Pico Balloon K9YO woke at 03:30 UTC at Grid ON23SC, Mongolia, flying at an altitude of 12,780 meters, 41,918 feet. Well, I’m hoping that’s K9YO. The skies have been pretty busy lately with Pico Balloons.

K9YO reported yesterday on November 16th at Grid MM58WP, Tajikistan. So, it’s logical to think that today’s report at Grid ON23SC over Mongolia would be ours. This is where it get’s a little confusing.

• We’re in an area with few reporting stations
• K9YO is sending the 1st packet on the 8’s which we know is ours with callsign K9YO
• K9YO is sending the 2nd packet on the 0’s on Channel “O7” which can be any other balloon on the 0’s on the same channel.
• I’m tracking two other balloons on the 0’s in different parts of the world
• We only received one 2nd packet today on the 0’s and now K9YO is asleep

The other Grid Squares on the packets received on the 0’s were FF12SR just west of Argentina and LR21CJ over the Arctic Ocean, east of Greenland.

The other reasons to believe that this is our Grid Square, is that it was received 30 minutes earlier than yesterdays report and, the 84 hour NOAA Hysplit Model also showed us traveling in this direction.

Our “Best Guess” for Pico Balloon K9YO on November 20th 2022

Pico Balloon AA6DY woke up a little south of the report yesterday, at 11:42 UTC at Grid FH42LL southern Peru, South America. Our NOAA Hysplit Model from yesterday showed that we would move south before heading northeast. AA6DY is flying at an altitude of 14,420 meters, 47,298 feet.

AA6DY receives the 2nd packet on channel Q7 on the 4’s. Today we have only been receiving 1st packets on the 2’s which show our callsign in the packet received. For more information on how our trackers receive our packets please visit our Technical Page

It’s a little easier to track AA6DY, with most of the 2nd packets received today on Channel Q7 have been on the 2’s, clearly not ours. The other tracker we were receiving on the 4’s was a test tracker preparing for a launch from Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego California. We’d like to welcome Randy KQ6RS from San Diego as a new follower of the NIBBB and wish Mt. Carmel H.S. the best of luck with their balloon launch.

Pico Balloon AA6DY has been receiving spots over the last two days from one Amateur Radio station CE3QC in Chile, we’d like to thank Oscar for finding our balloon.

Our “Best Guess” for Pico Balloon AA6DY on November 21st 2022

Our Locate and Track page has been updated for Ventusky for wind speed and direction, 84 hour NOAA Hysplit Model. Sondehub and APRS will be updated when new data is received. To track our balloons on APRS add -15 after the callsign for APRS to recognize us as a balloon, AA6DY-15 and K9YO-15 or use use the link on our locate and track page for each balloon which will take you directly to that balloons last map location.

The NIBBB Design Team headed by Jim Janiak, KD9UQB is working on a prototype of a new solar panel package with an angular design for our winter launches.

Till tomorrow, 73, Cary KD9ITO