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The images seem a bit scrambled, presumably due to missing data blocks. At that low a resolution, have you considered maybe Robot36 SSTV?

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Images are all in order, but some have missing packets.

The problem with SSTV is the power required. From some looking it seems that transmitting would need at least 5 watts. This wouldn't be feasible running on the balloon, as it was powered by Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries.

Oh, yeah FM transmitters can require a fair bit of power.

What is it using then, LoRA type stuff?

Yep, the radio link runs LoRa on the 33 cm band (915 MHz)

you should read about ham radio mate... there are some amazing protocols and modulations to save power.

And of course: 7mhz 0.5W transmitter could be heard worldwide... no jokes.

I have my license, and I noted about this in the post. I experimented with the U4B for tracking and found it not to be reliable enough. For the future, I'm planning on using the 70 cm ham band for LoRa.

It's on a balloon, right?

No point pissing about. Go to 4 metres, dangle a J-pole from the bottom.

There, now you've just about got Over The Horizon capability.

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