>From: "Jake Olson" <>
>Reply-To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
>If you have a find on bombs away (GC4FBB), there are some folks in the
>Northwest that could use your help.
>
>High Altitude Balloon Lost - Could Geocachers Help?
>http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=136897
>
>Unfortunately, there's no logbook, no smiley face and no swag you can
>keep.... but you'll make some school kids happy.

If I was living in Oregon, I would love to help in the search! I think that 
would be fun. There is a group here in the Phoenix area that sends up these 
high altitude balloons with equiptment on them. They are able to track it 
with ham radio (APRS) devices and GPS. There is a website that you can track 
these on... www.findu.com. I know some balloonists who have used this method 
of tracking for long distance flights. Anyways, this group meets once a 
month to launch these balloons and then chases them to their landing, 
usually well within the state. They usually launch them from Maricopa. I 
have talked with them before and would like to come out and join them 
sometime for a chase. I think it would be a blast. Sounds like the same sort 
of thing the kids are doing up there in Oregon.

They should have a track log of the balloon they can lay out on mapping 
software, until they lost contact with it. From 12,000' though, it could 
have drifted for many, many miles though and all the different wind 
directions at different altitudes can allow it to meander quite a bit. Thats 
ALOT of ground to cover. They said they had a special frequency that allowed 
them to pick something up from the grounded balloon though? So they should 
have a given radius to search in. If there are some geocaches in that area, 
then I would think geocachers in that area would be up for the challenge. I 
know I would!

Scott
Team Ropingthewind