Each week the Hackaday editors collect on-line to debate the tech tales of the second, and among the many subjects this week was the balloons shot down over North America which are considered Chinese language spying units. Among the many banter got here the amusing thought that enterprising trolls on the Pacific rim may launch balloons to maintain the fearless defenders of American skies firing off missiles into the past.

However humor might have overshadowed by occasions, as a result of it appears one of many craft they shot down was simply that. It wasn’t a troll although, the proof factors to an novice radio pico balloon — a helium-filled Mylar social gathering balloon with a tiny solar-powered WSPR transmitter as its payload.

The balloon thought to have been shot down was launched by the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, a gaggle of radio amateurs who launch small helium-filled Mylar balloons carrying the barest minimal for a solar-powered WSPR beacon. Its callsign was K9YO, and having circumnavigated the globe seven instances since its launch on the tenth of October it was final seen off Alaska on February eleventh. Its projected course and timing tallies with the craft reported shot down by the US Air Pressure, so it appears the army used tons of of hundreds of dollars-worth of high-tech weaponry to shoot down just a few tens of {dollars} value of pastime electronics they might have readily tracked on-line. We love the scent of napalm within the morning!

Their web site has a number of technical info on the balloons and the beacons, offering an interesting perception into this aspect of novice radio that’s effectively value a learn in itself. The complete technical particulars of the USAF missile system used to shoot them down, sadly stays labeled.