Did the US Air Force take out an Amateur Radio balloon for $470,000?

I think it's a legitimate thing to think about. Coincidentally, a few weeks ago, I was reading about pico balloons, and thought to myself that it sounded pretty cool, and also relatively inexpensive.

But I think I'll hold off on it for a while. I don't want the USAF shooting down my balloon, retrieving the wreckage, and then knocking on my door for an explanation. Or worse yet, I don't want the Chinese Air Force shooting it down and saying it was an act of war.

 

Ha ha ha, it is a balloon with ft8 onboard

 

It has Nothing to do about a HAM Radio club, ANYONE can here and is what Schools and STEM study do:

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-101/subpart-D

And no they do not issue Notice to Airmen for small balloons; they do for Rocket Launches however

Edit: then all the small aircraft fly over the Notam area to see what these rockets are doing but we can't fly them to show them as they are in the air and with VFR rules can't fly them.

My old announcement over the PA at the rocket launch, "We have a lawn mower in the sky , we will hold till he passes by"

 

I am not sure why everyone thinks it takes ham radio to do tech. In fact it is slowly moving to the sidelines.

LoRa will replace APRS in my Opinion before the next decade

 

Ballon mobile?
It's probably not a good time to plan a ballon ride!

 

Did the USAF shoot down a pico balloon? We'll probably never know....

 

I have over 25,000 hours as a commercial airline pilot. The sky is big. The balloons, small. I’ve seen maybe 20 birthday party balloons. I’ve never seen an amateur radio balloon. I HAVE seen, over Arizona, a balloon big enough to be seen from cruise altitude over California. It was during the Trump administration. Not that that is important, but it was big enough to “see and avoid” from 300 miles away. The payload was massive. Air traffic control could see it on radar and when queried, stated simply “it’s a balloon.” Radar vectors could easily be provided, assuming both the aircraft and balloon were in radar AND radio contact. Trans-oceanic flights are neither.

My guess is that a balloon that can be seen on radar is a threat. But usually, science and hobby balloons fly above the altitudes flown by commercial aircraft whose service ceiling is 41,000 feet. Some corporate aircraft fly as high as 47,000 feet. Possibly a problem. There are school project balloons with video of near misses with commercial aircraft. A direct hit in the wrong place COULD be a problem. Given that aircraft hit large birds with far greater mass than these “smaller/hobby’ balloons almost daily…something I’ve done several times in my career with usually little or no damage to the aircraft, leads me to believe nothing more than scratches and a good story would result from such an interaction.

73

Wes
W3KW
Captain/BA-737

 

Take a good look at the link you posted, read it for content. According to that link, anyone launching anything needs to notify the civilian authorities prior, keep them posted during the flight if they lose it, and notify authorities when the flight is concluded. It also says that any of these flights the payload must have a separation capability. As reported the latest objects were the size of a car, is much different than small balloon. Why do you think Mylar balloons sold must have a weight attached to keep them from flying away?

Could these balloons be part of the mysterious repeaters found in the mountains around Salt Lake City? Are they used to reflect signals to avoid detection? Who knows, but if we're lucky the government may eventually tell us but we shouldn't hold our collective breath.

 

While it may be unlikely, I would think an "amateur radio" balloon actually getting sucked into an aircraft's engine could cause a major "problem." While birds of greater mass MAY be encountered, they aren't as "solid" as a mechanical mechanical radio payload.

 

Party "balloons" whether Mylar™ or not, are typically filled to capacity, not like weather or other "high altitude" balloons, leaving little "room" for expansion. Unfortunately, they CAN rise to airliner altitudes before they burst, so they CAN pose a threat. However, I don't know of many "power lines" at the height typically used by airliners, except in their take-off or landing patterns.

 

I'm going with the actual pilot in this case. Because there are so many stories in the news of amateur balloons crashing aircraft.

 

Sorry I wrote it that way. Yes you have to call ATC no matter who you are. I was simply (but I failed) to make the issue being you don't have to be a Ham radio club to launch a legal space balloon.

 

Hey no harm no foul. If I came across as impersonal I apologize

Until the gubmint comes out and tells us it's all speculation. I was thinking, I hope it's not aliens from another planet. If they can come all this way with advanced spacecraft and get shot down by a 400k missile, I wonder just how advance they may be?

 

What if nothing else in the Universe Shoots things or kills living beings? And so such concerns are not thought about during travels?