>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
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