Peter VK5PE and Ivan VK5HS monitored the Horus 50 launch today. We concentrated on the cross band repeater and Slow scan TV modes. Normally we would track the flight, but as there was a good number of stations setup to track the flight and 5 chase cars we decided our input was not required. There is  strong interference in the Riverland area on 434.640MHz which affected our receive stations on the new telemetry mode. Peter and I set up our tracking gear on Saturday and found one of the irrigation, moisture monitoring  transmitter stations, now to try and resolve that problem before the next launch!

We traveled out into the scrub to get away from the interference just west of Renmark to monitor the flight. soon we were hearing the cross band repeater and we both made contact with the net control station VK5ARG operated by Grant VK5GR.  Ivan had a contact with VK5IX mobile, thanks Grant and Darrin. We used an Icom dual band radio running 50 watts and a diamond dual band vertical for access into the repeater.

The SSTV station consisted of a laptop running MMSSTV, coupled to a Icom R10 scanner. The antenna was a dual band crossed Yagi, constructed at a earlier Club practical night (the build details can be found on our web site)

Both Peter and I enjoyed our time today, we would like to thank the Horus team for all their efforts in planning and running the Horus 50 flight.

Regards Ivan VK5HS