RWK Balloon Launch Announcement – August 23rd

UPDATE – 8/21
We are GO for launch this Saturday! The launch site will be at the Old Celina Park in Celina TX. Setup will begin at 8:00AM, and launch will be at 9:00AM. 

Submit your reports for a QSL card: https://forms.gle/1A212c3TgbaKA5Ky5

The Richardson Area Balloonatics / Richardson Wireless Klub will be launching a high-altitude weather balloon on Saturday August 23rd, weather and upper atmosphere conditions permitting. The launch will be just north of the DFW metroplex, but near apogee at 100,000ft+ we expect coverage to include most of Texas and Oklahoma, with some Arkansas and Louisiana coverage as well. The flight is expected to last around 2.5 hours (9:00AM to ~11:00AM ascent, and on the ground by noon).

The launch site will be chosen based on winds aloft and target landing areas. Expect it to be in northern Collin or Denton counties.

We will have a special event QSL card if you receive images/tracking data from the balloon or make contact through the onboard repeater. This post will have a form on launch day to submit for a QSL card or Worked All Payloads (“WAP”) award.

Flight Goals

• Finally capture some 360° camera footage from launch to burst
• Test 20m HF 50-baud Horus Binary v2 beacon on 14.070MHz @ 10mW with dipole antenna — what does the propagation look like beyond the radio horizon? (RX is easy, just feed sideband audio to your PC. See this page.)
• Fly a Geiger counter
• Measure pressure balloon pressure delta
• Prove data aggregator concept using Pi Pico W + BLE to Raspberry Pi (small sensors to Wenet payload)

Payload	Callsign	Frequency	Participate
SSTV + Wenet / SSDV	KE5GDB	432.5MHz SSTV Robot 36 (FM) 431.5MHz Wenet 115.2kbaud	SSTV on the air – Robot 36 Wenet live images at http://ssdv.habhub.org/KE5GDB Wenet RX
Crossband Repeater	K5RWK	446.0MHz Downlink 147.435MHz + PL67.0 Uplink	On the air
Tracker – RS41 20m Experiment BMP680 Sensor	K5RWK	14.070 @ 50 baud USB 432.700 @ 100 baud USB (-1KHz dial)	On the air / track online How to decode Decode online
Tracker – RS41 Geiger Counter	K5PRK	432.600 MHz USB (-1KHz dial)	On the air / track online How to decode Decode online
Tracker – RS41 Tried and true	K5UTD	432.900 MHz USB (-1KHz dial)	On the air / track online How to decode Decode online
360 Camera		SD card	Video after launch
Environmental Sensors		SD card	Post-launch report

Ways to participate from afar

• Track the payloads at https://amateur.sondehub.org/ (look for K5RWK, K5UTD, K5PRK, and KE5GDB-Wenet)
• Receive SSTV pictures in real-time – 432.5 MHz / Robot 36
• Make contacts through the crossband repeater – 147.435MHz PL 67.0 uplink, 446.0 (no PL) downlink
• Decode our tracking payloads – “Horus Binary v2” on 432.6, 432.7, and 432.9 MHz (decode using upper sideband and Horus GUI or https://horus.sondehub.org)
• Watch live images stream in via Wenet at https://ssdv.habhub.org/KE5GDB

Participate in person

• Launch site Old Celina Park in Celina TX
• Launch prep begins at 8:00AM with a target launch time of 9:00AM
• If chasing, please carpool — we’ve had congestion issues before
• Talk-in / chase repeater is Denton 146.92 Repeater (PL 110.9 / Allstar 41087)
• Chase simplex is on 146.54MHz — please bring an HT that can talk on 146.54 if chasing
• Chase crew should bring boots, long pants, plenty of bug spray, and lots of water! Be prepared for a bit of a hike and high temperatures!

We hope to see you at the launch or hear you on the repeater!