[aprssig] FW: APRS Question (Drone tracking of downed balloons)

[Robert Bruninga]

Kameron KG7VSN asked a question about using a RC aircraft to act as a final
digi for a balloon once it has landed.  But I’d take it one step further.



Put the APRS digipeater on a drone and also listen for the LAT/LON of the
balloon.  Then launch the drone once the balloon begins to descend.
Program the drone to always go to the balloon position and maintain 1000
feet altitude until told otherwise.  (or whatever is the legal height for
drones…)



Neat!

Bob, WB4APR



*From:* Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu>
*Sent:* Thursday, June 11, 2020 2:23 PM
*To:* Kameron Markham <kameron.markham at gmail.com>; wb4apr at amsat.org
*Cc:* Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu>
*Subject:* RE: APRS Question



Great idea I think.  Yes, avoid using WIDE1-1.  But using SKY1-1 is perfect
if you name the digipeating alias in the RC plane to be SKY1-1.  You could
just nake it SKY and then digipeat via SKY, but I like keeping the SKY1-1
convention…



Let everyone know how well it works.  In fact, a DRONE couild be pretty
good atr this too.



In fact, Program the drone to GO to the LAT/LONG of the balloon. And hover
there!



Bob



*From:* Kameron Markham <kameron.markham at gmail.com>
*Sent:* Wednesday, June 10, 2020 4:23 PM
*To:* wb4apr at amsat.org
*Subject:* APRS Question



Hi,



I have scoured the internet on this question and haven't found any
guidance. I'm part of a high altitude balloon club operating out of the
auburn school district in the seattle area. When recovering balloons, the
challenge we run into is recovering the balloons once they land. They
frequently land in little dips in the earth, or far from roads, such that
they cannot be heard by any of our tracking vehicles.



The idea that I had was to take a picoAPRS radio in digipeater mode and fly
it on an RC plane over the last known area until it relays a position to
the terrestrial radios. The problem is, we would then have to program the
balloon to use some kind of digi path.  I know that we shouldn't fly with
any widen-n paths over a certain altitude, but the tinytrak3 radios we use
on the balloons cannot switch between no digi paths and using digi paths
based on the altitude.



I was wondering if the protocol supports using a "custom" digi path like
sky1-1 or some other string that would allow for our flying digipeater to
behave like a wide1-1 fill in digipeater without having the balloons key up
every fill-in repeater in the state. The idea is to use something that will
be ignored by all the ground stations that hear it, but have a digipeater
programmed to respond to it and rebroadcast it. That said, I also don't
want to cause interference or confusion on the network.



Thanks,

-- 

Kameron Markham [KG7VSN]

Washington State University (Tri-Cities)

(253)347-3004
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