Balloon flight B-3, 6 July 2013

This was a very impromptu launch. Having looked at the good weather decision has been made to launch within the next few hours.

Payload weight - 13.4 grams.
Free lift - 1.8 grams.
Downlink mode - DominoEX 16
Launch time 21:00 local time (20:00 UTC) into the sunset.


Balloon climbed almost vertically over starting position without moving much on the map. Having reached 6700m altitude it levelled off into a floating stage and proceeded to drift towards London. Temperature inside the transmitter chip dropped to -10C and after reaching London M3 transmitter signal disappeared during switchover from Morse code break to regular DominoEX.

Loss of downlink data can be attributed to flight computer using voltage levels below those recommeneded in PIC24F datasheet (1.8V vs 2.0V.)