By 
February 16th, 2023
An example of amateur pico-ballooning is this Naval Academy amateur radio balloon experiment.
Image credit: Bob Bruninga, WB4APR
The amateur radio community is a buzz about those unidentified flying object shoot downs.
In one case, the object blasted out of the sky over Canada, Yukon by a U.S. Air Force jet might have been an amateur radio pico balloon, specifically K9YO-15, launched from Independence Grove Forest Preserve in Libertyville, Illinois, north of Chicago.
K9YO-15 was apparently on its seventh circumnavigation of the globe after being aloft for 123 days.
The sky high K9YO-15 balloon made use of a silver mylar 32″ sphere, available for a low-price of $13.33.
Since the pico balloon has not been heard from for several days, amateurs are calling Pico Balloon K9YO, for now: “Missing in Action.” Pico Balloon K9YO was last reported on February 11th near Hagemeister Island in the U.S. state of Alaska.
According to one posting, the Pentagon has said the object shot down over Canada was a “small metallic balloon with a tethered payload” – seemingly a match for a pico balloon.
Meanwhile, check out this May 11, 2020 YouTube posting showing one group’s 9th attempt to send a small balloon around the world. “Two weeks ago our balloon crashed in China so we are trying again. It reports its position back to us every 10 minutes as long as it is in sunlight.”
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