08/15/2025
The Kopernik Observatory put out a call last week for hams to receive and decode transmissions[1] from a launch by its High Altitude Balloon Camp. Amateur radio delivered! Social media was abuzz with images decoded from the K2ZRO-9 transmitters. The balloon was launched from Vestal, New York, and ascended over the Catskill Mountains. A crowd gathered at W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut, where Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, was tracking it. The decoded slow scan television (SSTV) signals showed black skies above, and cumulonimbus build ups below the balloon. A thunderstorm complex formed while the eye in the sky was above it. See some of the decodes are in an Instagram video from ARRLHQ[2].
[1]
https://arrl.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zNDA5ODE1JnA9MSZ1PTUyNTgxODI4NCZsaT0zOTI3NTQwMQ/index.html
[2]
https://arrl.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zNDA5ODE1JnA9MSZ1PTUyNTgxODI4NCZsaT0zOTI3NTQwMg/index.html
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