Thessaloniki NDB

Most radio hobbyists ignore that a Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) operates near former Alatini works in Thessaloniki. Its Morse code id is THS and it transmits continuously on 345 kHz.

Last week I visited the site of the beacon and shot a few photos.

Panoramic view from the North	No tresspassing sign
The eastern mast	Transmitter shed
Detail of insulators and pulleys	View from the East

This nice NDB has been in operation for decades. Although it is located on the approach to RWY 16 of Makedonia Airport (LGTS), nowdays is not used much by aviators. 

It is easily accessible from public spaces and roads, just south of Thessaloniki Music Hall, at 40.593600 N - 22.948100 E, so if you are in the area you may visit the site. 

CNSP30 balloon over Greece

Plot of CNSP30 balloon from HABhub

Today we had a daytime pass of CNSP30 balloon over Greece. Most previous passes took place during nightime so we missed the change to plot it. In the morning it appeared that the balloon would follow a southest course and pass over Attica, unfortunately it turned East and was better received in Larissa and Thessaloniki. The balloon transmits APRS packets using callsign K6RPT-11, which are gated to the APRS.IS network and then plotted at the HABhub tracker site. 

During the pass I run an APRS receive only setup and I enabled my connection to the APRS internet servers network with a filter to pass only K6RPT packets. Some of the packets uploaded were from my station, either received directly or over an APRS digipeater.