US Shoots Down Chinese Suspected Spy Balloon

[Possum]

7 hours ago, GeoffH said:

Eastern and Mountain Amateur Radio club recently launched a Pico Balloon (I did my examination for my USA license qualification there a few years ago) and they're based in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

I thought some here might find it interesting to see some pictures of the process (the recovery and full data is yet to be made available as it needs to be processed still so the photo and tracking is preliminary).

Nb there are normally several ground moving vehicles involved during the descent phase as at lower altitudes the radio transponders range drops (they're basically line of sight and the lower the balloon the shorter the range).  At peak height they can be received from very long distances however.

In order (the start of filling of the balloon),

A photo taken from peak altitude (near the edge of space... you can see a slight curve to the earth and the thinning of the atmosphere is clearly visible.

And the descent tracking summary (with locations of the various tracking vehicles).

All of this information is published online, in advance of and during the process.
Other organizations have even more advanced systems flying.

Some are optimized for height (this one achieved just over 30 kilometers of elevation) but others are filled in such a way as to ride the jet streams and travel around the Earth for great disances.  Recently one travelled all the way around the Earth and then more before landing.

 

I had no idea amateur radio was doing such things now, that's good news. I was a ham in my youth as was my late father in the 60's. We could only afford CW back then but it opened up the world to me. I'll never forget being a 11 year old with a novice license communicating with someone in South Africa briefly. It was due to skip so didn't last long but it still it was exciting. Now? Just pick up the phone

Edited February 19, 2023 by Greglm

[intrepid]