Slovak radio amateurs will touch the nearby space again. After the successful flight of the STS-1 balloon, a team of radio amateurs from STSPROJECT.NET, in cooperation with the SME newspaper, is preparing the second launch of the stratospheric balloon STS-2 (SME in the Stratosphere).
Date and place of start:
15.1.2013, 8:30 CET (7:30 UTC)
Považany football field
GPS coordinates of the location
The assumed height of the ascent of STS-2 is 34000 m.
The balloon will carry a new payload consisting of two new independent position tracking and telemetry modules, two miniature HD cameras, a camera and one USB camera.
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APRS – position and height of the balloon – ATMEGA328 CPU
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144.8 MHz, 300 mW, under the brand OM2AMR-11, telemetry battery voltage
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RTTY – position, balloon height, telemetry – CPU ATMEGA328
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434.650 MHz, 10 mW, USB, 7 bit, no parity, 1 stop bit, 300 baud
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use dl-fldigi current version to decode
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in dl-fldigi select flight STS-2, payload STS-2 on launch day, then click Autoconfigure
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telemetry - indoor, outdoor temperature, battery voltage, air humidity, barometric pressure, number of visible GPS sats
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after setting the program correctly, you will automatically send the decoded packets to the server, where it will be possible to track the position and telemetry from the balloon -
http://spacenear.us/tracker -
despite the low power, the signal range is several hundreds of kilometers when using a vertical collinear antenna. With STS-1, we have a reported signal reception from DL, approx. 450 km.
In addition to telemetry and position, STS-2 will also transmit live images captured by a USB camera during flight. SSDV will be used to transfer these images. Images will be transmitted again using RTTY. This is a relatively new way of sending images developed by the UK High Altitude Society (UKHAS). Opposite SSTV provides a better quality of transmitted image without noise.
SSDV will use the following parameters:
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434.075 MHz, 10 mW, USB, 8 bit, no parity, 2 stop bits, 300 baud
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use dl-fldigi current version to decode
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in dl-fldigi select flight STS-2, payload STS-2P on launch day, then click Autoconfigure
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you can see the decoded images directly in dl-fldigi - select View - SSDV RX in the menu
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each decoded image packet is sent again to the server, where the images can be seen online -
http://tiamat.habitat.org -
the advantage of this method of image transfer is also that if someone drops one packet and another amateur receives the missing packet, the complete image is displayed on the server. Therefore, please, in case of decoding images, do not forget to set dl-fldigi correctly in order to send the decoded packets to the server as well.
The location of the search team will be displayed on both maps. On aprs.fi, the tracking car will be marked OM1AMJ, on spacenear.us the car will be marked OM2AMR_CHASE.
On the pages of the technical section of the SME journal - http://tech.sme.sk ongoing information from the start, flight and follow-up will be provided.
On the occasion of the release of amateur radio stratospheric balloons, Radim has for this year OM2AMR assigned occasional tag – OM13STS. This tag should also be active during startup.
We look forward to your participation, either in person or on the band.
73!
I recommend OM13STS