{"id":11615,"date":"2015-10-21T21:26:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T01:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11615"},"modified":"2015-10-21T21:26:12","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T01:26:12","slug":"tracksoar-open-source-aprs-tracker-for-weather-balloons-and-other-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11615","title":{"rendered":"Tracksoar &#8211; Open source APRS tracker for weather balloons and other projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you are planning a weather\u00a0balloon or other amateur high altitude project and need a low cost system for tracking and telemetry communications,\u00a0\u00a0check out the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/tracksoar.com\/\" target=\"_d\">Tracksoar<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Open source APRS tracker<\/strong><em>:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/a4_original.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"11616\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=11616\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/a4_original.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"680,563\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"a4_original\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/a4_original.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11616\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/a4_original-300x248.jpg\" alt=\"a4_original\" width=\"300\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/a4_original-300x248.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/a4_original.jpg 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Tracksoar is the smallest lightest open source APRS [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Automatic_Packet_Reporting_System\" target=\"_d\">Automatic Packet Reporting System<\/a>]\u00a0tracker available. It makes tracking weather balloons, model rockets, RC aircraft, and anything else that flies as easy as possible. It is able to report location, altitude, temperature pressure and humidity to the internet once a minute for twelve hours with 2xAA batteries. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Because Tracksoar is open source you can also add your own modules to accommodate custom sensors to meet your specific requirements. By flying Tracksoar on a weather balloon you can reduce the required helium and balloon costs per launch and it can pay for itself with just 2 launches. No other APRS solution offers this level of integration, compact size, and customization. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Additionally all profits from Tracksoar sales go to supporting the <a href=\"http:\/\/sbhackerspace.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Santa Barbara Hackerspace<\/a> and improving the resources we offer to the community.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The system was designed by the\u00a0Santa barbara Hackerspace, founded by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1250163085\/tracksoar-aprs\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Bales.<\/a> They currently have a\u00a0crowd-funding campaign underway \u00a0to raise $22,000 to pay for\u00a0the first production run of the Tracksoar :\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1250163085\/tracksoar-aprs\" target=\"_d\">Tracksoar APRS by mike bales \u2014 Kickstarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1250163085\/tracksoar-aprs\/widget\/video.html\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"> <\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Note that the system requires an amateur radio license to operate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you are planning a weather\u00a0balloon or other amateur high altitude project and need a low cost system for tracking and telemetry communications,\u00a0\u00a0check out the Tracksoar\u00a0\u00a0Open source APRS tracker: Tracksoar is the smallest lightest open source APRS [Automatic Packet Reporting System]\u00a0tracker available. It makes tracking weather balloons, model rockets, RC aircraft, and anything else that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11615\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tracksoar &#8211; Open source APRS tracker for weather balloons and other projects<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,25,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diy-space","category-near-space","category-space-radio"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-31l","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17988,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=17988","url_meta":{"origin":11615,"position":0},"title":"Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup &#8211; Feb.25.2019","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat \/ SmallSat projects and programs: ** LunaH-Map Spacecraft - A CubeSat project at Arizona State University: The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) is a 6U CubeSat mission recently selected by NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate to fly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Amateur\/Student Satellite&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Amateur\/Student Satellite","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/dIvhMLfgvEc\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9775,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9775","url_meta":{"origin":11615,"position":1},"title":"Video: High school team develops robot to release weather balloons before Cape launches","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A high school group has built a robotic system for releasing balloons to test upper atmosphere winds before launches at Cape Canaveral. 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Aerospace PongSat program PongSat Program | Space Hub Southeast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9081,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9081","url_meta":{"origin":11615,"position":3},"title":"Video: Xploration Outer Space &#8211; Episode 6 \u2013 \u201cSpace Balloons\u201d","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest episode of\u00a0Xploration Outer Space Online\u00a0is about high altitude balloons\u00a0: http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/watch\/702354","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10596,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10596","url_meta":{"origin":11615,"position":4},"title":"HASP (High Altitude Student Payload) brought back near space infrasound","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0High Altitude Student Payload (HASP)\u00a0is a high altitude balloon system designed to carry up to twelve student payloads to an altitude of about 36 kilometers with flight durations of 15 to 20 hours using a small volume, zero pressure balloon.\u00a0 It is anticipated that the payloads carried by HASP will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"Img_1384_500x667","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Img_1384_500x667.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7068,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7068","url_meta":{"origin":11615,"position":5},"title":"Space History: David Simons used high altitude balloons for early space health studies","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Shinabery, a space historian with the New Mexico Museum of Space History, posts his latest article from the early years of the Space Age :\u00a0Rats \u2026 Cosmic Radiation Turns Hair Grey! - This Week In Space History\/Moonandback","rel":"","context":"In &quot;History&quot;","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11617,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11615\/revisions\/11617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}