9 protocols but uses the 20m band as well as 30m. It would be interesting to compare the methods and technologies of the two ventures.

Splashdown - Flight S4 Descends into the Norwegian Sea

The first report came in this morning at 0430Z (00:30 EDT) with a single station LA9JO reporting until 0654 when it was joined by SM0EPX/RX2. Only once did we see as many as four stations reporting, with the last one at 1130Z (07:30 EDT) heard by OH3HTI and again by SM0EPX.

The last altitude reported was 1,120 metres, down from 8000 metres. The Flight S-4 status page estimates it ditched at 1135Z after a steady descent of 920 metres per minute, just about the time I was on the repeater telling Geoff VA3GS how well it was doing.

Looking forward to the next flight.

Not Quite Norway: The Balloon Wanders Westward

We pick up the story in Finland this morning, with the balloon travelling North from Estonia to somewhat West and North of Helsinki through the night. We will never know the exact path it took, as the electronics power down when it gets too dark to drive the solar cells.

From southern Finland it crossed the Gulf of Bothnia heading Northwest into Sweden, picking up speed to a still-slow 28 knots, which gradually reduced through the day until its final report at 1818Z (14:18 North American Eastern Daylight Time) where it was doing just half that speed.

Its final reported position for the day is at the foothills of the Scandinavian Mountains, perhaps 150km from Norway (I do wish the map had a scale). It is not a densely populated area but the last report has it right over a road which winds it way around lakes and through the mountain valleys, continuing on to Norway. It looks like it might be a spectacular drive. The mountains are not particularly steep and the balloon is some 20,000 feet above their highest peak.

The WSPR reporting site shows LB9YE continuing to hear the WSPR transmissions for 48 minutes after the last position report. It only seems to have heard the "main" WSPR transmission, not the secondary information that provides temperature, battery condition and the final two digits of the grid square. Those reports show the balloon moving from JP85 to JP75, which includes both Sweden and Norway. LB9YE is on the Norwegian West coast about 185km Southwest of the last reported position.

Earlier in the day I checked the web site to see who was hearing the reports. First the first hour or so of the day there were reports from New Zealand and Australia.The site can also display a map of the communication paths between stations. This one shows all stations hearing VE3KCL at around Noon today.

In spite of being wrong 2 days in a row about its forecast direction, the winds appear to want to take it off the West coast of Norway only to make a right turn and head back towards Russia. As this may well happen overnight we may not see that track due to lack of overnight position reports. It might also head to Greenland if it picks up a different wind but we'll definitely know if it does that.

The Flight S-4 Status Page is also providing comments on the flight and is worth checking out. It has posted some other interesting links recently.

The development of new weak signal protocols has spawned great new opportunities for low coast experimentation with some spectacular results.

Balloon Experiment in the Doldrums

Once again the balloon's systems are asleep right now. The last transmission was heard by 22 stations, including one each in Australia and New Zealand. Not bad for 16mw.

Not much distance was made today due to very light winds aloft, with the final report of the day at only 4 knots. It has almost crossed the Baltic Sea from Sweden (after passing over Stockholm) to Estonia, making the island of Hiiumaa, part of Estonia and off its West coast, South of Finland.

The slow speed is evident from the meandering track shown on the map. The sharp right turn on the left hand side of the map is from the first report of the day. The overnight flight is always shown as a straight line from the last report of the previous day because the intermediate points are unknown, but it is likely that it held a track further West than the line indicates. The zig-zagging during the daytime trip, especially East of Stockholm as it slowed to a crawl, is due to the lack of precision in position reporting, which is done with 6 character Maidenhead Grid Locators.

The last reported temperature on board was -10.8C. During the day it is often around 30C, which is clearly inside the insulated electronics package the ambient temperature is about -40C. Before the electronics go to sleep the temperature starts dropping with the setting Sun, and the altitude usually drops a couple of hundred metres as well. We also see the battery voltage dropping, nearing the point where it is too weak to support the radio transmissions and other powered activities.

The winds are forecast to continue to blow from the West but will not pick up much, so when (if) it wakes up tomorrow morning it probably won't have even crossed Estonia.