report from northern Michigan, USA

[WB8HSL]

Greetings All,

Please allow me to share the success of getting my TTGO ESP32/LORA board to work with the MySondy app, thanks to IZ4PNN's assistance.

To maximize range I replaced the stubby antenna with a telescoping whip that came with a TinySA and extended it to 185 mm.

Tonight I tracked balloon launches from Green Bay, Wisconsin and Gaylord, Michigan from my home in northern Michigan. This was with the unit placed on a second floor window sill in my radio shack, inside our home.

I started the process back when the QST article came out, but at that time not many US wx stations used 403 Mhz. There was nothing to hear. But now that NWS has implemented the 403 Mhz system, I revisited the project and am having great fun.

If you have any tips, please share them.

Scott
WB8HSL

[WB8HSL]

More to report:

My wife accompanied me on our first recovery mission. A balloon launched from Green Bay, Wisconsin, came to earth about 20 Km from our home. We went out the next day to search, as I hoped the sonde battery would still be active. It might well have been, but 450 cm of snow on the only trail off the main road kept us away. I did not pack the snowshoes.

Perhaps better luck next time. It just seemed fortuitous that one should land so close, considering their historical trend seems to be well away from us.

Scott
WB8HSL

[Flyincajun]

I'm curious as well to how long the DFM17 sondes will transmit. Sometimes it can be a good drive to the predicted landing point and I would prefer to wait until the next morning.
I'm just getting into this game and will have my nephew come with me for the first retrieve.

Mike
KC5FGP