Ei mennyt ihan putkeen...
It was a very long day with a very demanding experiment.
The balloon gondola landed and was successfully recovered with all of its equipment at 18.15 CEST / 16.15 UTC.
There were some unexpected issues during the launch procedure. The tuning indication of the experiment seemed interfering with other subsystems, this did not happen before - it was tuned as close as it could be to the chosen frequency. The location of the balloon launch at the airport was chosen incorrectly by the airport authorities - this, combined with strong wind, caused the flight train to collide with a wind indicating mast. The balloon was finally launched, but the end of the antenna below the capacitive sphere (including the sphere, the 70-cm-band APRS and RTTY and the end cone) were severed and left on ground. This was the first time that an issue like this happened (since 2014...).
The balloon calmly and succesfully climbed to 29164 m a. s. l., after which it entered the re-entry phase. The weather was quite humid, with a dense fog in the troposphere and a visible temperature inversion line. The landing took place in the village of Grądy near Ostrołęka in the middle of a field, no power lines
144.8 MHz APRS and 868 MHz LoRa functioned properly until the touchdown.
As the VLF experiment had the important and mandatory constraint of an 'inductive device', the reception was difficult and in many times it may not have been possible at all, which is natural in this case. Nevertheless, please remember that no reception in certain locations is also important data that adds a lot to the analysis.
This is also not the end of such experiments - the next ones in the forecoming months shall be equipped with the next generation of TXs and, hopefully, without the 'inductive' constraint. This is just the beginning
As we have already received a huge lot of information, questions, comments, opinions etc. on the experiment, reception, launch etc., we will be answering and collecting them in the upcoming days
Thank you for all your assistance, help, comments and information. You All really make it be worth it. You All really make it mean something, not just an adventure.
Video lähdöstä:
https://www.facebook.com/sp5xsl/videos/10225965356706818/