Hot air balloons

[scanhermit]

Can anyone else between York and harrogate hear two chaps on ch7 who sound like they might be in balloons? I saw one as I got home and later on, when I turned on the scanner, I could hear someone giving their location as Monks Cross. I knew this couldn't be from the ground so I think it may be someone in the air.

[scanhermit]

Just heard em talking about wind speed. I do think it's the balloons.

[thelad]

Bit dark for them now i would think?

[scanhermit]

Aye, they fell silent. Pity I didn't switch on earlier but I did hear em till neatly 9pm. Still, that's the furthest I've heard PMR transmissions. Motorcycle tuition groups are gone within a mile.

[scanhermit]

No one else caught them then. It was interesting to see the boost that a bit of height can give to a humble PMR set. Next time I see balloons I'll keep my ears pinned back.

[thelad]

They tend to fly to York racecourse, Around and from Church Fenton and out towards York on nice evenings, i have heard them use PMR446 more than their own AM freq.

[MrWeetabix]

for balloon to balloon, or balloon to chase-car I would imagine PMR is both cheap and very usable. Height is king at those frequencies anyway :-)

[GeeFull]

Whatever they are "using" at least its not the bottom end of 2 metres, as became very prevalent with local "hangliders/microlight" users some time back around here, until they discovered their Baofengs/who flung dung radios, would go "elsewhere", where people didn't constantly challenge and "pick them up" on their inappropriate unlicenced use of said spectrum!
They all round here seem to be "pirating" 143 point something now, and they are temporarily, until clamped down on, very welcome to it, just as long as they don'y appear in the SSB/Beacons sections of two metres!

[Mikel]

Whatever they are "using" at least its not the bottom end of 2 metres, as became very prevalent with local "hangliders/microlight" users some time back around here, until they discovered their Baofengs/who flung dung radios, would go "elsewhere", where people didn't constantly challenge and "pick them up" on their inappropriate unlicenced use of said spectrum!
They all round here seem to be "pirating" 143 point something now, and they are temporarily, until clamped down on, very welcome to it, just as long as they don'y appear in the SSB/Beacons sections of two metres!

They have been using this 'bandplan' below for over 10yrs - when it was the RA then and not OFCOM ( better than using 2M obviously) but if after all this time the powers to be were going to clamp down on them, you would think it would have happened by now?

Hangliders/microlight channels busy around here in the summer months:

143.950 Main calling channel
143.925
143.900
143.875
143.850 Alternative calling channel in busy areas
143.825
143.800
143.775
143.750
143.725
143.700 Also used as calling channel by PG's in some areas

If they can get away with it for so long then how about a bit of vhf cb? Anyone in the Cardiff area up for it? Name the frequency and the time!

[kr0ne]

It may be little more than urban myth, but you see it posted all over the place that they got the nod and the wink to use those frequencies...

[StormShadow]

How about a Boafeng in space? that could be an idea... what I was thinking was, programming a cheap Boafeng 888 to PMR446 with something plugged into it playing a message or something and then lunching it into space by a helium balloon and then monitor the progress from the ground and see how far it gets out

[Lumiya]

How about a Boafeng in space? that could be an idea... what I was thinking was, programming a cheap Boafeng 888 to PMR446 with something plugged into it playing a message or something and then lunching it into space by a helium balloon and then monitor the progress from the ground and see how far it gets out

Just attach it to an aprs and gps and easy to do though you would need a TNC to recieve the data

[kr0ne]

The balloon would expand and pop long before it got to space...

You could just send a radio and a gps etc up really high, attached to a balloon, but that would be kind of old hat!

[thelad]

The balloon would expand and pop long before it got to space...

You could just send a radio and a gps etc up really high, attached to a balloon, but that would be kind of old hat!

Is that due to all the power the Baofengs putting out )

[canuck777]

these balloon guys were on the raccourse here in the summer getting ready to go up, and touting for business, £120 for a couple of hours at 1500 ft or whatever,, I asked them if it was ok to bring my 2m and 70cm and 446 handies on if I booked a flight, they said sorry no way, it is downright illegal and they've weren't prepared to risk it!. even 446....